When senior members of the Royal Family get married, they are typically offered special titles, such as when Prince Harry and Meghan were made the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Queen Elizabeth. One day, the time will come for Prince George and Prince Louis to be offered their own royal titles, and many have wondered what they'll be called. However, there's one dukedom that's a possibility for Louis—and it's said to be "unlucky."
Prince William and Kate Middleton were granted the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their April 29, 2011 wedding day, but when Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, The King granted them new titles. As heir to the throne, Prince William became known as the Prince of Wales, as Charles was before he became King, and Princess Kate became the Princess of Wales.
The Duke of Cambridge title will be up for grabs when Prince William becomes King, and it could possibly go to Prince Louis. But according to MyLondon, the dukedom is "tainted with sadness" due to its history. The title was created in the 1600s and has been held by eight different royals, including William— but the first four of the seven prior Dukes of Cambridge died tragically in childhood.
King Charles II—who reigned between 1660 and 1685—created the dukedom for his nephew Charles Stuart, but the baby died at just six months old before he could officially be created as the Duke of Cambridge. The second duke, James Stuart, died at age three, and the King's third-oldest nephew, Edgar, also died as a toddler.
King George II was the fifth Duke of Cambridge—and the first not to die before adulthood, and George III's son, Prince Adolphus, and grandson, Prince George, also escaped the so-called Cambridge curse, living into old age.
The title became extinct after Prince George's 1904 death and allegedly was offered to Prince Edward by his mother, Queen Elizabeth, in 1999. "Prince Edward was going to be the Duke of Cambridge, but he watched the film Shakespeare in Love, which had a character called the Earl of Wessex,” a courtier told the Telegraph in 2010 ahead of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.
"He liked the sound of it and asked The Queen if he could have that instead," the palace source added.
When it comes to George and Louis, their titles will be dependent on the timing of their marriages and the state of the Royal Family at the time. Royal historian Jessica Storoschuk tells Marie Claire that it's highly unlikely Prince George could ever become the Duke of Cambridge.
"The only way that could happen is if the title is removed, and it would have to be removed by an act of Parliament," the An Historian Around Town blogger says. "I cannot see Parliament putting time into that if George or Louis marries before Charles passes," she adds, explaining that King Charles would have to die before all of William's titles revert to the Crown.
If King Charles is still on the throne when George ties the knot, the prince could be offered a dukedom. However, as Storoschuk notes, "There are not a ton of extinct dukedoms to give out," noting the Duke of Clarence or Cumberland as possibilities.
And if Prince William is already King when George gets married—a possibility given King Charles's age—Prince George would likely already be the Prince of Wales. The title isn't automatically passed down, so William would have to grant it to his son, although King Charles waited only one day after Queen Elizabeth's death to give it to Prince William.
Prince Louis could be offered the Duke of Cambridge title, but there's one catch. The second son of a monarch, like Prince Andrew, is typically offered the Duke of York title. Whether or not Prince Andrew is still alive when Louis gets married—or if the Royal Family wants to keep his title in rotation—remains to be seen.
And as Storoschuk says, with the Royal Family "making changes rapidly," they could move to a more stripped-down monarchy by the time Louis and George get married and not offer dukedoms at all. "Prince Louis is a really big question for me," she says.
