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{{see also|List of members of the House of Windsor}}
{{see also|List of members of the House of Windsor}}
{{further|Family tree of the British royal family}}
{{further|Family tree of the British royal family}}
The [[monarchical]] [[head of state]] of the United Kingdom and 15 other [[Commonwealth realms]] is Queen [[Elizabeth II]]. She is the head of the royal family.<ref name="Guy"/> She has four children, eight grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.<ref name="BBC1"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Her Majesty The Queen - Marriage and Family|url=https://www.royal.uk/her-majesty-the-queen|publisher=The Royal Family|access-date=3 August 2020}}</ref>
The [[monarchical]] [[head of state]] of the United Kingdom and 15 other [[Commonwealth realms]] is Queen [[Elizabeth II]]. She is the head of the royal family.<ref name="Guy"/> She has four children, eight grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.<ref name="BBC1"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Her Majesty The Queen - Marriage and Family|url=https://www.royal.uk/her-majesty-the-queen|publisher=The Royal Family|access-date=3 August 2020}}</ref>


*The core of the royal family is made up of [[Queen Elizabeth II]]; [[Charles, Prince of Wales]]; [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall]]; [[Prince William, Duke of Cambridge]]; [[Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge]]; [[Anne, Princess Royal]]; [[Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex]]; and [[Sophie, Countess of Wessex]]. They carry out royal duties full-time.<ref name="Davies1"/>
*The core of the royal family is made up of [[Queen Elizabeth II]]; [[Charles, Prince of Wales]]; [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall]]; [[Prince William, Duke of Cambridge]]; [[Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge]]; [[Anne, Princess Royal]]; [[Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex]]; and [[Sophie, Countess of Wessex]]. They carry out royal duties full-time.<ref name="Davies1"/>

Revision as of 14:50, 20 September 2021

This article is about the family of Elizabeth II. For the British monarchy itself, see Monarchy of the United Kingdom.

The royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the annual Trooping the Colour in 2013

The British royal family comprises Queen Elizabeth II and her close relations. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member. Many members represent the British monarchy and support the monarch in undertaking public engagements and often pursue charitable work and interests. The royal family are regarded as British cultural icons.

Members

See also: List of members of the House of Windsor
Further information: Family tree of the British royal family

The monarchical head of state of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms is Queen Elizabeth II. She is the head of the royal family.[1] She has four children, eight grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.[2][3]

Current British royal family tree
King George V
†		Queen Mary
†
King George VI
†		Queen Elizabeth
†		Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
†		Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
†		Prince George, Duke of Kent
†		Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
†
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
†		Queen Elizabeth II
†		Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
†		Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
†		The Duke of Gloucester
(31)		The Duchess of GloucesterThe Duke of Kent
(41)		The Duchess of KentSir Angus Ogilvy
†		Princess Alexandra
(57)		Prince Michael of Kent
(52)		Princess Michael of Kent
Diana, Princess of Wales
†		The KingThe QueenMark PhillipsThe Princess Royal
(17)		Sir Timothy LaurenceThe Duke of York
(8)		Sarah, Duchess of YorkThe Duke of Edinburgh
(14)		The Duchess of EdinburghThe Earl of Snowdon
(25)		The Countess of SnowdonDaniel ChattoLady Sarah Chatto
(28)
The Prince of Wales
(1)		The Princess of WalesThe Duke of Sussex
(5)		The Duchess of SussexPeter Phillips
(18)		Autumn PhillipsZara Tindall
(21)		Michael TindallEdoardo Mapelli MozziPrincess Beatrice
(9)		Jack BrooksbankPrincess Eugenie
(11)		Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor
(16)		Earl of Wessex
(15)		Viscount Linley
(26)		Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones
(27)		Samuel Chatto
(29)		Arthur Chatto
(30)
Prince George of Wales
(2)		Princess Charlotte of Wales
(3)		Prince Louis of Wales
(4)		Prince Archie of Sussex
(6)		Princess Lilibet of Sussex
(7)		Savannah Phillips
(19)		Isla Phillips
(20)		Mia Tindall
(22)		Lena Tindall
(23)		Lucas Tindall
(24)		Sienna Mapelli Mozzi
(10)		August Brooksbank
(12)		Ernest Brooksbank
(13)

Notes

  • Numbers in brackets indicate places in the line of succession.[5][6][7]
  • Boxes indicate living individuals with royal titles and styles.
  • Purple indicates living individuals listed or described as members of the royal family on the official website.[8]
  • Boldface indicates living individuals listed as members of the royal family in Lord Chamberlain's list of the royal family as of May 2024.[9]
  • Dashed lines indicate married couples, dotted lines divorced couples.[6]
  • Dagger (†) indicates deceased individuals.

