It's a small revolution in the British royal family. Archie Harrison and Lilibet "Lili" Diana, the children of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have officially obtained the title of "Prince" and "Princess".
Since their birth, Archie Harrison, soon to be 5 years old, and Lilibet Diana, soon to be 2 years old, had no titles: they were called "Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor" and "Miss Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor". This Thursday morning, March 9, the royal family updated the page that establishes the order of succession to the British throne to reflect their new titles: Prince and Princess of Sussex.
According to the BBC, Harry and Meghan should not use their children's princely titles in everyday life, but rather in "formal settings". Moreover, by being officially prince and princess of the United Kingdom, the two children should be eligible for the predicate of royal highness "HRH" for "His Royal Highness" or "Her Royal Highness", in English.
According to the New York Post, the predicate of royal highness gives access to its holder receiving a salary, as “an active member of the royal family”, and gives the right to official protection and security service. It also means that people are expected to curtsey when approaching a Royal Highness.
Some royal highnesses... but by Archie and Lili
The title of Royal Highness is currently awarded to King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Sophie, Countess of Wessex; to Prince William; to Princess Kate, their three children, George, Charlotte and Louis, and Prince Andrew's daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Prince Andrew has lost his royal highness predicate due to his links with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Archie and Lilibet will not, however, be able to use the name “His Royal Highness”. According to the BBC, this right to do so comes from their father, Prince Harry, who renounced his royal titles when he decided to leave his position in the British monarchy to move to the United States. If his title of royal highness was not formally withdrawn from him by the queen when he left, he and his wife no longer have the right to use them.
According to a spokesperson for the couple, quoted by the Daily Mail, “Children's titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became the sitting monarch. This issue has been resolved for some time, in alignment with Buckingham Palace.”
In reality, as the BBC points out, it is not really a "birthright" strictly speaking: Archie and Lilibet not being the grandson and granddaughter of the monarch in office at their birth , they had not been able to obtain the status of "prince" and "princess" directly. They got that right when their grandfather, King Charles III, came to the throne last September.
Reconciliation ?
Indeed, The Guardian recalls that, according to the protocol established by George V in his letters patent of 1917, the children and grandchildren of a sovereign automatically earn the right to receive the title of prince or princess: it is therefore well the case of the Sussex children since Charles III, their grandfather, having become king.
However, this title, without the predicate of royal highness, rather honorary, does not actually change much for the children of Meghan and Harry. According to Press Association, the Sussexes do not want to deprive their children of their birthright, but give them the chance to decide for themselves when they are older whether or not they want to keep their princely titles.
It could be, a few months before the coronation of Charles III to which the duke and duchess have been invited, to take a step towards reconciliation between the Sussexes and the royal family, with whom Meghan and Harry are supposedly at odds after shocking revelations in The Substitute, Prince Harry's memoir, and in their documentary "Harry & Meghan", which aired on Netflix last December.
These titles could also, for Meghan and Harry, be a way of ensuring that King Charles III cannot (or at least not so easily) change the law to prevent the Sussex children from having princely titles, while the king would like a tighter and less costly monarchy.
“I know very well what comes with the title, the good and the bad, and from my point of view, a lot of pain”, she explained Meghan Markle in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, explaining that a title princely had been denied to Archie. “I do not wish my children pain, but it is their birthright to make their own choice on this subject”, continued the Duchess of Sussex, believing that “it was not for them to take this away from him. title", without ever clearly citing who was at the origin of this decision.
