Of Making Princes

GREAT BRITAIN Of Making Princes When Queen Victoria wanted to make her German husband-to-be "King Consort" by Act of Parliament, her favorite Prime Minister, Melbourne, was shocked. "For God's sake, Ma'am," he cried, "let's have no more of it. If you get the English people into the way of making Kings, you will get them into the way of unmaking them." Years later (1857) the young Queen took matters into her own hands and created Albert "Prince Consort."

Last week Victoria's great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth (with the willing assent of her Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan) decided by royal decree what should be the style and status of her husband. "The Queen," said an official bulletin in the London Gazette, "has been pleased to declare her will and pleasure that His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, shall henceforth be known as His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh."

Granted as reward for his services to the realm during his long Commonwealth tour, and perhaps also to bury the rumors of a family rift (TIME, Feb. 18), Philip's new title has no practical implications. He was born a prince (of the Royal Danish house of Schleswig-Holstein-Son-derburg--Glucksburg, which originated in Germany and now rules Greece) and, though he renounced the title officially to become a British subject, he continued to call himself Prince Philip. When Philip became engaged to Elizabeth, King George VI made the ex-Greek prince an English royal duke with the proviso that he be called, like Britain's other royal dukes (all of whom are also princes), "His Royal Highness." But with that settled, most people went right on calling him Prince Philip just as they had before, and Philip himself confessed that he preferred the shorter title. Even the editors respectively of Burke's Peerage and Debrett's, the two recognized bluebooks of British nobility, could not agree on whether he was really a prince or not.

The new title will settle that argument, but it will not give Philip a place in the line of succession to the throne or change his protocol rank. As official "First Gentleman of the Realm," Philip takes his place immediately behind the Queen when she is with him, and leads the procession when he is her official representative. But as the most recently created royal duke, prince or not prince, he will continue to rank 30th in line of precedence (behind Britain's two archbishops, all the other members of the royal family and all Britain's dukes) at other official functions.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.