Queen and Duke of Edinburgh meet the new son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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1917 Letter's Patent, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, Duchess of Sussex, Duke of Sussex, Elizabeth II, House of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, House of Windsor, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Queens

Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor

TRH the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were today introduced to the newborn son of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle. The Duchess’ mother, Ms Doria Ragland was also present.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to announce that they have named their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Ms Doria Ragland and TRH the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were photographed with their newborn son earlier at Windsor Castle today.

The baby was born on Monday, 6th May, at 05:26 in the morning, weighing 7lbs 3oz at birth and The Duke of Sussex was present.

The name Archie was brought into England by the Normans when William I “The Conqueror” invaded England and became king in 1066. Eventually, in the Middle Ages, the name became common in Scotland and means ‘True and Bold.” The longer version is Archibald. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have simply used the shortened version of “Archie” as the official name.

Harrison simply means “Harry’s son” which I think is pretty clever.

Here is a link to my earlier blog post why Archie Mountbatten-Windsor will not have a tittle. https://europeanroyalhistory.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/will-the-children-of-the-duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-have-titles/

However, as a non-royal son of a Duke, Archie is entitled to be styled by his fathers secondary title “Earl of Dumbarton” but it has been confirmed that he will not use that title and will be simply known as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Royal Numbering. Part I

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Edward I of England, Edward VIII, Emperor's Desk, England, Kings, Kings and Queens of England, Numbering Monarchs, Queens, Roman Numerals., Scotland, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Another aspect of the evolution of monarchy is the development of Ordinal numbers or regnal numbers used to differentiate between monarchs of the same name within the same territory. This practice was also a latter development. Originally monarchs were know by their sobriquet, or nickname, that developed over time. Generally a sobriquet is given to you by others. For instance William I of England is more well known as William the Conqueror but prior to having that sobriquet he was known as William the Bastard due to his illegitimacy. Monarchs were also known by their territorial designations. For example, Henry III of England was also known as Henry of Winchester.

The Papacy was one of the first places where the practice of subscribing a Roman numeral to popes of the same name developed. As this practice spread to ruling monarchs it was used sporadically and did not become the standard practice until the mid twelfth century but in some cases it did not become tradition until as late as the 18^th century. When one looks at the lists of monarchs from each particular country the usage of ordinal numbers is pretty consistent over-all but mistakes were made. For the next few days I will concentrate on different countries and their traditions on how the name their monarchs…and each country does not follow a specific standard. Today I will concentrate on England/Great Britain.

Whoever began numbering the kings and queen of England ignored centuries of royal tradition and began numbering the monarchs from the time of the Norman Conquest. There were kings of England for a few centuries prior to the year 1066. This either displays shortsightedness or it stresses the cultural and political significance that the Norman invasion had on England. But either way there is an inconsistency and they messed up one name. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Since the Norman conquest all of the old Anglo-Saxon names fell into diss-use except for one: Edward. Edward Longshanks, who ruled from 1272 until 1307 was named by his father, Henry III, after the last Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor.

Since the use of ordinal numbers had not come into common usage during the reign of Edward Longshanks, he was simply known as King Edward or King Edward Longshanks. It wasn’t until the successive reigns of his son and grandson, also named Edward, that Edward Longshanks became known as Edward I. But this was not accurate for there were three Anglo-Saxon kings named Edward prior to the Norman conquest. Therefore, Edward I was in reality the fourth King of England by that name and should have been called King Edward IV. This means that the most recent King Edward, Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, was in reality King Edward XI. Other examples of the inconsistency in all of this is the fact that there are some Anglo-Saxon kings that have been given ordinal numbers and some have not. Æthelred I (865-871) and Æthelred II (978-1016) are an example. In some lists Æthelred II is known by his sobriquet “the Unready.”

Since this is a rather large topic and I have written more, Part II on the history of ordinal numbers in Great Britain will be posted tomorrow. I don’t want to have these blog posts be too long. 🙂