By Oyintari Ben
King Charles III has bestowed the title of Duke of Edinburgh on Prince Edward, the youngest of his siblings, for his 59th birthday today.
Yet unusually, the title, which his father, Prince Philip, had previously held, will only be his for his lifetime and pass to the Crown upon his passing.
The Countess of Wessex, his wife Sophie, will ascend to Duchess of Edinburgh.
Their 15-year-old son James, Viscount Severn, will now go by the last name of Earl of Wessex, which belonged to his father.
However, none of the modifications will affect the couple’s student daughter Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor due to the ancient principles of primogeniture.
When Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth married in 1947, Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon him the illustrious and historic title of Duke of Edinburgh.
Being relatively close to his father, Edward took on much of his work with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards programme in his later years.
It was stated that Edward would become the duke after Philip’s passing when he and Sophie got married in 1999.
Yet, since then, there has been a lot of back and forth on the matter in the shadows.
The concern for Buckingham Palace was that Edward was currently 13th in line for the throne and would only fall farther down the succession list over time as the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children get older and start their own families.
There was worry that the most senior titles connected to a nation of the United Kingdom would be transferred to an ever-younger branch of the family line.
As a result, after Philip passed away in April 2021, Buckingham Palace declared that the title had returned to the monarch. This pronouncement remained consistent even after Queen Elizabeth passed away in September last year.
