Newborn won’t be HRH, but may be Earl of Dumbarton

THE firstborn son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is expected to be given the title Earl of Dumbarton, although he will not be a prince unless the Queen makes a last-minute intervention.

The newborn boy, who is seventh in line to the throne, will not automatically have the style “His Royal Highness” under a decree made by George V in 1917.

Before the birth of Prince George, the Queen issued a formal decree to grant the title of prince or princess to all of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children.

Using Letters Patent, a method by which the sovereign can give orders without the involvement of Parliament, the Queen decided that “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales” should be given the title of Royal Highness “with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names”.

It is considered unlikely, although not impossible, that the Sussexes’ son will be styled similarly.

Buckingham Palace is due to clarify the baby’s title when his name is announced over the coming days. He is expected to be known formally as the Earl of Dumbarton, as a first son of a duke is allowed to use one of his father’s other lesser titles as a courtesy title. A daughter would have been Lady [first name] Mountbatten-windsor.

A decree made by George V in 1917 specified that the style “HRH” and the title “prince” or “princess” could only be borne by children of the sovereign, children of the sovereign’s sons, and the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.

Of the Queen’s grandchildren, Prince William, Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the children of her two elder sons, have the HRH title, while Peter and Zara Phillips, children of her daughter the Princess Royal, do not.

When Prince Edward – the youngest of the Queen’s children – married, he was made an earl, and it was made clear that his children would be styled as the daughter and son of an earl rather than a prince and princess.

In December 2012, before the sex of the Cambridge’s first child was known, the Queen issued a Letters Patent to extend the title to all of Prince William’s future offspring. No such Letters Patent has yet been issued for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children.