How to Behave With a Royal Duke

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with Princess Patricia and Prince Arthur– What form of obeisance and address is proper when the Duke of Connaught crosses the line on a friendly visit to a democratic republic constitute questions of supreme importance in high social and diplomatic circles.

PROSPECTS of a visit from a Prince of the Blood Royal disquiet exalted circles in New York and Washington, and these are visibly disturbed in mind and body because they are not quite sure how they should behave in the presence. What form of obeisance and address is proper when the Duke of Connaught crosses the line on a friendly visit to a democratic republic constitute questions of supreme importance in high social and diplomatic circles.

If he comes incognito, that pleasing but transparent fiction involves perplexing exploration of the uncertain field of etiquette. What limits shall society put on its eager homage to a Prince in disguise? What restraint must the polite world impose on the pregnant hinges of the knee? It might even be the less embarrassing were His Royal Highness to come in all the pomp and circumstance attending his exalted station.

Such doubts as these might be sufficiently disturbing, even were they not accentuated by the fear that the duke has been captured by “The Whitelaw Reids.” It is not understood that these are an organized banditti taking bodily possession of a wandering Prince. Quite the contrary. The Reids are a distinguished diplomatic family with eminent social aspirations. But the others are suspicious and fearful lest the Duke be held incommunicado by his supposed captors, with a bodyguard to protect him from the climbers. Altogether the situation is embarrassing and full of doubt.– San Francisco Call, 1912

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Royal vs Papal Etiquette

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with Princess Patricia and Prince Arthur.

Papal Prince Did Not Meet Duke

Cardinal Farley Had His Own Opinion as to Questions of Etiquette

Special Dispatch to The Call

New York, Jan. 26.—The Duke of Connaught left New York tonight without having met Cardinal Farley, one of the new princes of the Catholic church. The Cardinal was invited to two of the festivities given in the Duke’s honor on his five days’ visit, but declined the invitations. A third invitation was not extended to him when inquiries established the fact that he would not accept.

Questions of etiquette were made the basis of the declinations on the Cardinal’s behalf. The question of etiquette was involved in the custom of submitting to Royalty, the names of all prospective guests.

As an American citizen and as a spiritual prince, it was thought that Cardinal Farley's presence should not be made subject to the approval or disapproval of an English temporal prince. – San Francisco Call, 1912

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette Fit for Royal Visit

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with Princess Patricia and Prince Arthur.

White House is Ready for the Prince’s Visit 

Simple Ceremonies Will Mark Reception Accorded Duke of Connaught

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.—Arrangements for the reception tomorrow of the Duke of Connaught were completed by the White House and the State Department tonight. The uncle of one King, and brother of another, will be received as simply as is consistent with etiquette. As the Duchess and the Princess Patricia will not visit Washington, the Duke will go through the program aranged for his reception unsupported, except for the British ambassador, James Bryce, the staff of the British embassy and his personal aide, Colonel Lowther. Altogether his stay in the capital will be brief, and during most of his six or seven hours in Washington he will be on home territory within the acre or two covered by the British embassy. 

According to the announcement given out at the White House the Duke will arrive in Washington at 4:20 tomorrow afternoon. Major A.W. Butt, personal aide of President Taft, will meet the Duke at the Union Station and with the British ambassador and the embassy staff will form his escort to the embassy. At 5 o'clock, the Duke is expected to reach the White House. He will be led away from the embassy in a White House motor, accompanied by a squadron of cavalry. The cavalry will form an escort of honor to the portico of  the executive mansion and will deploy on the driveway in front, while he enters to be received. In front of the porte-cochère the Fifteenth Cavalry band will be stationed and as the Royal visitor enters it will play “God Save the King.” 

The Duke will be received by President Taft in much the same way as new ambassadors are received. As he enters the executive mansion he will be met by the military and naval aids of the President and escorted to the Green Room and then taken to the Blue Room, with the British ambassador and Chandler Hale, third Assistant Secretary of State. He will be presented formally to President Taft by the British, ambassador. After the Duke is introduced his staff will be presented. After this, Mrs. Taft will serve tea for the Duke and the ambassador in the Red Room. Members of the cabinet and their wives have been invited to be present. 

The Duke will leave the White House after this informal, reception is over, and the band outside will play “The Star Spangled Banner.” The squadron of cavalry will escort him back to the British embassy, and shortly, after he has stepped on British territory again, the President, accompanied by Major Butt, will return his “call.” So far as the government is concerned, this will end the Duke’s visit to Washington. Unofficially, it is known that afterward the Duke will be the guest at dinner of the British ambassador, and it is understood he will hold a reception for diplomats and government officials, but beyond his visit to the White House and the President's return trip, nothing was known tonight of the first visit of British Royalty to Washington in many years. – San Francisco Call, 1912

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia