Uncle Harry and Andrew both shunted down pecking order

THE new baby’s arrival means his uncle Prince Harry has been bumped down to sixth in the order of succession.

And his great-uncle, Andrew, is knocked down to seventh – meaning he will no longer have to ask the Queen’s permission if he wants to marry again.

As someone who has always railed against the boundaries of his royal role, Harry is unlikely to lose sleep over being shunted down the pecking order by the new prince, who is fifth. He recently suggested in an interview that no member of the Royal Family wanted to be king or queen.

But Andrew, the Queen’s second son, will find himself out of the ‘senior six’ for the first time. With his daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, relegated to eighth and ninth, none of the York family will now have to ask the Queen for permission to marry (although sources suggest they will always do so while she is on the throne, out of courtesy).

It also means all of the Yorkies, as they call themselves, are likely to have a diminished royal role, particularly if Harry and Meghan Markle start a family and potentially propel them out of the ‘top ten’.

The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 decreed that any descendent of King George II had to gain the consent of the monarch before marrying. That was overturned by a 2013 change to the Succession to the Crown Act, which states that the rule applies only to the six members of the Royal Family nearest in line to the throne.

The new prince’s birth is also significant as it is the first time that a royal daughter – in this case, Princess Charlotte – was not overtaken in the pecking order by the birth of a son.

Under the ancient rules of male primogeniture, royal sons took precedence over female siblings, even leapfrogging firstborn royal daughters.

This is why Prince Andrew, who is the Queen and Prince Philip’s third child, raced above his older sister, Princess Anne, in the line of succession when he was born.

But the radical shake-up of the royal succession rules in 2013, backed by the Queen, removed discriminatory male bias for any babies born after October 28, 2011. So William and Kate’s second child, Charlotte, retains her position as fourth in line.

As a sibling to both future king Prince George and his ‘spare’ Princess Charlotte, the new baby is unlikely ever to be crowned king. The last third child to take the throne was William IV, who ruled from 1830 to 1837 after both his elder brothers died.

William and Kate’s new baby will, like George and Charlotte, be a greatgreat-great-great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.

He will also be a prince thanks to the Queen, who stepped in ahead of George’s birth to ensure all William’s children would become HRHs (His/her Royal Highness) with fitting titles. The Queen issued what is known as a ‘Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm’ in December 2012 declaring ‘all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of Royal Highness’. A Letters Patent in 1917 had limited titles within the Royal Family, meaning William and Kate’s children would have been only Lord or Lady Mountbatten-Windsor.

First royal daughter not to be overtaken