[rollei_list] VERY OT: British Traditions on Royalty and Peerage

At 07:09 PM 7/29/2009, Jim Boy wrote:
Why would she be considered a commoner once she got the top job? I'd think you'd be about as royal as you could get. 

David Chananie
Under the UK system you are a Royal or a Peer or a Commoner. The spouse of one of those does not rise automatically to share the status of their mate. Prince Phillip is a prince because he was a Greek Prince, and that is a title of courtesy in the UK, recognized only in 1950. He is also the Duke of Edinburgh as he was created as such: that makes him a peer of the realm. But he is not a Royal through his marriage to Queen Elizabeth. He is a Royal as he is a potential heir to the crowns of the UK and Denmark and Russia and Greece and possibly others. So, if you meet him, you address him as "Your Royal Highness". USians do not bow or do more than nod the head, though that has been accepted since the time of Charles Adams at the Court of St James in the 1800's.
Elizabeth Bowles-Lyon, George VI's wife and mother to the current Queen, was very much a commoner with strong ties to the peerage. She was born a commoner, lived as a commoner, though called, "Your Royal Majesty", and died a commoner, and glad for her status from all I have heard. Her Ma-in-Law was a Royal, incidentally.
The younger son of the Duke of Marlborough married an American heiress. Her husband was "Lord Randolph Churchill" and she was "Lady Jenny Churchill", the use of the first names with the titles indicating that they were commoners, as Lord Randolph's brother inherited the title. (The dowager Duchess of Marlborough, on her deathbed, told the assembled multitude, "do not let that horrid Winston inherit the title!")
Winston Churchill was their child, and he was always a commoner, only agreeing to being granted a Garter when he retired from government. Knights in the UK are commoners..
These rules are complex but really do follow a simple system when you contemplate it as a system. If you want confusion, look to the situation in, say, France or Italy, or even worse, Russia, where the Tsar had to establish colleges of peers in every oblast to keep things straight. 

Marc

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