Why didn't Meghan Markle and Harry give Archie a title? ‘Earl of Dumbarton’ was available, say experts
Experts have claimed that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry always had the option to give their firstborn, Archie, a royal title but they decided not to. It has been said that the pair had the chance to let their first-born be the titled "Earl of Dumbarton."
The earldom was one of the subsidiary titles Harry received from the Queen on the morning of his wedding, as per rules laid down by King George V, who restricted royal titles within the immediate line of succession up to three generations in 1917. Currently, the Sussexs’ son does not hold any prestigious titles and goes by "Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor".
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Archie could have been 'Lord Dumbarton'
Earlier, reports have said that Archie’s parents were not in favor of Archie being called Earl of Dumbarton as they would like him to lead a "normal" life like a "private citizen”. But in a shocking allegation, Meghan Markle recently claimed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that Archie had been denied a royal title. She also alleged that her son was not called a prince because of his skin color.
Talking to Winfrey, the former actress said on March 7, “All the grandeur around this stuff is not really important to me. But in the months when I was pregnant -- all around the same time -- so we have in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
Meghan Markle went on to say that she and Harry were never briefed by the Palace about why Archie was not made a prince. And when the queen of chat shows, Winfrey, asked her if she wanted one for her baby, she replied, "If it meant he was going to be safe, of course.” But now experts on the monarchy have said that the pair always had an option to giving Archie a title.
A spokesperson for Debrett’s, a British professional coaching company and authority on royal etiquette and behavior, said: “In 1917, King George V ordered that only the grandchildren of the monarch would be entitled to use the style of prince or princess and HRH -- the only exception to this order was that the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales would also be entitled to use the style HRH and Prince."
The spokesperson added: “In accordance with the 1917 order, Archie could [for] now use his father's title of the Earl of Dumbarton and could be referred to as Lord Dumbarton. In 2012, the Queen issued new Letters Patent that the style of HRH and Prince/Princess would be extended to all of Prince William’s children, not just his eldest son."
Archie will be entitled to use the style of Prince and be addressed as HRH when his grandfather, Prince Charles, becomes king. But according to some royal reporters, palace sources, at the time when Meghan was pregnant with Archie, said the couple had not shown any interest in titles.
"I was told when Harry and Meghan announced their pregnancy in Australia in 2018 that they did not want the Queen to vary the rules to make Archie a prince. They were very happy for him not to have a title. They wanted him to be unencumbered by the restrictions that come with titles,” Roya Nikkah, the Sunday Times's royal correspondent, told ITV documentary ‘Harry and Meghan: The Week that Shook the Royals’.
Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine, also speculated in a Daily Express article, saying: "The fact Archie isn't Earl of Dumbarton or styled HRH makes me wonder whether this wasn't already part of a wider masterplan.”