hursday, paving the way for her son Charles to accede to the throne and numerous members of the royal family to adopt new titles.
In his first address as king, Charles III announced that Prince William and his wife Catherine, formerly the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, shall henceforth be recognized as the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Uncertainty persists as to whether Prince Harry and Meghan (now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex) will also acquire new titles, but all of this speculation asks an enormous, seldom-asked question: what are royal titles and what do they actually mean?
The purpose of titles such as “earl,” “baron,” “duke,” and “duchess” is not to make their holders sound more affluent.
They are part of an ancient ranking system for British aristocracy called the Peerage.
Monarchs have the power to bestow titles.
Reuters Images/Suzanne Plunkett
According to the Peerage specialists at Debrett’s London, the king bestowed these titles on “peers of the realm” who promised fealty to the crown in exchange for land or money. The five eligible titles for men are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron; for women, they are duchess, marchioness, countess, viscountess, and baroness.
In addition to being granted, the titles may be inherited by male heirs only.
All of these individuals comprised the Peerage and were known as Peers.
In general, dukes and duchesses are addressed as “Your Grace,” whereas all other peers are referred to as “My Lord” or “My Lady.”
These titles can be obtained without standing in line for the crown. Both royal and non-royal Peers exist.
Once, becoming a peer conferred political authority.
The Lords’ House.
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It was once a birthright for peers to sit in The House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. Historically, the House of Lords consisted solely of male hereditary Peers due to the requirement that only men may inherit. No longer is this the case.
Since the 1958 Life Peerage Act, the Prime Minister and Queen have appointed “Life Peers” to the House of Lords jointly. These individuals receive a Peerage title during their lifetimes, but cannot pass it on to their children. This law has made it possible for women to eventually obtain seats in the House of Lords, as no longer being a Life Peer requires being male.
In 1999, a new statute removed all but 92 of the approximately 750 remaining hereditary Peers from the Lords. Life Peers currently constitute the great majority of the House of Lords.
The most prominent Peers are still the royals.
Charles was the Duke of Cornwall before ascending to the throne.
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The Peers have lost most of their political clout, but according to Debrett’s guide, “their social importance remains undiminished, and their lives continue to inspire fascination and speculation.”
This is particularly true of the royal family.
Many male members of the royal family have held Peerage titles, as most hereditary titles may only be inherited by men. The Duke of Edinburgh was Prince Philip, to whom Queen Elizabeth II was married for 73 years. Their younger sons Andrew and Edward are, respectively, the Duke of York and Earl of Wessex.
Charles, being the eldest son of the late Queen, most recently held the title Duke of Cornwall and any income generated by Duchy of Cornwall.
The Duchy of Cornwall, which is essentially a collection of royal family-owned estates, funded the expenses of Prince Charles and his heirs. Also covered by the Duchy of Cornwall were Harry and Meghan, William and Kate, and their children. The Journal reports that Charles paid them a total $6.5 million (£5 million) in 2019.
The Journal said that the Duchy paid Charles $28.1 million (£21.6 million). Its overall value is $1.2 billion (£923.8 million).
The Journal reported that prior to her death, the Queen and the Prince of Wales essentially controlled the majority of the royal family’s wealth and distributed payments to sustain other family members.
All of Charles’ grandchildren will now become princes and princesses. According to a legislation established by King George V in 1917, known as the Letters Patent, all royals who are either the children or grandchildren of the monarch through the male line are eligible to hold the titles of prince and princess, as reported by Tatler.
The children of Harry and Meghan, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, are now formally prince and princess. The fact that all three of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children have previously worn princely titles is a source of dispute within the royal family.
It is customary for men of the royal family to receive a new title upon marriage.
On the day of their wedding, William and Kate became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
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For the majority of his life, William was known as “His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales.” In 2011, however, upon his marriage to Kate Middleton, the queen granted him the dukedom of Cambridge, and Kate became the duchess.
The same occurred in 2018 when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Sussex title was one of a number of choices considered “available” at the time, meaning that the individuals who last held them had died without legitimate successors and the titles are available for the Queen to bestow.
Check out Debrett’s immensely comprehensive guide to discover more about the Peerage and its extremely long history.