The Etiquette of Royal Titles

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their newborn son, Archie Harrison - photo source Instagram

Why the Duchess of Sussex is not referred to as “Princess Meghan”

Since marrying Prince Harry in May last year, Meghan's official title has been Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales.

But the rules governing royal titles forbid the Duchess of Sussex from adopting the name Princess Meghan.

This is because tradition dictates that only those with royal blood are allowed to put 'prince' or 'princess' in front of their first name.

For example, the daughters of Prince Andrew are known as Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice because they are in the line of succession, rather than marrying in to the Royal Family.

Diana was given the title Princess of Wales as a courtesy but was never afforded the name 'Princess Diana' despite being referred to in this way by most of the public.

Similarly, Marie Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz - formally titled Princess Michael of Kent after marrying Prince Michael - is not called Princess Marie Christine. – Source The Daily Mail

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

Etiquette, Royal Titles and Diana

Fondly remembered as the “People’s Princess,” Diana’s life continues to fascinate in books, traveling exhibits and television programs, over 20 years after her death.

In 1985, Titles Created a Royal Problem for the Masses, And Miss Manners Responded

She is not “Princess Diana.” You perhaps know the lady Miss Manners means –the blonde one who wears hats so nicely but has not always managed to keep her hair out of her eyes. 

Born a commoner, she was styled "Lady Diana" by courtesy because her father is an earl. She is now, having married up, “the Princess of Wales.” Only should she become Queen consort would a royal title appear before her first name, as “Queen Diana.” Is that clear? Of course not. 

We Americans decided long ago that the idea of classifying some people as belonging to a higher order of humanity was not for us. Our highest title is “Mr.,” as in “Mr. President,” and it takes the individual some doing to get it. But the British do show up on our shores now and again, so one may want to know a bit about titles. 

Besides, it is difficult to make one's way through 19th-century British novels or 20th-century British television without being able to figure out who is called what and why. The subject is infinitely complicated, and disputes have been known to last for centuries. Miss Manners will concern herself only with the basic outline. Only the reigning Queen and her mother (as the widow of the previous King) are addressed as “Your Majesty,” other members of the royal family being addressed as “Your Royal Highness.” Children of the Sovereign also use the prefix “the,” as in “Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales.”

The peerage has five grades: duke, marquess (most use the good old English spelling rather than the French “marquis”), earl, viscount and baron. The female equivalents, for wives or widows (the latter styled dowager, if the succeeding peer has a wife) are: duchess, marchioness, countess, viscountess and baroness. Except for dukes and duchesses, who are called by those titles, peers and peeresses are addressed as “Lord” or “Lady” with the name of the senior peerage they possess. Legally, the children of these people are all commoners. 

However, dukes, marquesses and earls tend to have other titles as well, and by courtesy, their oldest sons use the next family title down until after, courteously enough, the funerals, not the deaths, of their fathers. Then there are titled commoners: baronets, whose degrees of honor are hereditary, and knights, whose are not. They use “Sir” before their full names, but are addressed with the title and given name only. Their wives use “Lady” with the surname only, never with their given names (a common American error). 

This is only the beginning. Miss Manners will not bore you with collateral privileges of the siblings of heirs presumptive who succeed, the rights of duchesses who were divorced in interesting trials, the children of peers who disclaimed their peerages, and so on. She only asks you to stop saying “Princess Diana.” – By Judith Martin, October 27, 1985

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

Reagan’s Royal Etiquette Blunder

The late, Harold Brooks-Baker, an American authority on British nobility who was a sought-after commentator on the doings -- serious, scandalous or merely ridiculous -- of the British royal family, was at one time managing director of Debrett’s. He published in 1978 a tongue-in-cheek, bestselling guide to The English Gentleman, who “does not drive a Rolls-Royce unless it is very old and smells of dogs”, and always “speaks to the engineer before a train trip because of an old belief that he owns the railroad.”

“Princess David?” No, a royal blunder! Charles and Diana may be casual about etiquette, but not their names!

