Archie 'will be a prince - but not while the Queen reigns'
London: The new royal baby, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, will be made a prince when Charles takes the throne, a London newspaper has reported.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided their current and potential future children would not get courtesy titles for the time being, but “on the change of reign the George V convention would apply”, a “senior palace source” told the Evening Standard.
This refers to a royal decree in 1917 that specified who gets grand royal titles, including “his royal highness” and “prince”.
Once Archie is the grandson of the reigning monarch he will qualify.
The Queen could have chosen to make an immediate exception to the rule. In 2012 she issued Letters Patent declaring that all the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children would be styled Prince or Princess and would have the title of “royal highness”.
But the Standard reported that Harry and Meghan were happy for their son, currently 7th in line to the throne, to wait his turn.
The couple also decided not to pass on the “courtesy” title Earl of Dumbarton, currently held by Harry, to their son – in order to “keep it simple”.
Harry, as grandson of the Queen, is styled “royal highness” according to a tradition dating back to 1737 and formalised in 1864.
Archie was born on Monday, and his name revealed on Wednesday after he met the Queen.
On Thursday the new dad was back at work. Harry visited the Netherlands to launch the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games for injured service personnel.
He told competitors their resilience, determination and courage would leave spectators “inspired, moved and proud”.
And he added the Games had chosen the Netherlands as a venue “for a reason and it wasn’t just because I like orange”.