While the likes of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis can expect to one day hold senior titles, such as the Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal and perhaps The Duke of Cambridge or The Duke of York, many of the late Queen's other great-grandchildren will never gain an official style.
There has been uncertainty in recent weeks about whether King Charles’ other two grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, will be granted princely titles or whether the monarch will go against the grain and change a historic decree made by his great-great grandfather in 1917. Some experts have even suggested that the delay to any official announcement on the subject has been caused by the upcoming release of Prince Harry ’s memoir ‘Spare’ which has previously vowed to offer “raw, unflinching honesty”.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ’s son Archie was born on May 6, 2019 at the Portland Hospital in London, we could scarcely imagine the events that have since taken place.
It was revealed shortly after his birth that he would be officially known as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, rather than Prince Archie of Sussex.
The reason for this at the time came down to Letters Patent by King George V in 1917 where he wrote that all the children of the sovereign, the male-line grandchildren and the Prince of Wales’s eldest son were all allowed to hold a princely title.
While circumstances have now changed, it was explained at the time that Archie was entitled to hold his father’s subsidiary title but it was rejected by his parents for fears “about how that might look”.
Love the royals? Sign up for the Mirror's daily newsletter to get all the latest news on the Queen, Charles, Kate, Wills, Meghan, Harry and the rest of The Firm. Click here to sign up .
At the time of their wedding, the late Queen made Prince Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Earl and Countess of Dumbarton and the Baron and Baroness Kilkeel.
In line with royal tradition, Archie was entitled to be styled as the Earl of Dumbarton as it is the subsidiary style of his father’s official title. But according to a report in The Telegraph, the new parents didn’t want their son to be known by a title that contained the word ‘dumb’.
The report says: "They didn’t like the idea of Archie being called the Earl of Dumbarton because it began with the word ‘dumb’ [and] they were worried about how that might look."
A second source added that it wasn't just Meghan's concern, but that it "also bothered Harry."
The question of whether Archie and Lilibet will be granted princely titles remains unsolved as circumstances have greatly changed since the late Queen passed away.
As the Letters Patent from 1917 allows grandchildren of the sovereign to be styled as a prince or a princess, many imagined the pair would be given the titles by their grandfather, but it is an issue that remains unanswered.
Investigative journalist and author Tom Bower recently aired his thoughts on why King Charles may choose to withhold Archie and Lilibet's titles, and why their futures rely on what is stirred from Prince Harry’s upcoming 416-page memoir ‘Spare’.
Bower explained that he believes Harry’s book - which has reportedly caused a “tsunami of fear” to course behind palace walls - will be the ultimate "make or break" for the Sussexes. The author told The Sun : "This book is really make or break. I imagine that King Charles has been warned that any retaliation won't be pretty.
"All that King Charles can really do is to withhold the titles for his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet. Ultimately, I suppose, he could take away Harry and Meghan's titles as well, but that's pretty drastic. I don't know what else he can do. If it is as bad as I think it is, then Harry and Meghan have gone fully rogue."
