Image:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Members of the Royal
Family gathered for a dinner celebrating the 60th wedding
anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh
(
The Duchess of Kent was
not present;
The Lady Louise
Windsor was either not present or not photographed; and the
Viscount Severn was born
after this photograph was taken. Click on a face to reach that
person's article)circle 203 153 28
The Queencircle 281 147
28
The Duke of
Edinburghcircle 136 140 28
The Prince of Walescircle 358 150
28
The Duchess of
Cornwallcircle 43 141 28
Prince William of Walescircle 420
141 30
Prince Henry of
Walescircle 262 90 22
The Duke of Yorkcircle 214 100
22
Princess Beatrice of
Yorkcircle 316 102 22
Princess Eugenie of Yorkcircle 364
89 20
The Earl of
Wessexcircle 433 102 20
The Countess of Wessexcircle 100
93 20
The Princess Royalcircle
43 80 22
VAdm Timothy Laurencecircle 78
66 16
Mr Peter Phillipscircle 133 83
15
Miss Autumn Kelly circle 158 97
20
Miss Zara Phillips MBEcircle 347 68
14
Viscount
Linleycircle 388 67 11
Viscountess
Linleycircle 152 71 10
The Lady
Sarah Chattocircle 109 62 11
Mr Daniel
Chattocircle 455 67 20
The Duke of
Gloucestercircle 402 82 16
The Duchess of
Gloucestercircle 276 53 16
The Duke of Kentcircle 188 62 20
Prince Michael of Kentcircle
233 69 20
Princess Michael of
Kentcircle 316 64 16
Princess
Alexandra
The
British Royal Family is the group of close
relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom
. The term is also commonly applied to the
same group of people as the relations of the monarch in his or her
role as
sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realm, thus
sometimes at variance with official national terms for the family.
Members of the royal family belong to, or are married into, the
House of Windsor, since 1917, when
George V changed the
name of the royal house from
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Although in the United Kingdom there is no strict legal or formal
definition of who is or is not a member of the Royal Family, and
different lists will include different people, those carrying the
style His or Her Majesty , or
His or Her Royal Highness are always
considered members, which usually results in the application of the
term to the monarch, the
consort of the monarch, the widowed
consorts of previous monarchs, the children of the monarch, the
male-line grandchildren of the monarch, and the spouses and the
widowed spouses of a monarch's son and male-line grandsons.
Members and relatives of the British Royal Family historically
represented the monarch in various places throughout the
British Empire, sometimes for extended
periods as
viceroys, or for specific
ceremonies or events. Today, they often perform ceremonial and
social duties throughout the United Kingdom and abroad on behalf of
the UK, but, aside from the monarch, have no constitutional role in
the affairs of government. This is the same for the other
realms of the Commonwealth though the
family there acts on behalf of, is funded by, and represents the
sovereign of that particular state, and not Britain.
List of members
This is a list of current members of the Royal Family:
Collaterals
Besides the above, there are a few immediate family members
carrying no official style who are sometimes in listings:
- VAdm Tim Laurence (The Princess
Royal's second and current husband)
- Mr & Mrs Peter Philips (The Princess Royal's son
by Capt Phillips, and his wife)
- Miss Zara Phillips, MBE (The Princess Royal's
daughter by Capt Phillips)
The following persons are descendants (or widows) of the younger
children of
Queen
Victoria,
King
Edward VII, and King George V:
- The Earl of
Harewood (grandson and first grandchild of George V through his
daughter Mary, Princess
Royal), his second wife, and his children, and grandchildren,
as well as the children and grandchildren of his now deceased
brother, Gerald Lascelles.
- The Duke of
Fife (female-line great-grandson of Edward VII) and his
children and grandchildren
- The Lady Saltoun
(widow of Alexander Ramsay of
Mar, a female-line grandson of Prince Arthur,
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the third son of Queen
Victoria), and her children and grandchildren
- The Marquess
of Milford Haven (grandson of George
Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and great-grandson
of H.G.D.H. Princess Victoria, eldest daughter of H.R.H. The
Princess Alice The Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, 2nd
daughter of H.M. Queen Victoria, and his family
- The
Countess Mountbatten of Burma (elder daughter of Louis
Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, youngest son of
H.G.D.H. Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, and her
family
The Earl of Harewood is a female-line first cousin of the Queen.
