Egalitarianism in the Royal Family

[lethargic_man]

The media have been making a big hoo-har about the fact the Commonwealth has changed its succession law so if Prince William's firstborn is a daughter, she will accede to the throne even if she has a younger brother. Today's news is that the Queen has issued Letters Patent to ensure such a daughter is a princess from birth, which would not hithertofore have been the case for a daughter. According to the abovelinked article, the Letters Patent reads:

All the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should enjoy the style, title and attribute of Royal Highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names.

What an incredible botched job that seems to me: it only applies to the situation where the heir to the throne is a male; it does not clearly set out the law for future generations. Now that a daughter would become (in due course) Heir Apparent, rather than Heir Presumptive, she would go on in due course to become Princess of Wales when William is king (no, I didn't know that; I had to look it up); and should she go on to have a firstborn daughter herself, that daughter would be the eldest child (not son) of the Princess (not Prince) of Wales, and her daughter should be entitled to be rank of princess too—something that will require further legislation or Letters Patent, as it is not covered by today's Letters Patent, and makes me wonder whether Her Majesty (someone who, Wikipedia tells me, previously turned down the idea of being made Princess of Wales when it was suggested to her father) has really bought in to the concept of egalitarianism.

Comments

another explanation

[bluepork]

It's possibly due to something legal. Letters Patents are an alternative form of legislative power to the normative Acts of Parliament, so it wouldn't surprise me if there are established limits to what can be done with them.

It also wouldn't surprise me if there are no formal limits, but there are effective limits. Quoting from wikipedia, "Clearly today parliament tolerates only a very narrow exercise of the royal prerogative by issuance of letters patent, and such documents are issued with prior informal government approval, or indeed are now generated by government itself with the monarch's seal affixed as a mere formality."

So, its also possible that there are powers other than Queenie herself holding things back.

[iddewes]

It does seem rather as though she's only bothered to make it so it applies to William's children, not to the next generation after that. Which is strange.