Titles and surnames

Marriage certificate of Elizabeth Windsor and Philip Mountbatten, signed by members of the royal family

Children of a monarch, children of the sons of a monarch, and children of a monarch's eldest son's eldest son are automatically entitled to be known as prince or princess with the style His or Her Royal Highness (HRH). Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, children of the Queen's daughter, Princess Anne, are therefore not prince and princess. Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, though entitled to the dignity, are not called prince and princess because their parents, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, wanted them to have more modest titles.[10] Prince Charles reportedly wishes to reduce the number of titled members of the royal family when he becomes king.[11]

Per tradition, wives of male members of the royal family share their husbands' title and style.[12] Princesses by marriage do not have the title prefixed to their own name[10] but to their husband's; for example, the wife of Prince Michael of Kent is Princess Michael of Kent.[12] Sons of monarchs are customarily given dukedoms upon marriage, and these peerage titles pass to their eldest sons.[12]

Male-line descendants of King George V, including women until they marry, bear the surname Windsor. The surname of the male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II, except for women who marry, is Mountbatten-Windsor, reflecting the name taken by her Greek-born husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, upon his naturalisation. A surname is generally not needed by members of the royal family who are entitled to the titles of prince or princess and the style His or Her Royal Highness. Such individuals use surnames on official documents such as marriage registers.[13]

Public role

The Earl of Wessex on a visit to the British Army's 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron in Afghanistan

Official duties are undertaken on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II by her children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, and cousins and their spouses. Among her cousins, only the children of King George V's sons carry out royal engagements. The family support the Queen in her state and national duties. Each year the family "carries out over 2,000 official engagements throughout the UK and worldwide".[14] Engagements include state funerals, national festivities, garden parties, receptions, and visits to the Armed Forces.[14] According to historian Robert Lacey, the Queen has said that investitures of the honours recipients are the most important thing she does.[15] Other members of the royal family also perform investitures.[16]

Given the royal family's public role and activities, it is sometimes referred to by courtiers as "The Firm".[17][18] The royal family are considered British cultural icons, with young adults from abroad naming the family among a group of people who they most associated with British culture.[19]

Members of the royal family have started their own individual charities. Prince Charles started The Prince's Trust, which helps young people in the UK that are disadvantaged.[20] Princess Anne started The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, which helps unpaid carers, giving them emotional support and information about benefit claims and disability aids.[21] The Earl and Countess of Wessex founded the Wessex Youth Trust, since renamed The Earl and Countess of Wessex Charitable Trust, in 1999.[22] The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are founding patrons of The Royal Foundation, whose projects revolve around mental health, conservation, the early years, and emergency responders.[23]

Following the negative reactions to the "Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal" interview, the Duke of York was forced to resign from public roles in 2019; the retirement became permanent in 2020.[24] The Duke and Duchess of Sussex permanently withdrew from royal duties in 2020.[25] Following these departures, there is a shortage of royal family members to cover the increasing number of patronages and engagements.[4]

Media and criticism

Royal biographer Penny Junor says that the royal family has presented itself "as the model family" since the 1930s.[4] In 1992, the Princess Royal and her husband Mark Phillips divorced; the Prince and Princess of Wales separated; a biography detailing the Princess's bulimia and self-harming was published; her private telephone conversations surfaced, as did the Prince's intimate telephone conversations with his lover, Camilla Parker Bowles; the Duke and Duchess of York separated; and photographs of the topless Duchess having her toes sucked by another man appeared in tabloids. Historian Robert Lacey said that this "put paid to any claim to being a model of family life". The scandals contributed to the public's unwillingness to pay for the repairs of the Windsor Castle after the 1992 fire. A further "PR disaster" was the royal family's initial response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.[15]