The Duke of Fife, the Marquess of Milford Haven, the Countess
Mountbatten of Burma, and the Lady Saltoun, and their respective
families, as well as Lord Harewood's descendants, are so distant
from the reigning sovereign that they are relatives of, rather than
members of, the Royal Family.
None of these persons receive any money from the State or undertake
official engagements on behalf of the Queen. However, the Queen
does invite them to private family functions and to participate in
official royal occasions, such as the
Trooping the Colour, the
Golden Jubilee celebrations, and ceremonial
or state funerals.
There are three living former spouses of members of the British
Royal Family:
- Sarah, Duchess of York (the former wife of The Duke of
York),
- Capt Mark Phillips (the first husband of The Princess Royal),
and
- The Earl
of Snowdon (the former husband of Princess Margaret).
Recently deceased members of the Royal Family include:
The Prince of Wales' first wife,
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a
car crash in 1997. They had divorced in 1996. She lost the HRH
title but was allowed the style "Princess of Wales" and remained a
member of the Royal Family to reflect the fact she was the mother
of the second and third in line to the throne, Princes William and
Henry ("Harry").
Family tree of members
In the United Kingdom
Public role and image
Members of the Royal Family participate in hundreds of public
engagements yearly throughout the United Kingdom, as formally
recorded in the
Court Circular, to
honour, encourage and learn about the achievements or endeavors of
individuals, institutions and enterprises in a variety of areas of
life. As representatives of the Queen, they often also join the
nation in commemorating historical events, holidays, celebratory
and tragic occurrences, and may also sponsor or participate in
numerous charitable, cultural and social activities. Their travels
abroad on behalf of the UK (called
State
Visits when the sovereign officially meets with other heads of
state) draw public attention to amicable relations within and
between the Commonwealth and other nations, to British goods and
trade, and to Britain as a historical, vacation, and tourist
destination. Their presence, activities and traditional roles
constitute the
apex of a modern
"royal
court," and provide a distinctly
British and historical
pageantry to ceremonies (e.g.
Trooping the Colour) and flavour to
public events (e.g.
Garden Parties,
Ascot). Throughout
their lives they draw enormous media coverage in the form of
photographic, written and televised commentary on their activities,
family relationships,
rites of
passage, personalities, attire, behaviour, and public
roles.
In a lengthy
interview conducted by
PBS prior to the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales in
August 1997,
Max Hastings, editor of
the
Daily Telegraph between
1986 and 1995, discussed the impact of
Andrew Morton's and
Jonathan Dimbleby's biographies of,
respectively, the Princess and
Charles, Prince of Wales on
subsequent news coverage of the Royal Family in the UK:
Funding
Money to support the Queen in the exercise of her duties as head of
state of the United Kingdom (the Head of State Expenditure) come
from the
Civil List. This is a return of
a small portion of the revenue from the Crown Lands that are
surrendered by the monarch to parliament at the beginning of each
reign; all Crown Land being administered by The Crown Estates, an
institution that is answerable to parliament. In the 2003-04 fiscal
year, the amount surrendered was £176.9 million, where the Head of
State Expenditure was £36 million. The Head of State Expenditure
does not include the cost of security.
Only the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh receive funding from the Civil
List. The Duke receives £359,000 per year.
Only some members of the Royal Family carry out public duties;
these individuals receive an annual payment known as a
Parliamentary Annuity, the funds being supplied to cover office
costs.
- The Duke of York: £249,000 per annum
- The Earl and Countess of Wessex: £141,000 per annum
- The Princess Royal: £228,000 per annum
- The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester: £175,000 per annum
- The Duke and Duchess of Kent: £236,000 per annum
- Princess Alexandra £225,000 per annum
These amounts are repaid by The Queen from her private funds.
Though always voluntarily subject to the Value Added Tax and other
indirect taxes, the Queen agreed to pay taxes on income and capital
gains from 1992, although the details of this arrangement are both
voluntary and secret. At the same time it was announced that only
the Queen and Prince Philip would receive
civil list payments. Since 1993 the Queen's
personal income has been taxed as any other Briton.
The Queen's private
estate (eg shareholdings, personal jewellery, Sandringham
House
and Balmoral Castle
) will be subject to Inheritance Tax, however
bequests from Sovereign to Sovereign are exempt.
