Why Archie has no right to be prince
And how Harry’s security demands were unworkable
HARRY and Meghan’s claims their son Archie was let down and denied his “birthright” of a title have been rubbished by royal experts.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect him by taking away security, while Meghan said race was a factor in not making him a prince.
The allegations were refuted yesterday by experts who said their understanding of the rules was “clearly lacking”.
Constitutional expert Craig Prescott told how Sussexes’ children were never considered able to have titles because of 100-year-old rules.
The former head of royalty protection, Dai Davies, said the Duke and Duchess were “obviously confused” about the way royal protection works.
The former chief superintendent, who led the Metropolitan Police’s royalty protection unit, said their plans to live abroad and maintain their full taxpayer funded protection detail would have been “wholly unworkable”.
Ex-top cop Davies said the issue of security would “never have been a problem had Harry and Meghan stayed as working royals”, instead of “trying to create a completely unworkable model”.
When Harry and Meghan in late 2019 began to tentatively discuss with the
Queen and
Prince of Wales the option of becoming “part time” royals, it was explained to them how they would be forced to give up their permanent taxpayer funded security detail, sources have revealed.
The Home Office, the head of the Metropolitan Police and the Queen’s most senior staff would have all had to agree to a completely new programme – costing between £8million and £20million a year.
A royal source said: “Harry and Meghan’s lifestyle choices were deemed to be totally unworkable, they were jetting around the world on holidays, discussing plans to base themselves in multiple countries throughout the year.
In the end, it was completely unworkable for everyone.”
In terms of the issue of Harry and Meghan’s children being styled as HRHs, sources insist “there was never any grey area” in explaining the rules to them.
In 1917, King George V – the Queen’s grandfather – issued a written order ruling that only royal offspring in the direct line of succession could be made a prince or princess and receive titles of His or Her Royal Highness.
Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, have royal titles because their dad is a son of the monarch, however, Princess Anne’s do not.