Happy 96th Birthday to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

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14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, George VI of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom, Philip Mountbatten, Platinum Jubilee, Prince of Greece and Denmark, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

“Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust” – Queen Elizabeth II

Happy 96th Birthday to our gracious & dignified Queen!!

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born April 21, 1926) is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and 14 other Commonwealth realms.

Elizabeth was born at 02:40 (GMT) on April 21, 1926 during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. Her father, Prince Albert, the Duke of York (later King George VI), was the second son of the King. Her mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, making Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former Prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until Philip’s death in 2021. They had four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon, as well as Head of the Commonwealth.

Elizabeth II has reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the United Kingdom, the decolonisation of Africa, and the United Kingdom’s accession to the European Communities and withdrawal from the European Union.

The number of her realms has varied over time as territories have gained independence, and as some realms have become republics. Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 and visits to or from five popes.

Significant events have included the Queen’s coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022 respectively.

Elizabeth II is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, the longest-serving female head of state in history, the oldest living and longest-reigning current monarch, and the oldest and longest-serving incumbent head of state.

Elizabeth II has occasionally faced republican sentiment and press criticism of the royal family, particularly after the breakdown of her children’s marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales. However, support for the monarchy in the United Kingdom has been and remains consistently high, as does her personal popularity.

Are the descendants of the Duke of Edinburgh also Prince/Princess of Greece and Denmark? Part II.

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Foreign Titles, king George II of the Hellenes, King George V of the United Kingdom, Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess of Greece Denmark, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Titles in Pretense

In this last entry we examined the history of the Greek monarchy, how it descended from King Christian IX of Denmark, and how all subsequent mail line dynasts have carried the title princess/prince of Greece and Denmark. There has been some question to whether or not it’s Philip’s renunciation of his Greek and danish titles could still be legally carried by his descendants.

It is two fold question. The question involves both the monarchy in Greece and the United Kingdom. As mentioned yesterday, King George II of the Hellenes did accept the renunciation of Prince Philip’s Greek and Danish titles. So what the question is, did the King’s reluctant acceptance of Philip’s renunciation meet the requirement for the renunciation of titles under Greek law at the time? One theory is that Philip’s renunciation of his titles by letter was not sufficient due to the fact that he remained in the line of succession to the Greek throne until the laws of succession to the Danish throne was changed in 1953. At that time Philip and his descendants ceased to be a dynasts to both the Greek and Danish thrones.

However, titles aren’t necessarily connected to succession rights. Many monarchies have dynasts that are in line for the succession to a specific throne yet they do not have official titles. Theoretically, therefore, if one believes that Prince Philip’s renunciation didn’t carry any legal authority or binding, then according to the Greek monarchy Prince Philip and his descendants are also princes and princesses of Greece and Denmark. In fact today many individuals from monarchies that no longer exist do you carry titles in pretense that are not recognized by current governments.

And that is the issue as we examine this topic from the perspective of the Greek monarchy. The Greek monarchy no longer exists and therefore has no jurisdiction on ruling whether or not Prince Philip and his descendants carry the title of prince and princess of Greece and Denmark.

With the monarchy in the United Kingdom the answer is more clear. Prince Philip and his descendants do not legally carry the titles prince or princess of Greece and Denmark. This is due to the fact that foreign titles are no longer recognized under British law.

The general principle is that the Sovereign is the Fount of Honor. For official purposes, only titles granted or recognized by the Sovereign exist.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland

The basic reason why the sovereign might not wish to authorize British subjects to bear foreign titles is the “divided loyalty” argument, expressed by Queen Elizabeth I in the famous Arundell of Wardour case in 1597. Thomas Arundell had distinguished himself in the service of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, at the capture of Esztergom (Hungary) in 1595, and was made count of the Holy Roman Empire. The Queen disapproved, and famously said:

as a woman should not follow any man but her husband, so a Subject should not receive any thing but from his owne Prince. I would not my sheepe should be branded with anothers marke: neither would I have them to be at anothers call or whistle

The Warrant of Apr 27, 1932

Curiously, the proximate cause of the Warrant of 1932, put an end to the acceptance of foreign titles once and for all in the UK. This was a repercussion of the Lateran Treaty of 1929. This treaty between Italy on one hand, the Holy See on the other, deprived the British government from the pretext that the Pope was not a sovereign power. No matter how small the Vatican City State, it was now necessary to accept that the Pope could confer titles. 