Royal styles and titles
The style
His Majesty or Her
Majesty is enjoyed by a King, a Queen (regnant), a
Queen consort, and a former Queen
consort (a
Queen Dowager or a
Queen Mother).Use of the style
His Royal Highness or Her Royal
Highness and the titular dignity of
Prince or Princess are governed by
Letters Patent issued by
George V on 30 November 1917
and published in the
London
Gazette on 11 December 1917. These Letters Patent state
that henceforth only the children of the Sovereign, the children of
the sons of the Sovereign, and the eldest son of the eldest son of
the
Prince of Wales would "have and
at all times hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal
Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed
to their respective Christian names or with their other titles of
honour." They further state, "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 the style
and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes."
Under these conventions, The Queen's children and the children of
The Prince of Wales,
The Duke of York and
The Earl of Wessex are
titled Princes or Princesses and styled Royal Highness. However,
upon Prince Edward's marriage in 1999, it was announced that his
children would be styled as earl's children, but no Letters Patent
were issued to deny them their princely status or HRH.
The Duke of Gloucester,
The Duke of Kent,
Princess
Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Ogilvy
and
Prince Michael of Kent
enjoy the titular dignity of Prince or Princess and the style Royal
Highness as male-line grandchildren of George V. However, none of
their children has a royal title. For example, the children of
Prince Michael of Kent are known as Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady
Gabriella Windsor, the courtesy titles as children of dukes. They
are not entitled to any royal title. The children of
The Princess Royal, Princess Alexandra
and
Princess
Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, are not entitled to any royal
title since princesses do not transmit their titles to their
children. An exception to this rule was when George VI issued
Letters Patent such that his heiress presumptive, Princess
Elizabeth, could transmit her title to her children. Princess
Margaret's son enjoys the courtesy title Viscount Linley as the son
and heir of the Earl of Snowdon, while her daughter enjoys the
courtesy title Lady. The children of the Princess Royal and
Princess Alexandra have no titles, because
Mark Phillips and
Sir
Angus Ogilvy did not accept hereditary
peerages upon marriage.
Women marrying sons and male-line grandsons of a Sovereign are
normally styled Her Royal Highness followed by the feminised
version of her husband's highest title. The wives of royal peers
are known as "HRH The Duchess of ..." or " HRH The Countess of ..."
Thus, the wives of the Duke of Kent, the Duke of Gloucester, and
the Earl of Wessex are "HRH The Duchess of Kent," "HRH The Duchess
of Gloucester," and "HRH The Countess of Wessex," respectively.
Before her divorce,
Diana,
Princess of Wales enjoyed the title and style of "HRH The
Princess of Wales." However, when a woman marries a prince who does
not hold a peerage, she is known as HRH Princess [Her husband's
Christian name], followed by whatever territorial or titular
designation. For example, the former Baroness Marie-Christine von
Reibnitz enjoys the title and style of "HRH Princess Michael of
Kent," and not "HRH Princess Marie-Christine of Kent." Similarly,
the former Birgitte Eva van Deurs was titled "HRH Princess Richard
of Gloucester" from her
wedding until her
husband succeeded to his father's dukedom in 1974. The widows of
princes remain HRH. However, under Queen Elizabeth II's 21 August
1996 Letters Patent, a divorced wife of a Prince of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland "shall not be
entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal
Highness."
There has been one exception to the convention that wives of
princes take their husband's rank. In Letters Patent dated 28 May
1937, King
George VI
specifically denied the style HRH to the wife of the
Duke of Windsor, the
former King
Edward
VIII. Therefore, the former
Wallis Warfield Simpson was known
as "Her Grace The Duchess of Windsor," not "Her Royal Highness The
Duchess of Windsor."
It should
also be noted due a reluctance by the public to universally support
the second wife of The Prince of Wales, it has been announced by
Clarence
House
that should The Prince of Wales become King, that
his wife HRH The Duchess of Cornwall will not be known as HM The
Queen but will take the lesser title of HRH The Princess
Consort. Out of respect for Diana, Princess of Wales, it was
also announced that HRH The Duchess of Cornwall would not be known
as HRH The Princess of Wales.