In the 1990s, the royal family formed the Way Ahead Group, made up of senior family members and advisers and headed by the Queen, in a quest to change in accordance with public opinion.[15][26] The 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton led to a "tide of goodwill", and by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 the royal family's image had recovered.[15] A 2019 YouGov poll showed that two-thirds of British people were in favour of maintaining the royal family.[27] The role and public relations of the extended royal family again came under increased scrutiny after the Duke of York's unapologetic conduct in the 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and subsequent 2021 lawsuit.[28][29][30]

In a 2021 interview, the Duchess of Sussex, who is of biracial heritage, alleged with her husband that a member of the royal family had expressed concern about the skin colour of their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.[31] The interview received a mixed reaction from the British public and media, and several of their claims were called into question.[32][33] The Duke of Cambridge said the royal family were "very much not a racist family". In June 2021, documents revealed that "coloured immigrants or foreigners" were banned by the Queen's chief financial manager at the time from working for the family as clerks in the 1960s, prompting black studies professor Kehinde Andrews to state that "the royal family has a terrible record on race".[31] In response, the palace stated that it complied "in principle and in practice" with anti-discrimination legislation, and that second-hand claims of "conversations from over 50 years ago should not be used to draw or infer conclusions about modern-day events or operations."[34]

Historically, the royal family and the media have benefited from each other; the family used the press to communicate with the public, while the media used the family to attract readers and viewers.[35] With the advent of television, however, the media started paying less respect to the royal family's privacy.[15] Princes William and Harry have had informal arrangements with the press whereby they would be left alone by the paparazzi during their education in return for invitations to staged photograph opportunities. William has continued the practice with his family posts on Instagram. Relations between the media and British royals have been destabilized by the rise of the digital media, with the quantity of articles becoming paramount toward gaining advertising revenue, with neither side able to exercise control.[35]

Funding

Main article: Finances of the British royal family
The Duchess of Cambridge, escorted by security officers, meets with Sir Michael Dixon

Senior members of the royal family, who represent the monarch, draw their income from public funds known as the sovereign grant.[1] The sovereign grant is an annual payment of the British government to the monarch. It comes from the revenues of the Crown Estate, which are commercial properties owned by the Crown.[2] Members of the royal family who receive money from the sovereign grant must be accountable to the public for it and are not allowed to make money from their name.[1]

The security of the royal family is not paid from the sovereign grant but is usually met instead by the Metropolitan Police.[36] The royal family, the Home Office, and the Metropolitan Police decide which members have a right to taxpayer-funded police security. Extended members do not retain automatic right to protection; in 2011, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie ceased receiving police security.[11][37]

Residences

Main article: List of British royal residences
William, Catherine, and Harry hosting Barack and Michelle Obama at Kensington Palace, 2016

