Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were nearly stripped of their royal titles during childhood, a historian has now claimed.
Although Princess Beatrice, 33, and her sister Princess Eugenie, 31, are not full-time royals, they are an integral part of the British royal family. Even if they don’t have to adhere to the same standards as Prince William, 39, or Duchess Catherine, 40, they often take part in public appointments.
The daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, both 62, also both have the predicate title HRH (His/Her Royal Highness). As it now turns out, the sisters are said to have been almost stripped of this title when they were children. At least that’s what Royal historian Marlene Koenig claims.
Princess Beatrice + Princess Eugenie: Victims of a “cruel plan”?
As daughters of Prince Andrew, son of Queen Elizabeth, 95, Beatrice and Eugenie automatically received the Princess and HRH titles upon birth. This right is protected by the patent granted by King George V in 1917, which stipulated that the ruler’s children and grandchildren could use the titles Prince and Princess and HRH.
Nevertheless, the idea arose of withdrawing the titles from the sisters – at that time they were still children. Royal historian Marlene Koenig, who has been researching the British royal family for 40 years, told Express: “There was some discussion about the York princesses losing their royal titles and what a duke’s children should be named, but it was declined”. However, it does not reveal between whom the said “discussion” arose and who ultimately vetoed it.
However, she suspects that the title was not withdrawn because it “would have been considered cruel” after the birth of Beatrice and Eugenie.
Source used: express.co.uk