Since Thursday morning it is official: "Master Archie of Sussex" and "Miss Lilibet of Sussex" became Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet on the website of Buckingham Palace. This was in response to a report by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, who announced on Wednesday that their daughter, Princess Lilibet Diana, had been christened in Los Angeles on March 3.
Peter-Philipp Schmitt
Editor in the section "Germany and the World".
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The titles, which were allegedly withheld from the children of King Charles III's second-born son, had been allowed to be used by the two since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. However, without the salutation "HRH", i.e. "His/Her Royal Highness". This is due to Harry, who had renounced it for himself and his wife when the two decided in 2020 to no longer work for the royal family. Harry remains a prince, but in public he is only Duke of Sussex, his wife Duchess.
In 1917, the then King George V had not only dropped his German surname, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha became Windsor because England was at war with Germany, he also decided that the number of royal highnesses and princes and princesses would be reduced. Henceforth, only the children of the monarch bore the title, as well as his grandchildren, if they are descended in the direct male line from the monarch, as well as the grandson of the respective heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales. During Elizabeth II's lifetime, this was true of her great-grandson George, the eldest son of Prince William and his wife Catherine, born in 2013. However, the Queen had already extended the decree in 2012 to all children of the future heir to the throne William: George's siblings, Charlotte and Louis, have also been royal highnesses as well as princess and princes since their birth in 2015 and 2018.
Even though Harry and Meghan have now dubbed their daughter Lilibet a princess for the first time. Nevertheless, the Duke and Duchess want their children to be able to decide for themselves later on the use of the titles. It is still unclear whether the two will come to London for the coronation of Charles III on 6 May. According to the Sussexes, however, members of the family from England had also been invited to the christening of the almost two-year-old Lilibet. However, the ceremony, which was performed by the bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, John Harvey Taylor, is said to have taken place without Harry's relatives from the United Kingdom.