Denmark prince’s kids lose royal status: How titles have been lost, refused, denied in monarchies

Queen Margrethe II, at the age of 82, stands as Europe’s only reigning queen and the longest-serving monarch alive, following the death of her third cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, on 8th September this year. The Queen of Denmark ascended the throne after her father’s death in 1972.

Prince Joachim is the youngest son of Queen Margrethe II and has four children – Prince Nikolai, 23, Prince Felix, 20, Prince Henrik, 13, and Princess Athena, 10.

Royal families, in recent times, have been making alterations to their monarchies in different ways, and for different reasons. Here’s a look at various royal descendants losing, refusing or being denied the royal titles, and why.

The Danish royal family:

Highlighting the reason behind the queen’s step towards discontinuing the royal titles of her four grandchildren, the official statement said, “Her Majesty The Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves.”

Although Prince Joachim, and one of his wives, Princess Marie, were reportedly “upset” with the “short-time” announcement, the queen considered it as “a necessary future-proofing of the monarchy,” that had been “a long time coming.”

Queen Margrethe had announced in May 2016 that His Royal Highness Prince Christian, child of her older son and Crown Prince, Frederik, would be the only one of her grandchildren to receive an annuity from the state as an adult. The present decision has been taken as a “natural extension” of this step. The four grandchildren will continue to hold their places in the order of succession.

Prince Andrew and the royal mess

On January 13, 2022, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth stripped her third child Prince Andrew of his royal titles. As the Duke of York, the 62-year-old’s royal patronages and military affiliations were revoked in relation to a case of sexual assault filed against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre in New York.

What did the statement say?

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen,” the statement said. The case against the Prince made him lose his prized military affiliations, which are distributed by the monarchs to the senior members of the royal family.

What exactly is this mess?

A day before this announcement was made by the palace, US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan had refused to dismiss the civil lawsuit that accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing Giuffre in 2001 when she was 17, and late American financier Jeffrey Epstein of trafficking her.

Being a pilot in the Royal Navy, Andrew had served in the Falklands War in 1982. Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late British media persona Robert Maxwell, introduced Andrew to Epstein in the 1990s.

This friendship between Prince Andrew and Epstein, however, has been under scrutiny since 2011 when Epstein was accused of sex trafficking minor girls. Along with Epstein, Maxwell too was implicated in alleged trafficking activities.

The former members of Britain’s armed forces wrote an open letter to the Queen on January 13, 2022, expressing that they were “upset and angry that Prince Andrew remained a member of the armed forces and continues to hold military titles, positions and ranks …” The letter, requesting the Queen to strip him of his military ranks and titles, asserted “to not leave it any longer.”

What was the final outcome of the case?

Since early 2015, Giuffre had been publicly accusing Epstein of making her a “sex slave” to Andrew and his other friends. Epstein died in jail in 2019.

In February 2022, although both parties – Giuffre and Prince Andrew – reached an out-of-court settlement that the Duke will make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights,” the statement revoking the Prince’s royal status still holds true.

Harry and Meghan Markle’s lost royal titles and their children:

What was the initial announcement?

On January 18, 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle will no longer use their titles “royal highness,” and will cease to be working members of the royal family. This did not mean that they were being stripped of their titles; Harry continued to remain a prince and sixth in line to the British throne, before Queen Elizabeth’s death.

A statement on their Instagram said, “We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.” Since then, they have been referred to as Harry, Duke and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Why did they step back?

Meghan and Harry had stepped back as ‘senior’ royals and left the UK, citing, among other reasons, the “racist” attitudes of the British media. In a CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry explained that they decided to leave the royal family as his efforts to protect his family from the press went unsupported. “I asked for calm from the British tabloids.”

Meghan, in one of her interviews with the US magazine The Cut, on August 29, 2022, said that she and her husband were “upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy” when they resided in the UK.

What is the rule to be followed in the post-Elizabeth era?

Since September this year, the talks of alteration in titles within Prince Charles’ lineage have been doing the rounds. Prince Charles ascended the throne as King Charles III, following the death of his 96-year-old mother last month.

