The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the name of their child
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Plain Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, not earl of Dumbarton. He will be known as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided that for now he will not be known as the Earl of Dumbarton.
Archie? Where in the world did THAT come from?
ReplyDeleteI'm quite surprised that little Archie would not be known as Lord Dumbarton.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest (and because I know if anyone has the answer then it is you Marlene), is there a specific official confirmation anywhere that actually explicitly states that he will not use the courtesy title? As far as I can see all today's announcement has actually done is to state what his given names will be, not neccesarily to say that he will use those names over and above the courtesy title that is surely his to use. I realise royals do not use courtesy titles, which is why his cousin George is not Earl of Streathearn, but as Archie is not a Prince (unless the Queen were to step in, which is unlikely) then he is therefore strictly speaking not royal and therefore does use the courtesy title, and even if he isn't going to go out of his way to use the courtesy title, then surely he is still styled as Lord Archie and not Master Archie, as some seem to be saying now? I mean when all is said and done Archie will succeed to the Dukedom of Sussex one day, unless he pre-deceases his father, so it makes sense he would use the courtesy title, or at least the more generic 'Lord' style, that he is allowed to use. Otherwise we have a strange contradiction, that George cannot use a courtesy title because he IS royal, and Archie cannot use one because he ISN'T royal.
ReplyDeleteThe palace stated that the Duke and duchess of Sussex have decided not to have the style at this time .. Archie is in the same position as the Earl of St Andrews and Earl of Ulster, but is not styled as such for now.
ReplyDeleteLOrd Archie would mean a younger son of a duke or a marquess.
He will be styled as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
After much searching I have found a single official reference to 'Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor', on the Succession page on royal.uk (even his own personal page on the site doesn't mention 'Master', and neither does the only original announcement I can find, on twitter from @RoyalFamily).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.royal.uk/succession
I still think it's odd though. I realise that they seem to have chosen for him to not use his courtesy title, and I realise that the 'Lord' style is normally only for younger sons, but surely the intention of such styling is that all sons of a Duke are more or less on equal footing with one another, but that the eldest son uses a courtesy title instead of the 'Lord' style that I assume the eldest son would use if there were no courtesy title available for him to use (though that would presumably be an usual circumstance anyway). So it does seem to me to be odd that he won't even use the style 'Lord' rather than 'Master'.
I think it is a shame to break with tradition and it weakens the prestige of the royal family. If their attempt is to fly under the radar something like this puts them more in the news than us using his title.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the previous Duke of Sussex and his morganatic wife and surname of their children of d'Este.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly the same thing. Meghan is the Duchess. Archie has succession rights and is their to the duke
ReplyDeleteI interpret this as the following. At at time no too long ago, Harry was contemplating making his way out there in the non royal world. The Royal Family encouraged him to blaze his own trail as an HRH. The work (Commonwealth youth, mental health, veterans) is what is important to Harry. Also the POW has expressed his vision of a pared down Royal Family. There were no rules in place for the first son of the second son of the POW to be HRH. It is not a priority to Harry (and Megan) so why would they pursue having established rules changed? By styling his son as a commoner, Harry is also establishing his view that the future of Royal Family belongs to the family of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. This is aligned with the POW's intentions and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's preference.
ReplyDelete