Edward, the earl of film
QUESTION The majority of Princes are dukes, so why is Prince Edward an earl?
Prince edward, the youngest of the Queen’s children, is HrH The Prince edward by birth. Any other titles come affixed to that.
The Queen had intended to give him the title Duke of cambridge when he married Sophie rhys- Jones in 1999. However, it was decided that instead he would eventually inherit the title The Duke of edinburgh from Prince Philip and take on his official roles.
When Prince Philip dies, the title Duke of edinburgh will revert to the crown. After the Queen has died, the dukedom will be recreated for edward by his elder brother, King charles iii.
edward’s wife, Sophie, countess of Wessex, will become Duchess of edinburgh. elizabeth ii is the present holder of that title. Before she became Queen, her title was Her royal Highness, the Princess elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Duchess of edinburgh.
Only a child of the monarch is entitled to have the definite article ‘the’ in front of their name.
On his marriage, edward was given the title earl of Wessex. it is said he chose this because of his love for the film Shakespeare in Love, which featured colin Firth as Lord Wessex.
His full title is His royal Highness, The Prince edward Antony richard Louis, earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn.
Mrs Kay Morley, Donington, Lincs.
QUESTION During the battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, many French and Royal Navy ships were lost. Are their whereabouts known and are any designated as war graves?
THe battle of Quiberon Bay was a key naval battle of the Seven Years War (175663). it ended the threat of an invasion of Britain and removed the French navy from the rest of the war.
Yet the battle and edward Hawke (170581), the admiral who masterminded the victory, remain obscure — there is no Quiberon Square or Hawke’s column.
in 1759, Hawke was commander of the fleet blockading the French naval station of Brest. This had dealt a blow to the French, securing canada for Britain by preventing reinforcements from reaching the French across the Atlantic. As a counter-offensive, the French planned to invade Britain.
On november 14, 1759, the French admiral Hubert de Brienne, count de conflans, taking advantage of an opening in Hawke’s blockade, headed south-east from Brest along the French coast, aiming to pick up troops from the mouth of the Loire for the invasion.
On november 20, Hawke’s fleet of 23 ships, aided by a gale, caught up with conflans’s 21-vessel squadron and drove it into Quiberon Bay, off St nazaire.
conflans expected Hawke to call off the chase when he encountered the wild seas at the entrance to the bay, an area of rocks and reefs. He was wrong, and instead of safety, he had sailed his fleet into a trap.
By the end of the night, the French had been roundly defeated: the British lost two ships and 400 men, the French seven ships (one captured) and 2,500 skilled sailors, diminishing the numbers and morale of the French navy.
The victory was made more impressive by the treacherous nature of the sea and the weather.
Alfred Thayer Mahan, the U.S. naval officer and historian, claimed in The influence Of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783: ‘The battle of november 20, 1759 was the Trafalgar of this war . . . the english fleets were free to act against the colonies of France, and later Spain, on a grander scale than ever before.’
Michael Fraser, Inverness. WAr graves were unheard of in the 18th century. The royal navy was pragmatic when it came to sea burials. it was felt necessary to dispose of bodies rapidly to prevent disease breaking out.
This thinking was ahead of its time as the germ theory to explain the spread of disease was not conceived until the middle of the 19th century.
it is said a dead sailor was sewn into his hammock with the last stitch through his nose in order to ensure he really was dead. There would be a funeral service as the body lay beneath the white ensign before being committed to the waves.
The navy also held a service for those whose bodies were not recovered, for example, if they had been swept overboard in a storm.
There were some exceptions to these funeral arrangements for senior officers. The body might be embalmed or pickled in brandy and brought home to Britain for burial. This was the case for nelson after the Battle of Trafalgar.
Generally, it was seen as an honour to be buried swiftly at sea and it saved families from having to pay for a funeral.
Alan Bubb, Southampton.
QUESTION U.S. political commentators often accuse people of being a ‘shill’. What does this mean?
in PAVeMenT and marketplace swindles, such as mock auctions and versions of Find The Lady, one of the gang poses as a bystander or passer-by who bids or places fake bets to encourage the public to follow suit. These decoys are called ‘shills’ in the U.S.
The origin of the term is uncertain. it is thought to be an American carnival word, an abbreviation of ‘shillaber’.
in 1926, Word-Lore: The ‘Folk’ Magazine offers an early definition: ‘Shillaber — an employee of the circus who rushes up to the kid show ticket box at the psychological moment when the barker concludes his spiel.
‘He and his fellow shillabers purchase tickets and pass inside, and the crowd of towners in front of the bally stand are not slow in doing likewise.’
The use of this word as a metaphor in the description of underhand political manoeuvring is self-explanatory.
Bryan Owram, Esholt, W. Yorks.
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