This has also brought into question the change in titles of Harry’s and Meghan’s children. The couple has two children – three-year-old Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and one-year-old Lillibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.

King George V in 1917, established protocols that the children and grandchildren of the monarch automatically receive titles of Her Royal Highness or His Royal Highness (HRH) and prince or princess, respectively.

What does this mean for Harry’s and Meghan’s children?

Although Harry’s and Meghan’s children were born without royal titles, as grandchildren of the monarch King Charles, they should receive the automatic right to inherit the titles of prince and princess.

Princess Diana

Lady Diana Spencer, while married to King Charles III, had gained the royal title of Her Royal Highness. She became the Princess of Wales on July 29, 1981. They had two sons – Prince William and Prince Harry.

After dissolving their marriage in December 1992, due to claims of infidelity, Princess Diana lost her title of “Her Royal Highness.” Queen Elizabeth had allowed her to retain the title, however, Prince Charles insisted she give it up. She got to keep her title “Princess of Wales.”

As part of the divorce settlement, Diana retained her apartment at Kensington Palace.

Sarah Ferguson

On July 23, 1983, Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew got married in Westminster Abbey in London. The Queen conferred upon them the titles of Duke and Duchess of York. After becoming parents to two daughters – Princess Beatrice in 1988, and Princess Eugenie in 1990 – they parted ways and got legally separated in early 1992.

Although the couple continue to live together in Windsor, following their separation, Ferguson had to lose her royal title in 1996.

Prince Philip

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, too had to give up his royal titles. By virtue of his patrilineal descent from King George I of Greece, and King Christian IX of Denmark, he was a prince of both Greece and Denmark.

However, he had to renounce his Danish and Greek royal titles to marry Queen Elizabeth in 1947 and gain British citizenship.

King Edward VIII

On January 20, 1936, King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, ascended the throne, and received the royal title as “His Royal Highness.”

The Church of England then did not allow divorcees to remarry if their ex-spouses were still alive. But Wallis Simpson, earlier married to Ernest Simpson, got divorced in 1936 to marry King Edward. This brought down the royal title of King Edward VIII after he abdicated the throne and married Wallis Simpson on June 3, 1937.

He was demoted to the title of Duke of Windsor and was further forced into exile.

Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent, cousin to Queen Elizabeth, and the younger son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, married Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, who is Catholic, in 1978.

Since the time of Henry VIII, British royals have not been allowed to marry Catholics. This decision taken by Prince Michael of Kent cost him the then-secured 15th position in the line of succession. He presently stands as 51st in the line of succession to the throne.

Princess Anne

According to the Letters Patent collated in 1917 by Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, King George V, the grandchildren of the monarch could become princes and princesses solely through the male line. However, exceptions could be made.

King Charles III, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew join the procession of Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. (Andrew Milligan/Pool Photo via AP)

Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s second child and the only daughter, refused the royal titles for her children – Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall – as she wanted them to lead normal lives. Married to her now ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips, a commoner, Princess Anne chose to abide by tradition and did not put the HRH title before her children’s names

The case of the Thai King and his consort

The 70-year-old Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn stripped his royal consort, Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi, of her royal titles and military ranks in October 2019. The announcement came just three months after he granted the 37-year-old the title of Chao Khun Phra Sinnenatra Bilasakalayani.

Who was the official queen?

The King’s longtime companion Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya assumed the throne after the death of his father in 2016, who ruled for 70 years. The King, in May 2019, had named her his queen.

What did the statement mention?

Thailand’s King accused Sineenatra of undermining the position of his official wife, and the country’s queen, for her own benefit.

The royal command accused Sineenatra of actively seeking to hinder Suthida’s appointment as the official queen, as she wanted to occupy the throne.

The statement claimed that the king tried to resolve the problem by appointing her as his official royal consort. However, the statement said, “she wasn’t satisfied with the royally bestowed position and still did everything to be equal to the queen.”

The command went on to accuse her of taking advantage of her position as the official consort to order others, “making people misunderstand her position to gain profit and popularity for herself,” and calling her “dishonourable, lacking gratitude, unappreciative of royal kindness, and driving a rift among the royal servants … and undermining the nation and the monarchy.”