Meghan and Harry: why their son Archie is not a prince?
In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, recounts that when she was pregnant there were conversations about the status of her future child, including the title he should receive.
"They said they didn't want him to be a prince or a princess, without knowing what his gender would be, which would be different from protocol," she said.
What does the royal protocol say?
The rules that determine who can be a prince and also be called his Royal Highness (HRH) come from a letter patent issued by King George V in November 1917.
Letters patent are legal instruments that can take the form of an open letter from the monarch. They can be used for royal declarations or the granting of titles such as peerages.
In the 1917 letter, George V declares that the great-grandchildren of the monarch will no longer be princes or princesses, except for the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.
In our current situation, that means Prince George, Prince William's eldest son, has automatically become Prince, but not Archie, despite both being the Queen's great-grandsons.
According to this protocol, Prince George's siblings - Charlotte and Louis - would not have received the title either.
But in December 2012, the Queen also issued a letter patent which stipulated that all of Prince William's children would have the right to be princes or princesses and to obtain the title of HRH.
Moreover, the title of prince or princess is only passed down through the male line, which means that the children of Princess Anne did not obtain these titles despite being the queen's grandchildren.
And what about the title Archie?
According to the 1917 letter, Archie has the right to become a prince - but not yet.
Harry and Meghan's children, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will have to wait for Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, to become king. They will then be the monarch's grandchildren and will therefore have the right to become princes or princesses.
This is why Prince Andrew's daughters - Beatrice and Eugenie - are princesses by birth, for example.
The Duchess of Sussex was clearly aware of the protocol.
She referred in the interview to a "George V or George VI convention" which would mean that her son Archie would become a prince "when Harry's father became king".
But she added that she was told, when she was pregnant, that "they wanted to change the convention for Archie" and therefore he would not become a prince.
She did not give further details about it and Buckingham Palace has not commented on her claims.
"I saw Meghan mentioned that there were plans to reduce eligibility and I imagine this is a reference to the Prince of Wales' stated opinion that the size of the Royal Family should be reduced, ”says Bob Morris of the Constitution Unit at UCL.
"However, he has not, to my knowledge, given details on how this should be accomplished."