The Home Office suggested that this was an opportunity to settle the matter of foreign titles. Beside the “divided loyalty” argument, there were practical considerations: foreign titles might be confused with British titles (indeed, such confusion was part of their attraction), determining rules of descent was difficult, recording successions and deciding disputed claims was not practicable (the heralds being in charge of recording the licenses).

The suggestion was made to the King George V, and he agreed in May 1930 that no further Royal licenses would be granted, and asked for some way to deal with existing licences. In July 1930, the king made his decision: the use of foreign titles by British Subjects was abolished and that no further recommendations for Royal Licences were to be submitted to him. 

There it is in a nutshell. Ever since 1930 it has not been legal for a subject/citizen to carry a foreign title. As I stated yesterday, Prince Philip did not have to go through the naturalization process because he was a British subject/citizen from birth. As a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and the subsequent Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 which granted British nationality in perpetuity to Sophia’s descendants. However, it was necessary for him to renounce his Greek and Danish titles .

Are the descendants of the Duke of Edinburgh also Prince/Princess of Greece and Denmark? Part I.

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Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, House of Glucksburg, House of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, King George I of the Hellenes, king George II of the Hellenes, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George I, King of the Hellenes, (December 24, 1845 – March 18, 1913) was born as Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf George, the second son and third child of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Wilhelm. At age only 17, he was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 by the Greek National Assembly under the regnal name of George I.

King George I of the Hellenes

King George I of the Hellenes married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926), the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867 when she was barely 16 and he was he was 21. Over the next twenty years, they had eight children.

Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia

All male line descendants of King George are entitled to the be a Prince of Greece and Denmark. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark.

The Duke of Edinburgh is also member of the House of Glücksburg, itself a branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Glücksburg (also spelled Glücksborg), shortened from House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, is a Dano-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, members of which have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Greece and several northern German states.

The question I raise is, are the Duke of Edinburgh’s children and other descendants also princes/princesses of Greece and Denmark?

At birth the Duke of Edinburgh was in the line of succession to both thrones of Greece and Denmark; the 1953 Succession Act removed his family branch’s succession rights in Denmark.

In 1947 Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Princess Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July of that year, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname Mountbatten.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark

However, it wasn’t necessary for Philip to under go the naturalization process due to the fact that he was born a British national as a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and the subsequent Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 which granted British nationality in perpetuity to Sophia’s descendants. The act was superseded in 1949 by the passage of the British Nationality Act.

Although born a Prince of Greece and Denmark his upbringing was thoroughly British. On September 22, 1922, Philip’s uncle, King Constantine I of the Hellenes was forced to abdicate and the new military government arrested Prince Andrew, his father, along with others. In December, a revolutionary court banished Prince Andrew from Greece for life. The British naval vessel HMS Calypso evacuated Prince Andrew’s family, with Philip carried to safety in a cot made from a fruit box.

Because Philip left Greece as a baby, he does not speak Greek, and has stated that he thinks of himself as Danish. In 1928, he was sent to the United Kingdom to attend Cheam School, living with his maternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, at Kensington Palace and his uncle, George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, at Lynden Manor in Bray, Berkshire. Philip has always lived in the United Kingdom ever since.

Prince Philip initially started the process of renouncing his Greek and Danish titles in 1941, after he had joined the British Royal Navy. The renunciation of his Greek and Danish titles was done in a private via a letter to King George II, then in exile, in December of that year. The king accepted the renunciation with some reluctance, but only accepted his request due to Philip’s desire to serve in the British Royal Navy. After George II returned there was never any official action taken by the Greek government to remove Philip’s Greek and Danish, but the decision was accepted by the Greek king therefore that action in itself has been considered official by many historians and governmental figures.

However, there are some historians that believed since there isn’t any direct evidence that official documentation was submitted by King George II of the Hellenes to the government to remove Philip’s titles, therefore it is believed that Philip just simply stopped using his titles. Therefore theoretically, do Philip and his descendants still have their Dynastic titles such as Prince/Princesses of Greece and Denmark as well as other dynastic titles, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg, and Oldenburg? Are they still there, and just in a state of disuse?

Is that true? That is what we’ll examine in part II.