With the Succession the Crown Bill 2013 I envisage a serious
shake-up of styles and titles associated with the royal family.
Clearly the Letters Patent of George V (1917) must now be revised. If
the succession to the Crown is now gender blind then surely all future
peerages awarded to children of the Sovereign should be similarly
entailed.
We are told that the Earl of Wessex will be created Duke of
Edinburgh on his brother's accession. The eldest child of the Earl and
Countess of Wessex is a daughter, Lady Louise Windsor. The Letters Patent of the Earldom of
Wessex and Viscounctcy of Severn state that the peerages will pass to
the heirs male of the Wessexes, lawfully begotten, and the son,
James, styled Viscount Severn, will on his father's death succeed.
The
future Dukedom of Edinburgh (with some subsidiary peerages) should be
created with a nod to the new Act and the Letters Patent should, like
the new act, be 'gender blind' and state that the peerage will pass to
heirs of whatever sex in order of birth. With the death of Prince Edward
his Dukedom of Edinburgh would pass to his eldest child, Lady Louise
Windsor, and the Earldom of Wessex and Viscountcy of Severn would be inherited by
his younger child, James.
If all children of the Sovereign are to
be regarded as equal under the law then surely this should also apply
to grandchildren of the Sovereign? Children of a future daughter of a
Sovereign should be of equal rank to the children of the sons of the
Sovereign.
In the next reign, the King, having no daughters, his
grandchildren under the Letters Patent of 1917 will all be HRH Princes or
Princesses. Andy changes I propose will only effect the descendants of
the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
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