Lillibet's christening

[OutOfChocolate]

Lillibet was christened in California last Friday by the Archbishop. Meghan's mother was there. Charles, Camilla, William and Kate were invited, but neither Harry's father or brother attended.

I’ve said this elsewhere but how would Charles know they wanted the titles to be used (in public) when they had not used the titles of “Earl” and “Lady” that the children were already entitled to be referred to as? It seems they( M&H) were waiting for the Disney titles of Prince and Princess before they decided to entitle the children. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the Palace to wait and see if the parents wanted the Children’s titles to be publicly acknowledged. The same as Edward’s children.

there where lots of leaks that he was planning to remove the titles

Given that the King took no action to remove the titles, when he had the power to do so, and moreover had the website updated as soon as the Sussexes made it publicly clear that they wanted to style their children with them, your “leaks” sounds more like completely unfounded press speculation to me…

I described earlier as the two camps playing chicken, and I still think that’s what it looks like. The letters patent remained unchanged, and the Sussexes had to make their mind up as to what what they wanted to do. The Sussexes obviously got to the point where their desire to style their children as Prince and Princess meant more to them than their credibility. So, they blinked first. The Palace just shrugged and acceded.

I agree with this, I think it will be William who will instigate seismic change not Charles, we will see a huge difference with regards to titles for all the RF when he ascends the throne, I’m sure he thinks it absolutely ridiculous that a Prince and Princess of the Uk are American citizens (yes I know and British) but actually live in America and will do absolutely nothing to serve the UK in their lifetime, so yes he will start with them and others will follow, if you don’t work for the RF no title I suspect.

On the other hand, any HRH/Prince/ss stuff ends with Archie and Lili. Then just the Dukedom of Sussex will carry on, but will be irrelevant to the RF (in the same way Diana's brother still has the title but lives in South Africa).

Same with Edward's children (who seem to have stepped away from it anyway), and the the York girls won't pass anything on.

It would make more sense to let existing titles lapse into non-RF titles, and then restrict new ones going forward.

I think any change William makes will be prospective. If he issues new Letters Patent to restrict the HRH Prince/Princess style retrospectively, it likely would affect more people than Archie and Lili (Beatrice and Eugenie, in particular). And to make it only apply to Harry's children would seem very petty.

Plus by then, he will have his own actual or potential grandchildren to consider. That might make him see things differently.

It will be interesting to see what he does, I think he’s a far stronger character than Charles and will be ruthless if it protects the crown going forward, he doesn’t appear to have the internal angst and hand wringing that Charles does so I don’t think he would care as much if he is seen as petty on whoever he removes titles from. Time will tell how it all pans out.

Then just the Dukedom of Sussex will carry on, but will be irrelevant to the RF (in the same way Diana's brother still has the title but lives in South Africa).

Earl Spencer is an Earl in his own right and he has a son and heir (can't remember who as he's had several children by various wives) who will inherit and become the next Earl in time. They aren't funded by the Royal family. And he hasn't lived in South Africa for a long time - he lives at his ancestral home, Althorp and if you look at his Twitter account regularly posts scenic pictures of the place.

Yes, and the Dukedom of Sussex will continue if Archie has a son - perhaps a better example would have been the Gloucesters and Kents. The title rumbles along from eldest son to eldest son, but HRH doesn't get passed on, they merge into the group of people who have an inherited title but are not relevant to the RF. If they moved away from the UK it wouldn't hit the newspapers.