The daughters and male-line granddaughters of the Sovereign do not
lose their royal titles upon marriage. Men who marry the daughters
and the male-line granddaughters of the Sovereign, however, do not
acquire their wives' royal rank and the style HRH. The only
exception to this convention is
Prince
Philip, who, as a then-future consort, was granted British
titles in his own right (rather than in his wife's). Born a
Prince of Greece and
Denmark, it was only after his wartime service that he
renounced the use of his title and became a naturalised British
subject, as Lieutenant Philip
Mountbatten RN (although he was already a
British citizen as a descendant of the Electress Sophia). The day
before his marriage he was created
Duke of Edinburgh with the style HRH by
King George VI's Letters Patent of 19 November 1947. The Duke of
Edinburgh was not created a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland until 22 February 1957. Since that
date, his full title has been "HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh."
As grandchildren of the Sovereign through the female line, the
children of the then Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh
would not have been entitled to use HRH or Prince or Princess of
the United Kingdom until their mother became Queen, had those
titles and styles not been granted in Letters Patent of 22 October
1948. They could neither be styled HRH Prince or Princess of Greece
and Denmark through their father, as the Duke of Edinburgh had
renounced these use of these royal titles and styles. Their highest
styles would therefore have been
the Earl of Merioneth and
Lady Anne Mountbatten.
Peerages
The British Royal Family in
1880.
Female consorts of the Sovereign have generally not been created
peers or peeresses. A notable exception occurred in 1532, when
Henry VIII created
Anne Boleyn Marquess of Pembroke before marrying
her. Male consorts, however, have sometimes been granted dukedoms.
The husband of
Mary I was already
King of Naples, and that of
Mary
II was jointly Sovereign in England, so neither of them
received peerage dignities.
Prince George of Denmark, the
husband of
Anne (later Queen
Anne), was created Duke of Cumberland in 1683 .
Victoria's husband,
Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was given the style Royal Highness before
his marriage. In 1857, Queen Victoria granted him title of
Prince Consort; however, Prince Albert was
not made a British peer. Prince Philip, husband of the present
Queen, was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style Royal
Highness the day before his wedding (which occurred prior to her
accession).
Generally, the sons of the Sovereign are awarded peerage dignities
to mark either adulthood or marriage. Originally, younger sons of
the Sovereign were not styled Princes (except the Prince of Wales);
thus, in order to indicate their exalted rank, peerage dignities
were conferred upon them. From the time of
Edward III, nearly every son of a
Sovereign surviving into adulthood became a Duke. Certain dukedoms
were granted more often than others, including the
Dukedoms of York,
Albany and
Clarence. Normally, a peerage once awarded
to a member of the Royal Family is not thereafter granted to any
person outside the Royal Family (though some exceptions do
exist).
The Dukedom of York is generally created for the second son of the
Sovereign. The first creation was in 1384; the dukedom merged in
the Crown in 1483 . Every Duke thereafter has either died without
heirs or succeeded to the Crown, and so has not been able to leave
the Royal Family. The pattern of awarding the dukedom to the
second-eldest son of the Sovereign was upset by
George I, who gave the Dukedom of
York and Albany to his younger brother. The Dukedom of York and
Albany was next granted by
George II to the second son of
his son, who had predeceased him. York and Albany featured one last
time as a dukedom in 1784, when
George III granted it to his
second son. Thereafter, the dukedom has always borne the
designation
York, rather than
York and Albany.
The current duke is The Prince Andrew, second son of Queen
Elizabeth II.
The Dukedom of Albany served a function similar to the Dukedom of
York in Scotland. The dukedom was created in 1398 for
Robert Stewart, brother
of King
Robert III. It was at
the time the only dukedom other than the Dukedom of Rothesay. It
was created thrice more in Scotland: twice for the second son of a
Sovereign, and once for a brother of a Sovereign.
It was last created in
1881 for the fourth son of Victoria; the dukedom was
then suspended under the Titles Deprivation Act after its holder
fought on the side of Germany
during
World War I.
There are several other dukedoms that have been used for members of
the Royal Family. Clarence was first used as a dukedom in 1362,
most of the time being granted to the third son of the Sovereign.