President Reagan made a double gaffe at a White House dinner by first calling his guest “Princess David” and then “Princess Diane,” a royal genealogist said Sunday in London. Reagan erred by not using her official title, the Princess of Wales, and when he tried to correct himself he got it wrong again by muddling Diana's name. “It's like calling Queen Elizabeth II ‘Libby’ or something like that,” said Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke's Peerage, one of the bibles of British bluebloods. While the Princess is popularly referred to in the news media as Princess Diana, her official title is the Princess of Wales, which is what she is called at all official functions. Brooks-Baker said he blamed Reagan's speechwriter and the British and American protocol experts who were given advance copies of the speech for the breach of royal etiquette not the President. “He's not to know, but his advisers are to know,” Brooks-Baker told The Associated Press. “It's no wonder the Prince of Wales looked somewhat downcast after the President proposed the toast.” 

The gaffes came while Reagan was making a toast at a White House dinner Saturday night attended by show business celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, John Travolta and Neil Diamond. While millions of Americans watching the Prince and Princess of Wales on television might not notice, Brooks-Baker said the two are changing royal etiquette. “Right at the top is the fact that they behave as equals. It is no longer prince and consort ... or Queen and Consort, as it is still with the Queen and Prince Philip,” he said. “More often than not, on this tour, we have seen the Princess of Wales taking the lead. Then, there are the public displays of affection. Never, previously, would royal couples dream of kissing in public, as the Prince has kissed the Princess.” 

On their Washington trip, Brooks-Baker said, the royal couple are keeping to the “royal, and upper class, tradition of separate bedrooms, though never before would there have been photographs of royal sleeping arrangements as there have been recently, ostensibly to publicize English design. Royalty should never be used for advertising.” He said the choice of Palm Beach for the couple's next stop also surprised many Americans, especially the poor and homeless. “Palm Beach is a symbol of the thoughtless, vulgar, nouveau riche, careless of the plight of others,” the U.S.-born Brooks-Baker said. “It is like asking the Pope to go to Sodom and Gomorrah.”  — (By Edith M.Lederer, AP) San Bernardino Sun, 1985

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

Etiquette and Royal Titles

To marry a Princess does not make a man a Prince, and royal etiquette thinks nothing of putting asunder bride and bridegroom.

To Marry a Princess Does Not Make a Man a Prince

Describing the scene at the dedication of the Royal Albert Hall, in London, our correspondent says :

The Queen came at 12:30. What the programme said should be done was done, the Prince of Wales and the rest of the committee receiving her Majesty as she descended from her carriage, and escorting her to the door, through which the great multitude of hushed spectators were waiting to see her appear. As she entered, the whole audience rose and organ and orchestra broke out together in the strains of the national anthem. For a moment the Queen halted on the upper step and just within the curtained doorway, courtesying low to the silent homage which the great audience was paving. Then she advanced, conducted by the Prince of Wales, quite slowly down the center of the hall between the lines of yeomen.

She wore, as she always wears, a black dress; this time a plain mourning dress of black silk, with black bonnet and gloves. The Princess of Wales followed in a robe of ruby colored velvet, and bonnet of the same. Her husband came as Colonel of Hussars, in a jacket laced and frogged as only hussar jackets in this world are, not suiting his stout figure. The Princess was accompanied by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, in what looked like an Austrian cavalry uniform, all white. The Princess of Wales is pretty and popular, but to-day most eyes are turned on the figure that follows, all clad in white silk, with vail and bonnet of white, and a wreath of orange blossoms about her forehead.

It is the bride of last week, the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, by whose side walks her brother, Prince Arthur, not her husband. For to marry a Princess does not make a man a Prince, and royal etiquette thinks nothing of putting asunder bride and bridegroom. The Marquis, looking more boyish than ever, walks some ranks behind his wile, stands apart from her when they have reached the dais, and afterward, when the whole party go up to their boxes, cannot even sit in the same box with her. Nobody seems to be troubled about it, yet there in the cabinet-box yet there is that proud Duke of Argyll looking down on the curious scene, and one would really like to know what he thinks of the social law that ranges his son so far below his son's wife. – Sacramento Daily Union, 1871

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