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Image source, Reuters
Archie was born on May 6, 2019. Meghan and Harry announced during the interview that they are now expecting a girl.
Why isn’t Archie a prince?
This is a question that many asked after the much-talked about television interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry with the presenter Oprah Winfrey broadcast in the United States last Sunday.
In it, the Duchess of Sussex said that, when she was pregnant with Archie, there were discussions at Buckingham Palace about the status of her future child, including the title he should receive.
“They said they didn’t want me to be a prince or princess”She said, clarifying that at that time the gender of the baby was unknown. “This would have been different from the protocol,” he said.
What does the actual protocol say?
The rules on who can become a prince and who, in addition, will be known as “his royal highness” come from a Patent letter issued by King George V of the United Kingdom in November 1917.
Patent letters are legal instruments that can take the form of an open letter from the monarch. They can be used for royal declarations or the granting of titles, such as titles of nobility.
In the 1917 letter, George V established that the monarch’s great-grandchildren would no longer be princes or princesses, with the exception of the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.
In the current situation, that explains why Prince William’s eldest son and his wife Kate, George, became prince automatically, something that did not happen with Archie, despite the fact that they are both great-grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth II.
According to this protocol, Prince George’s younger siblings, Charlotte and Louis, would not have received the title either.
However, in December 2012 the queen issued a letter of patent which established that all of William’s children would become princes or princesses and would be treated as “her royal highness.”
Image source, Harpo Productions – Joe Pugliese
Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex aired this Sunday in the US.
On the other hand, being a prince or princess is only transmitted through the male line. That is why the children of Princess Anne did not obtain these titles despite being grandchildren of the queen.
What about Archie’s title?
According to the aforementioned letter of 1917, Archie has the right to become a prince but not right now.
Harry and Meghan’s children (she is pregnant with a girl) would have to wait until Prince Charles became king, at which point they would become grandchildren of the monarch and therefore would have the right to be princes or princesses.
That’s why Prince Andrew’s daughters – Beatrice and Eugenie – are princesses from birth, but Eugenie’s baby August is not yet a prince.
It is clear from the interview that the Duchess of Sussex was aware of the protocol.
Meghan referred to a “George V or George VI convention,” according to which her son Archie would become prince “when Harry’s father became king.”
But she added that when she was pregnant with him, they told her that they wanted to “change the convention for Archie”, so that he would not become prince.
He did not elaborate on the matter and Buckingham Palace has not commented.
Bob Morris, who is a member of the Constitution Unit at University College London (England), said: “I saw that Meghan mentioned that there were plans to reduce eligibility and I imagine this is a reference to the opinion of the Prince of Wales (Charles) about what you need to reduce the size of the royal family“.
“However, as far as I know, he has not given details of how it should be achieved.”
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