Rumour that the King won't make Edward Duke of Edinburgh

[PrincessJanet]

Allegedly as part of the King's desire for a slimmed down monarchy.

I would have thought that the Royal Family could really do with the Wessexes as working royals. If they slim down so far in a few years they'll soon beonly the Cambridges available.

Well, they are very rare; there are fewer than 30, including the royal ones, so exclusivity is a plus, I suppose. As for money, that depends on other factors. Some are not particularly wealthy, although the title suggests a certain lifestyle. In fact, when George V was passing out British titles of nobility to his relatives to replace their German ones during World War I, one of them asked not to be made a duke saying he couldn't afford it.

William getting the second one is purely because it’s a positional one. The eldest son and heir automatically inherits the Cornwall title when their parent becomes monarch. It’s not one he’s been given by his father.

Surely no-one is that surprised by this? It was fairly obvious to me that Charles wasn't going to give the DoE title to Edward. Things have changed a lot in the 23 years since Edward was apparently promised the title by his parents. Maybe Louis will be DoE one day, maybe there will neve be another one. Who knows?

So, it doesn't look like there's any real reason to have one. If you're already famous as a royal then surely another title makes little difference?

One of the main reasons the royals will continue doing it is to give the wives a nicer title than Princess Husbandsname, like Princess Michael of Kent.

Without the Cambridge, Sussex and Wessex total we would have been Princess William, Princess Henry and Princess Edward.

Titles, not total

It was both Prince Philip and the late Queen Elizabeth's wish that Prince Edward beco.es the Duke of Edinburgh. They were both fond of Sophie and wanted her to be a Duchess. King Charles is being mean and petty not to let his brother have the Duke of Edinburgh. It makes no difference if James would inherit it because he can be a Duke but non working member of the family as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are. King Charles should focus on removing Duke titles from Andrew and Harry.

I think given the number of rumours about what Charles will and won’t do it’s by no means a given that Edward won’t get it. He’s supposed to have been about to announce about 379168 different things, mostly related to Harry and Andrew, yet hasn’t done anything really.

They don’t tend to do big things beyond securing the line until after the Coronation.

If public opinion is down on Charles then he may very well give it on the basis his mother was popular. In a “I respected her and I will follow her wishes”.

However, if the public opinion seems to be “too many royals” they won’t and will go down the “we’ve all decided not too. Things have changed since Edward and Sophie married”.

One of the main reasons the royals will continue doing it is to give the wives a nicer title than Princess Husbandsname, like Princess Michael of Kent.

But that can be changed. It's a matter of how people with titles are styled, and it's within the monarch's prerogative to change that. And other countries with royal family manage to do it. There is no Princess Carl Philip or Princess Joachim or Princess Constantijn. It would be a much simpler approach than handing out dukedoms.

However, if the public opinion seems to be “too many royals” they won’t and will go down the “we’ve all decided not too. Things have changed since Edward and Sophie married”.

Or if public opinion in Scotland drifts toward "we don't want a member of the RF carrying the name of our ancient capital, and if we ever get independence, we might become a republic anyway," that could be a factor.

I thought this was a fair question. I don’t know loads about the royals but this popped up on the active section. I was interested in the relevance or impact. Does it matter to anyone except the person getting or not getting a title?

if it doesn’t and you’re still interested of course crack on, but still, it’s useful to have context for those of us who don’t know

John Swinney ( SNP) confirmed that KC would remain Head of State in an independent Scotland.

This I suspect is going fall into the “we’ll just have to wait and see” category. Charles has been over time confidently predicted to take the regal name of George VII (he didn’t) and still call Camilla Princess Consort as was once announced (he didn’t).

The 1999 announcement about the plan for the Edinburgh title to be passed onto Edward eventually specifically said it had been agreed between the Queen, Phillip AND Charles that this would happen. So I think he is quite likely to honour that - but that was nearly 25 years ago now, and obviously things change.

I’d be disappointed for Edward if he didn’t get it when it was so publicly promised. There does need to be modernisation and a general slimming down, but to go back on something like this would just make KC look a bit of a dick- especially when Edward and Sophie have stepped up in the last few years to pick up the slack left by other members of the family and will likely have to continue to do so until the Wales children are able (and willing) to start undertaking FT duties. It could be another fifteen or twenty years until that happens.

That has always been the official position of the SNP. But I do think that there is a sense among quite a few people that independence could well be the first step in Scotland becoming a republic.

I don’t disagree with you that it could be changed.

I don’t think it’ll be something any of us see in our lifetimes. There was ample opportunity when sorting the titles of William’s children to make other changes going forward and it wasn’t taken.

I think whilst Charles is a fan of a slimmer royal family, I don’t think he’s going to be an extreme moderniser of things.

I agree that it's unlikely Charles will change it, mainly because it won't really come up again until William's (and possibly Harry's) children marry. But William might be inclined to change it. I remember reading at the time of his marriage that he hoped Kate would be referred to informally as Princess Catherine, which didn't seem to catch on until she became Princess of Wales.

A lot of the optics around her title when William married was very odd.
He seemed not fussed if she was referred to as Princess Catherine, whereas there was the bizarre insistence from BP that she wouldn’t be a Princess, even though the wife of a prince automatically is.

Hopefully it’s not something that will come up in the near future as the last couple of times it’s happened with Princess Marina and Princess Alice weren’t for pleasant reasons.

I think it’s true this is being reconsidered but I don’t think it’s about a slimmed down monarchy at all. The original announcement predated the children.

I think it is likely to do with Edwards desire not to work more and his sons future role, both children are home schooled and I think potentially James has disabilities. I really don’t think this is Charles being shitty I think it’s likely this is a family decision based on what they think is best for the family and for protecting the privacy of James going forward. It is a hereditary title, and if something happened to Edward they’d need to either give it to James or explain why not and endure speculation.

Louise and James are not home schooled .

It's possible that at this point Edward doesn't actually want the title. He's been the Earl of Wessex for so long and the Duke of Ed title is so connected to Philip and his legacy - it might have sounded nice 30 years ago when they were discussing what his title on marriage would be and then after Philip died and they were reflecting on his life etc that Edward has changed his mind about taking it on.

Who knows - there doesn't seem to be any animosity in the body language between him and Charles, or Sophie (who shows all her feelings in her face, lol) and Charles.

I think it's a bit weird getting outraged on Edward's behalf at this point when a) we don't know what the situation is or b) how Edward really feels about it

You might be right @wordler - but if so, I hope that they will announce that Edward and Sophie wish to continue using the Wessex title, and that they will not take Edinburgh as per the previous plan.

Must admit, every time I hear someone mention the Princess of Wales, I have a second wondering who that is! I'm sure we'll all get used to the changes, but if you don't need to, why bother.

So I'll admit I'm not particularly up with the royals but always love Edward and Sophie (well Sophie mostly) what were their missteps?

Sophie was one of the people caught out by the News of the World’s “Fake Sheik”. Her business partner also implied he could provide access to the royals for cash (sometimes that’s attributed to Sophie, but she was just very indiscreet, including calling the Queen Mother an old dear).

Edward’s production company were bollocked after breaching the agreement not to film at St Andrew’s while William was there (other than on certain agreed days).

what were their missteps?

Edward was responsible for the risible 'It's A Royal Knockout' which went a long and gratifying way towards dispelling royal mystique.

Equally gratifying was the public strop he threw when journalists failed to reognise his TV genius.