Why Princess Anne waited 36 years for royal title from Queen

PRINCESS ANNE has one of the most unique titles in the Royal Family as Princess Royal. So why did she have to wait 36 years before the Queen granted her the prestigious honour?

Princess Anne has ‘gravitas’ for counsellor of state says expert

Princess Anne was given a Princess title when she was born, as her mother would later ascend the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. But unlike her three brothers, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, Princess Anne did not get a new royal title on her wedding day. She also had to wait nearly four decades before the Queen eventually gifted her the Princess Royal title.

Why did Princess Anne not get a title when she married?

Princess Anne was the first of her four royal siblings to tie the knot when she married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.

Despite being the only daughter of the Queen, Princess Anne and her husband were not given new royal titles upon their marriage.

The Queen is thought to have offered Anne and Mark a title, but they are believed to have turned the offer down.

Why Princess Anne waited 36 years for royal title from Queen (Image: GETTY)

Princess Anne holds the title of Princess Royal (Image: GETTY)

For this reason, Anne and Mark’s two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, were born without royal titles too.

Under a Letters Patent issued by King George V in 1917, only the children of the monarch, and the grandchildren of the monarch through the male line, are eligible for Prince and Princess titles.

So as the grandchildren of the monarch through the female line, Peter and Zara were simply titled Master and Miss.

Sports star Zara has spoken warmly of her parent’s decision not to give them titles, telling The Times a few years ago: “I’m very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do.”

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Why did Princess Anne get the Princess Royal title?

Like the Prince of Wales title, the Princess Royal title is very unique.

With its first use in the British Royal Family recorded in the 1600s, the Princess Royal title is normally given to the eldest daughter of the reigning sovereign.

The title is life-long, and the previous holder before Anne was Princess Mary, the sister of King George VI.

The next holder of the Princess Royal title is likely to be Princess Charlotte (Image: GETTY)

When Princess Mary died in 1965, the title became vacant until it was given to Princess Anne in 1987.

When the Queen finally gave Anne the Princess Royal title, she was 36 years old.

The reason Anne had to wait for the title is due to the fact the Princess Royal title is not an automatic appointment.

The allocation of the Princess Royal title, much like the Prince of Wales title, is dependent on the whim of the monarch.

Will Zara Tindall be the next Princess Royal?

Although some royal titles pass down the male line, Princess Anne’s Princess Royal title will revert back to the Crown upon her death.

So the title will not be passed on to Anne’s only daughter, Zara Tindall.

The next holder of the Princess Royal title is likely to be Princess Charlotte, as one day she will be the only daughter of a King when Prince William ascends the throne.

Meghan Markle BLASTED by Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly doesn’t like that Meghan Markle calls Harry ‘her husband’ (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage and Chris Carlson/ AP)

Megyn Kelly has another bone to pick with Meghan Markle and this time it’s because she has an issue with the fact she refers to Prince Harry as ‘her husband’.

On the latest episode of her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, the American media commentator slammed Markle and said she’d had enough.

‘We get it, you bagged the gorilla,’ she said on Tuesday’s episode.

‘Congratulations, you got the big bear, [and] you want us all to know.’

The comments were in response to the latest episode of Markle’s own podcast, Archetypes, when she said that her husband was ‘great’ with contributing equally to parenting.

‘Oh, my husband? Oh, he’s great,’ she said.

‘[He] gets [Archie] downstairs’, while she added she would make breakfast for the family.

‘It’s very important to me. I love doing it.’

With Christopher Anderson, author of The King: The Life of Charles III, Kelly’s guest on the program, the pair also discussed claims made in the Oprah interview, including a part where Markle said she never looked up the Royal family prior to her relationship.

Anderson claimed that, like ‘every other young woman’, she knew exactly who they were.

‘Let’s get real, there’s always that eligible bachelor,’ Kelly agreed.

‘For my age, it was JFK Jr., for her age it was Prince Harry.’

Kelly says the couple ‘owe’ the Royals (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Kelly also criticised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for ‘ripping on the Royals to whom they owe, literally, all of their fame and most of their fortune.’

The comments come as the world waits to see the contents of Harry’s memoir, Spare, which will now be released on January 10 after being delayed due to the Queen’s passing.

The 416-page book has been billed by publisher Penguin Random House as a work of ‘raw, unflinching honesty’.

Relatives were not given a heads-up on the title – a reference to the phrase the ‘the heir and the spare’ – in advance of last week’s announcement, with a source telling the Daily Mail it will be seen as both ‘controversial’ and ‘provocative’.

Harry has previously called the book a ‘truthful and wholly accurate’ portrait of his life – the prospect of which has sent shockwaves through the royal establishment.

King Charles’ Sister Breaks Silence on Calls for William To Be King

King Charles III’s only sister, Princess Anne, has been quoted in a new royal biography which claims the new monarch “bristles” at the suggestion he is acting as a “caretaker” of the throne until such a time as Prince William can take over.

There was renewed discussion about the prospect of Charles one day abdicating in favor of his eldest son in Britain this month, prompted by the change of throne in Denmark, which saw 83-year-old Queen Margrethe II retire in a shock abdication, being succeeded by her son, the new King Frederik X, and his wife, Queen Mary.

Charles, 75, acceded in September 2022, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96. Some members of the British public believed at the time that the throne should have bypassed Charles and gone to William, who is more popular.

In May 2022, four months before Queen Elizabeth’s death, a YouGov poll found that 57 percent of Brits thought Charles would do a “good job” as king. This was opposed to 77 percent who thought William would do a “good job.” In the same month, 37 percent said that William should succeed his grandmother, while 34 percent said it should be Charles.

 King Charles III (L) photographed at Sandhurst Military Academy, April 14, 2023. And Prince William (R) and Princess Anne (inset) photographed on the day of the king’s coronation, May 6, 2023. A new book has…More

Now, a new biography of Charles, titled The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy by Robert Harman, due to be published in Britain on Thursday, has revealed how the king and key royal insiders feel about the subject.

“If there is one thing that causes King Charles to bristle, it is commentators claiming he will be a caretaker until his heir—the ‘change-maker’—takes over,” Hardman wrote in an extract published by the Daily Mail. “Those close to the King say that this is demonstrably wrong.”

According to the author, Charles’ sister, Anne, takes a pragmatic line on this subject, stating that there is an inherent benefit to taking on the crown later in life. Notably, William celebrated his 41st birthday in June of last year.