Palace Updates Royal Line Of Succession With Lilibet's Name Seven Weeks After Her Birth
Updated article on 26/07/21: The Royal Family's line of succession has finally been updated online, seven weeks after the arrival of Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
On Monday morning, Lili's name was still missing from the royal.uk website, but hours later it appeared. The page now reads that the tot is eighth in line to the throne. In the line of succession the newborn comes after her older brother, Archie, who is seventh in line to the throne, and above her great uncle, Prince Andrew (the Duke of York).
The update comes days after royal experts noticed the tot's name was omitted from the list. While Archie's name was added to the line of succession on the website just over two weeks after his birth in May 2019, Lili's comes almost two months sine her arrival.
Royal editor and author Omid Scobie tweeted on Monday: 'The line of succession on the @RoyalFamily website has just been updated to include the Sussexes’ second child: Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, who is eighth in line to the throne. She was born on June 4.'
The the line of succession on the @RoyalFamily website has just been updated to include the Sussexes’ second child: Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, who is eighth in line to the throne. She was born on June 4. pic.twitter.com/EUX8DFDBDK
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) July 26, 2021
Last week, ITV Royal Editor Chris Ship (via the Mirror) spoke about Lili's name missing from the list on his Royal Rota podcast. In response, a Buckingham Palace spokesman stated that the Royal Family website is 'updated periodically', reports the Daily Mail.
After Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced they'd welcomed their second child, attention soon turned towards their daughter's place in the royal line of succession.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed the news of the baby's birth on Sunday, June 6 stating: 'It is with great joy that Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcome their daughter, Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world.'
'Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 a.m. in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California.'
The line of succession is now as follows:
1. The Prince of Wales
2. The Duke of Cambridge
3. Prince George of Cambridge
4. Princess Charlotte of Cambridge
5. Prince Louis of Cambridge
6. The Duke of Sussex
7. Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
8. Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor
9. The Duke of York
10. Princess Beatrice, Mrs. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
As for her title it's likely that, similar to Archie, Lili will not have a royal title.
Following Archie's birth in 2019, it was revealed he was not given a title. At the time, it was widely believed this was a decision that came from his parents. However, Markle recently seemed to suggest the choice actually was that of 'The Firm'.
'They didn’t want him to be a prince or a princess, which would be different from protocol,' the new mother told Oprah Winfrey in their interview in March. 'It was really hard.…This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I’m going, "Hold on a second. How does that work?…If he’s not gonna be a prince, he needs to be safe".'
Under King George V's royal protocol in letters written in 1917, only the children and grandchildren of a sovereign have an automatic right to the HRH title, prince or princess.
'At the time Archie was born, he was the great-grandchild of a sovereign, not a grandchild,' the Guardian reports.
The publications adds: 'George V’s declaration sets out: "The grandchildren of the sons of any such sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of dukes of this realm."'
Therefore, it's to be presumed Archie will be entitled to a royal titles when Prince Charles becomes king.
Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank's son August, who was born in February, also doesn't have a title. Meanwhile Eugenie's sister Princess Beatrice's child will receive a title and not due to their British royal family ties.
In May Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi announced they were expecting their first child together. The soon-to-be-father is already a parent to his five-year-old son, Wolfie, who he co-parents with his ex-fiancée Dara Huang.
Their child's royal title, however, won't be due to the royal family but the fact Mapelli Mozzi official title is Count, given his family was once part of the Italian nobility.
HELLO! magazine reports the couple's baby, therefore, will be given the title of Count or Nobile Donna (Noble Woman), despite Mapelli Mozzi's family not using titles in everyday life.
Original article published on 21/10/18: With the news that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess Of Sussex, are officially pregnant with their first baby due next Spring, the usual barrage of questions are already cropping up.
What will they name the baby? Is it a boy or a girl? What's the due date? And so on and so forth until Google has a complete meltdown.
The question we're keen to answer (without harassing the happy couple of course)?
Where will Meghan and Harry's baby sit in line to the throne? And exactly what royal title will the baby receive? Read on for all the deets.
What place will Meghan and Harry's baby hold in line to the throne?
As with any new addition to the royal family, the question of succession is one everyone is keen to answer.
So where will Meghan and Harry's baby sit in the British line of succession? The answer is seventh, bumping Prince Andrew (the Queen's second oldest son) down to eighth place, with his daughters Princess Beatrice and the newly married Princess Eugenie moving down to ninth and tenth.
Kate Middleton and Prince William's children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, will all remain ahead of their soon-to-be new cousin. Why? Simply because Prince William is older than Prince Harry, and that's how royal succession works.
However, thanks to the Duchess Of Cambridge, the rules about who succeeds the throne have changed in recent years. In 2013, an unprecedented act was passed, declaring in a groundbreaking move, that a baby boy will no longer take precedence over a baby girl, based simply on gender.
This means that Princess Charlotte will remain ahead of Prince Louis in the line of succession for the first time ever. For Meghan and Harry, it means that if they have a baby girl, then she too could wear the crown herself one day.
How the line of succession will look after Meghan and Harry's royal baby is born:
Prince Charles
Prince William
Prince George
Princess Charlotte
Prince Louis
Prince Harry
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's baby
Prince Andrew
Princess Beatrice
Princess Eugenie
Prince Edward
James Viscount Severn
What royal title will Meghan and Harry's baby receive?
UPDATE:
Much like his cousin Zara Philips, Prince Harry is said to be eschewing a royal title for his firstborn.
Meghan and the Prince’s unborn child will not be named a Prince or a Princess and is instead set to inherit other names.
According to The Express, the down-to-earth parents want their first child to have a ‘relatively normal life’ and believe a royal suffix made impede this. A source close to the couple reportedly explained, ‘That word "normal" looms very large for Harry and Meghan when it comes to their child’s future.’
If Meghan gives birth to a baby boy come spring 2019, he is set to inherit the title Earl of Dumbarton. If Meghan gives birth to a girl (as Harry apparently wants) she could be named Lady Mountbatten-Windsor, with her future sons (Harry and Megan’s grandchildren), being Lord Mountbatten-Windsor.
After their fairytale Windsor wedding back in May 2018, both Meghan and Harry received new titles, making them the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
However, there is no guarantee that their baby, when born, will receive the same honour.
Speaking to The Independent earlier this year, Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said: 'Under the current system, any child of the Duke and Duchess won’t automatically have a royal title. The peerage, unlike the succession to the crown, favours males and if they have only daughters, the title of Sussex could die out as it did before.'
In short? The happy couple have to have sons if they want to continue the 'HRH Sussex' line. Classic.
Will Harry and Meghan's baby be a prince or princess?
In a rogue move, it was actually the Queen who decided to bend the rules for Kate and William's children by awarding all three of them 'Prince' and 'Princess' titles, even though they weren't automatically eligible for them.
So what's the usual deal we hear you ask? You guessed it, traditionally only the first born son of William and Kate would automatically have been given the title of 'HRH Prince'.
If Princess Charlotte had popped out first, she would technically only receive the title of 'Lady' with any following children receiving the same 'Lord' or 'Lady' titles.
Luckily for the kids, the Queen stepped in before Prince George's birth with a decree that made any child of Prince William a 'Prince' or 'Princess' regardless of their gender or what order they were born in. YAS queen.
So what does this mean for Harry and Meghan? Well, if we're going by the Queen's recent decrees, she may well do the same for their future baby, which would give them the title of 'Prince' or 'Princess'.
However, apparently this decision is also for the happy couple to make. 'This raises an interesting question what Harry and Meghan, who may prove to be unconventional royal parents when they start a family, want for their children,' said Fitzwilliams.
Watch this space.
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