The Royal Family are bestowed with several impressive titles courtesy of the Queen. Each of the Queen and Prince Philip’s children and most of their grandchildren holds their own titles. Britain has a system of peerage which ranks members of the nobility and aristocracy and many of these titles are inherited peerages. But could the children of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie inherit Prince Andrew’s titles?
Prince Andrew is the Queen’s second son and is also known as the Duke of York a title given to him at the time of his marriage.
He also became the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh when he married Sarah Ferguson in 1986.
Typically titles are passed down to a male heir meaning Prince Charles’ title of Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales would typically be given to his son Prince William.
However, Prince Andrew has no sons so therefore his title will not pass on to his immediate heir.
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Despite their positions as the only children of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, neither Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie will never become Duchess of York.
Traditionally, the eldest child of a titled person would inherit their titles upon their death, but because of these ancient rules, it is not possible for Princess Beatrice or Princess Eugenie to inherit Andrew’s title.
Male primogeniture means that hereditary peerages, such as dukedoms, can only be passed onto sons and not daughters.
The rules of succession changed in 2011 meaning Princess Charlotte was no longer dropped to secondary position in the line of succession behind her younger sibling.
However, despite this rule change, she is technically still unable to inherit the dukedom of Cambridge.
Unless this law is scrapped, Prince Andrew’s dukedom will pass onto the next eligible male royal.
This could potentially be the male children of Princess Beatrice or Princess Eugenie.
The Letters Patent for the 1986 creation of the Dukedom of York says the title will be inherited by “heirs male of the body.”
As Prince Andrew has no sons, none of his children can inherit the royal title, but his male grandsons may inherit these titles.
On Quora one user wrote: “The Dukedom of York will be inherited by the oldest legitimate son of the current duke.
“Of course, the current duke has no sons, so unless that situation changes, the title will go extinct and will be available for the monarch at the time to recreate and confer on whoever they want.
“Of course, the title is usually given to the second son of the monarch, so we would need to know who the monarch will be at the time.
“Given that Prince Andrew is twelve years younger than Prince Charles, it seems likely that when Prince Andrew dies and the dukedom becomes available, Prince Charles will have already died and Prince William will be the king.
“Prince William’s second son is Prince Louis, so he will be a prime candidate to get the dukedom.
“But isn’t it be nice to consider the possibility that, in the thirty or so years before then, the amount of sexism in the British Peerage will have fallen to the extent that Princess Charlotte, as the second child of the monarch, could be the first woman to be created Duchess of York in her own right?”
