Queen Elizabeth Refused to Give Kate Middleton the Title Prince William Really Wanted Her to Have When They Got Married
Today, Prince William‘s wife (formerly known as Kate Middleton) holds the title Princess of Wales. She also has the secondary title Countess of Chester and is referred to as the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland. But there is one title Prince William really wanted Kate to receive on their wedding day that Queen Elizabeth II was not willing to give her new granddaughter-in-law.
Read on to find out what that was and who else the queen denied to give that very same title to.
The title Prince William wanted Queen Elizabeth to give Kate
A Palace courtier has revealed that when William wed Kate, he wanted to just have his prince title and forgo a dukedom. He also had a specific title in mind for the woman he was marrying.
“He said he was born Prince William and want[ed] to continue to be known as that,” the courtier told The Telegraph. “William also had views on the name Kate should have taken on. He want[ed] Kate to become ‘Princess’ Catherine.”
However, his grandmother was set on giving the future king a dukedom and making Kate a duchess, not a princess.
Royal historian Kenneth Rose previously explained: “Kate is a commoner and could not be known as Princess Catherine.”
Rose opined that if Kate had become “Princess Catherine” immediately after her wedding, other extended royal family members might have made their own requests for title changes.
The queen denied one of her favorite family members that same title
But Kate isn’t the only family member the queen opted not to give a princess title to. In fact, she wouldn’t even give it to her favorite in-law.
Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, was hopeful Queen Elizabeth would give her that title when she married her youngest son. But the late monarch refused to give it to Sophie as well.
When she and Edward tied the knot in 1999, Sophie knew she wasn’t going to have a duchess title added to her name. That’s because Edward was supposed to become the next Duke of Cambridge, but he requested not to have a dukedom and have an earldom instead, becoming the Earl of Wessex.
Royal author Katie Nicholl claimed that Sophie then wanted the title of “princess.” However, Queen Elizabeth said no to the higher-brow title for her daughter-in-law and gave Sophie the title of “countess” instead, making her the Countess of Wessex.
“[She] had wanted to be known as Princess Sophie, but the queen would not allow it,” Nicholl wrote in Vanity Fair.
Things later worked out for Kate and Sophie. William’s wife now has a princess title, and Sophie was promoted to a duchess title she coveted. Today, Edward’s bride is known as the Duchess of Edinburgh, a title that once belonged to her mother-in-law.
