Prince Andrew: Which British royals have lost their titles?
Prince Andrew has been stripped of his honorary military roles by the Queen and will no longer use his HRH title in an official capacity in the wake of his civil sexual assault case.
The move marks an abrupt removal from official royal life, and an attempt to distance the royal family from Andrew.
But the Duke of York is not the first royal to lose his official role and titles.
Prince Harry, the queen's grandson, and his American wife, Meghan, quit royal duties to forge new careers in Los Angeles in January 2020.
In the process, they too were stripped of all their patronages, the 'His and Her Royal Highness' titles, and Harry also lost his military roles.
Buckingham Palace said at the time that the new arrangement would mean the couple were “required to step back from royal duties, including official military appointments” and would no longer receive public funds for royal duties.
The couple became known as Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
They no longer use their HRH titles, but they have retained them and Harry, who was born a prince of Wales, remains a prince.
In addition, Harry lost his position as Captain General of the Royal Marines – a title he inherited from his grandfather Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh – and gave up all his honorary military titles.
Princess Diana, Harry’s late mother, also lost the title Her Royal Highness, when her divorce from Prince Charles was finalised in 1996 – a year before she died.
Further back in royal history, when King Edward VIII relinquished the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, he reverted to the style of Prince Edward, and was given the title, Duke of Windsor.
Wallis and Edward became lovers in 1934, and Edward succeeded George V on January 1936. The government and crown rejected his proposal to Wallis as the Church of England - of which the monarch was head - at the time did not allow divorced people to remarry in church.
King Edward ruled the British Empire for 324 days, and gave up the throne in December 1936, to be with Wallis.