The monarch's official residence in London is Buckingham Palace.[2] Announcements of the births and deaths of members of the royal family are traditionally attached to its front railings.[38] The Queen tends to spend weekends at Windsor Castle. When in London, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall reside in Clarence House.[2] Another London residence of the Prince of Wales is St James's Palace, which he shares with the Princess Royal and Princess Alexandra.[39] The dukes and duchesses of Cambridge, Gloucester, and Kent and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have their offices in Kensington Palace, which is their London residence.[40]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Guy, Jack; Foster, Max; Said-Moorhouse, Lauren (4 June 2021). "The Firm: Britain's royal 'institution' explained". CNN. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "UK Royal Family: Who is in it and how does it work?". BBC. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Her Majesty The Queen - Marriage and Family". The Royal Family. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Davies, Caroline (21 April 2021). "Sophie and Edward: what key role after death of Prince Philip could mean". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Succession". royal.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Who's who in the House of Windsor: Queen Elizabeth II's line of succession". CNN. 7 June 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  7. ^ "The Line Of Succession". www.debretts.com. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  8. ^ "The Royal Family". royal.uk. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  9. ^ "The Royal Family" (PDF). May 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ a b Boyle, Christina (10 May 2019). "Archie, the newest British royal family member, has no title. Here's why (we think)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  11. ^ a b Davies, Caroline (8 March 2021). "Was Meghan's son Archie denied the title 'prince' because he's mixed race?". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  12. ^ a b c "FAQs - Prince Michael of Kent". www.princemichael.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  13. ^ "The Royal Family name". The Royal Family. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  14. ^ a b "The role of the Royal Family". The Royal Family. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  15. ^ a b c d e Davies, Caroline (24 May 2012). "How the royal family bounced back from its 'annus horribilis'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Investitures". The Royal Family. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  17. ^ "Harry and Meghan crisis: Royal showdown looms". MSN. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  18. ^ O'Gara, Eilish (12 June 2015). "Financing the firm: how the royal family make their money". Newsweek. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  19. ^ "Culture, attraction and soft power" (PDF). British Council. 12 December 2016.
  20. ^ "Our history | The Prince's Trust". www.princes-trust.org.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  21. ^ A"Background – The Princess Royal Trust For Carers – Hampshire Carer Centre". carercentre.com. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  22. ^ "The Earl and Countess of Wessex Charitable Trust". Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  23. ^ "Our Work". The Royal Foundation. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  24. ^ Nikkhah, Roya (21 May 2020). "Prince Andrew didn't think it was all over, but it is now". The Times. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  25. ^ "Harry and Meghan not returning as working members of Royal Family". BBC. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  26. ^ Reynolds, Paul. "Royal Family's changing guard". BBC. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  27. ^ Anthony, Andrew (14 March 2021). "The monarchy: so what are they for?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  28. ^ Williamson, Harriet (4 September 2020). "Why Do Royals Get Away With So Much?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  29. ^ Haynes, Suyin (21 November 2019). "Prince Andrew Faced Questions About Jeffrey Epstein for Years. Here's Why the Royal Family Finally Reacted". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  30. ^ Max Foster, Lauren Said-Moorehouse. "The civil suit against Prince Andrew has wider implications for the British royal family". CNN. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  31. ^ a b McGee, Luke (3 June 2021). "Britain's royals have denied being a racist family. Archived papers reveal recent racist past". CNN. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  32. ^ "Meghan and Harry's Oprah interview revealed cultural divide between U.K. and America". NBC News.
  33. ^ "Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah draws mixed reaction in Britain". CBS News. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  34. ^ Kirka, Danica (3 June 2021). "Buckingham Palace barred nonwhites from office jobs in the 1960s, report says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  35. ^ a b Taylor, Alex (11 March 2021). "Harry and Meghan: What's the media's 'invisible contract' with British royalty?". CNN. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  36. ^ Edgington, Tom (24 June 2021). "Royal finances: Where does the Queen get her money?". BBC. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  37. ^ Pavia, Lucy. "Why did Harry and Meghan appear to reference Beatrice and Eugenie in Sussex Royal website statement?". Standard. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  38. ^ "Royal Residences: Buckingham Palace". The Royal Family. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  39. ^ "Royal Residences: St James's Palace". The Royal Family. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  40. ^ "Royal Residences: Kensington Palace". The Royal Family. Retrieved 3 August 2020.

Further reading

  • Burke's Guide to the Royal Family. Burke's Peerage, 1973.
  • Cannon, John Ashton. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford University Press, 1988.
  • Churchill, Randolph S. They Serve the Queen: A New and Authoritative Account of the Royal Household. ("Prepared for Coronation Year") Hutchinson, 1953.
  • Fraser, Antonia (ed). The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. Revised & updated edition. University of California Press, 1998.
  • Hayden, Ilse. Symbol and Privilege: The Ritual Context of British Royalty. University of Arizona Press, 1987.
  • Longford, Elizabeth Harman (Countess of Longford). The Royal House of Windsor. Revised edition. Crown, 1984.
  • Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. Pimlico/Random House, 2002.
  • Royal Family (1969) is a celebrated and reverential BBC documentary made by Richard Cawston to accompany the investiture of the current Prince of Wales. The documentary is frequently held responsible for the greater press intrusion into the royal family's private life since its first broadcast.
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