Lady Louise Windsor missed out on new royal title due to little-known inheritance rule

Lady Louise Windsor may be the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh but she was not entitled to a royal title that her younger brother, James, the Earl of Wessex was.

This is due to an old inheritance rule. The Edinburgh children may not hold HRH titles but one of them was entitled to inherit their father’s old courtesy title when he became Duke of Edinburgh.

Prince Edward was given the title by his brother, King Charles, last year on March 10 – his 59th birthday. Following the change, his wife, Sophie, became the new Duchess of Edinburgh and their son, James, 16, became the new Earl of Wessex, taking over his father’s former title.

However, there was no title change for 20-year-old Louise and that is down to a 900-year-old inheritance rule regarding courtesy titles.

Courtesy titles are only used by the peer’s eldest living son, and the eldest son’s eldest living son, and so forth.

Other descendants are not permitted to use the peer’s subsidiary titles. Only the heir apparent (and heir apparent to the heir apparent, and so on) may use them.

When Edward and Sophie married in 1999, Buckingham Palace announced they were given the title of the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children “would have courtesy titles as sons or daughters of an earl”.

But since Louise is a daughter, the courtesy title of the earl was passed on to James.