Among the dukedoms granted to still younger sons of the Sovereign
are Cambridge, Connaught, Cumberland, Edinburgh, Gloucester, Kent
and Sussex — others in the Scottish peerage have included Ross and
Kintyre. Some of those dukedoms were used for younger brothers,
nephews and other kinsmen of Sovereigns. The dukedom of Windsor was
also a Royal dukedom, being granted to
Edward VIII after he
abdicated so that he could marry against the tenets of the
Church of England.
Often, sons of the Sovereign were granted titles associated with
England and Scotland, later with Ireland, and most recently with
Wales. Thus, the Dukedom of Strathearn (named after a place in
Scotland) has been held with the Dukedoms of Connaught (named after
an Irish province), Kent and Cumberland (both named after English
places). This pattern continues in the present Royal Family.
The
current Duke of York, for example, is also Earl of Inverness
and Baron Killyleagh
; the subsidiary titles are associated with Scotland
and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The convention of granting dukedoms to senior members of the Royal
Family was broken most recently in 1999, when The Prince Edward was
created Earl of Wessex. The Earldom of Wessex had not been created
earlier by an English or British Sovereign since 1066. It has been
suggested that the Dukedom of Edinburgh will eventually be granted
to the Earl of Wessex. The current dukedom will descend to Charles,
Prince of Wales, however, and not to the Earl of Wessex. When The
Prince of Wales becomes Sovereign, or if he is already Sovereign
when the dukedom passes to him, the dukedom will merge in the Crown
and then only become available for a regrant.
The highest peerage dignity belonging to a Prince may be used as a
part of the title of that Prince's children. Thus, the sons of The
Prince of Wales are
Prince
William of Wales and
Prince
Harry of Wales; the daughters of the Duke of York are
Princess Beatrice of York and
Princess Eugenie of York;
the children of the Earl of Wessex are
Lady Louise Windsor and
Viscount Severn. (In the last case,
Lady Louise and Lord Severn are always (and without exception)
referred to as such, at the wishes of their parents and by order of
The Queen, but may nonetheless legally retain their princely titles
(i.e.
Princess Louise of Wessex and
Prince James of
Wessex))
Sovereigns, especially Charles II, have sometimes granted peerage
dignities to illegitimate children.
James Scott became Duke of
Monmouth in 1663 . Many more creations, mostly earldoms, followed
in the 1670s:
Charles
FitzCharles became Earl of Plymouth,
Charles FitzRoy
Duke of Southampton,
Henry FitzRoy Earl of
Euston,
George FitzRoy
Earl of Northumberland,
Charles Beauclerk
Earl of Burford and
Charles
Lennox Duke of Richmond and Lennox. Many of the earls who were
sons of Charles later became Dukes. Of the current Dukes, four are
male-line descendants of Charles in the illegitimate line: the Duke
of Richmond, Lennox and Gordon, the Duke of Buccleuch and
Queensberry, the Duke of Grafton and the Duke of St Albans.
In other Commonwealth realms
As the Royal Family is shared by other
Commonwealth realms, its members will
often also conduct official and non-official duties outside the
United Kingdom, on behalf of the relevant state.
- Further information: Royal Family's role in the
realms
See also
Other realms
Other related articles
Footnotes
- For example, for Canada the family is known as the
Canadian Royal
Family
- alt.talk.royalty FAQ: British royalty and
nobility
- Royal website Fact Files
Additional reading
- Burke’s Guide to the Royal Family. Burke’s Peerage,
1973.
- Cannon, John Ashton. The Oxford Illustrated History of the
British Monarchy. Oxford University Press, 1988.
- Churchill, Randolph S. They Serve the Queen: A New and
Authoritative Account of the Royal Household. (“Prepared for
Coronation Year”) Hutchinson, 1953.
- Fraser, Antonia (ed). The Lives of the Kings & Queens
of England. Revised & updated edition. University of
California Press, 1998.
- Hayden, Ilse. Symbol and Privilege: The Ritual Context of
British Royalty. University of Arizona Press, 1987.
- Longford, Elizabeth Harman (Countess of Longford). The
Royal House of Windsor. Revised edition. Crown, 1984.
- Weir, Alison. Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete
Genealogy. Pimlico/Random House, 2002.
- Royal Family (1969) is a celebrated and reverential
BBC documentary
made by Richard Cawston to accompany
the investiture of the current Prince of
Wales. The documentary is frequently held responsible for the
greater press intrusion into the Royal Family's private life since
its first broadcast.
External links
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