Commentary: Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie’s decision on children dooms the royal family

Let’s play a very quick round of real trivia. Do you know who the Earl of Strathhearn is? Or Baron Carrickfergus? Or Baron Kilkeel?

Okay okay, it’s a trick question. The Earl of Strathern and Baron Carrickfergus are other titles belonging to Prince William, while Baron Kilkeel is better known as Prince Harry, who is also the Earl of Dumbarton.

My point here is that if there is one rule that the House of Windsor adheres to (aside from “horses 4 eva” and politely ignoring all those adjacent Nazi relatives) it is, why have a title when you can have loads of them?

Titles in real context aren’t just a bit of magisterial magic, they have real significance. Who gets what and when is something like an archaic half of the Queenly stoplight, with Her Majesty handing out great new titles to commemorate birthdays and great occasions, the way you or I might be looking for a JB Hi-Fi gift card .

For example, last year to commemorate Prince Edward’s 55th birthday, the Queen gave Prince Edward County Forfar in Scotland, meaning that when he and his wife Sophie travel north, they are known as the Earl and the Countess of Forfar. (Forfar County, for all you call nerds, is particularly significant given its proximity to Glamis Castle, where the Queen Mother was born.)

That’s where Princess Eugenie comes in, the charming ruddy face of her husband Jack Brooksbank and their unborn child.

Last week Eugenie, who is 10th in line to the throne, announced that she was pregnant, hooray! – but where things get a bit tricky with Baby Brooksbank is where we get to the question of the tot’s future title, or lack thereof.

According to Vanity Fair, before the couple married in 2018, “Jack was offered a degree, but chose not to take it,” making him the only publicly known employee of George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila brand to be has approached a hair of a county. The election not only meant that Jack remained just Mr. Brooksbank, it also meant that his future sons would not automatically earn a degree.

“Even if the Queen offered them a title (for their baby) as a gift, Eugenie or Jack don’t want their child to have a title,” a family friend told Vanity Fair.

“Eugenie knows that a title can be both a curse and a blessing, and she and Jack want their son to live a normal life and eventually work for a living. Titles don’t really matter to Jack and Eugenie, they just want to a happy and healthy child. “

The Brooksbanks’ decision comes a year and shortly after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, decided that their son Archie would not use the title to which he would be entitled, the Earl of Dumbarton. The move shouldn’t have come as a big surprise, given that Harry years earlier had said: “I am determined to have a relatively normal life and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too.”

Of the queen’s eight great-grandchildren, only three have titles, namely William and Kate, the Duke, and the three adorable children of the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, which puts them squarely in the minority.

While Prince Charles has embraced a scaled-down version of the royal family which, for decades to come, would mean that the Buckingham Palace balcony is much less crowded with lesser HRHs and the extended Windsor clan, there still needs to be some hands on. titled in the palace. tiller.

In 1973, Princess Anne and her then fiancé, Mark Phillips, turned her down a county before their wedding so they could give their children a normal life. But she was the horse-mad anomaly of the titled ruler.

However, the next generation is eagerly taking up the “normal” mantle.

And that bodes very badly for the institution of the monarchy.

For decades, even centuries, being real meant having incredible power and great wealth. Wars were fought over it; myriads of European marriages made to keep a grip on him like a vice; heads were literally rolling in a bloody fight to protect him.

However, not anymore.

There is an implicit message in the recent elections around titles that to be real is to be limited and limited; being denied the opportunity to build a life of your own choosing and that there is something abnormal about growing up with a predetermined identity dictated by a millennial institution.

To be royalty in the 21st century is to face an almost unthinkable level of scrutiny and judgment, while also being expected to meet a certain standard. For those who are not in the direct line of succession, being a SAR doesn’t seem like some kind of brilliant addition to life, but rather entering the world trapped in a pair of golden handcuffs. In this age, the message is that a title is a burden.

Let me ask you: for royal children who are not going to be kings, what is the real benefit of being a member of a ruling house, other than perhaps a free (probably crowded) Kensington Palace cabin?

With Harry and Eugenie, we have a Prince and a Princess sending the signal very clearly that they believe their children’s lives will be better if they are not encumbered by a title. And that, in turn, undermines the accepted fundamental principles of royalty.

The obvious problem for the palace here is, what does it say about the royal family if the younger members of the institution are signaling very clearly that they don’t want their own children to identify themselves as royalty? What if royalty is considered an impediment in the modern world?

The power and majesty of the monarchy only work if it is considered the absolute ne plus ultra, the absolute pinnacle. And the message the Queen’s grandchildren are sending, to people who have spent their entire lives defined by their proximity to the throne, is essentially that it is not all that it seems.

In the coming decades, George, like his father before him, will begin the gradual apprenticeship that culminates on the throne. But the big question mark is about Charlotte and Louis and how they will navigate the tense no-man’s-land between royalty and building their own lives and identities.

If there is one thing we can predict quite accurately about the House of Windsor, it is that in the 21st century, there will be many replacement titles all over the palace. So who would like to be a Scottish baronet?