Quote:
Originally Posted by PacoMartin
The wife of HRH Prince Michael of Kent uses the style HRH Princess Michael of Kent. She is not allowed to use her first name, Marie Christine.
If she outlives her husband, what will her title be as a widow? Will it contain the word “dowager”? As a last resort, she could resort to her birth title, Baroness Marie Christine, but I think this would upset her very much.
While Queen Elizabeth's aunt requested that she not be required to use the word "dowager" for her title (she was a widow for 40 years), it is unlikely that Queen Elizabeth will make exceptions for Marie Christine.
REFERENCE
The word "dowager" has been in use for 500 years. For example, if you are a woman who is married to the Duke of Gloucester and he dies, the title passes to his oldest living son, and the son' s wife becomes the new Duchess of Gloucester. The widow becomes the Dowager Duchess of Gloucester.
In 1974 when Queen Elizabeth's aunt became the Dowager Duchess of Gloucester she disliked the name very much. She requested that she be allowed to call herself Princess Alice as if she was a princess of the royal blood. Queen Elizabeth made an exception for her aunt. In 1981, she first published her memoirs under the title The Memoirs of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester.
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Who told you Princess Michael of Kent is not permitted to use any other name? It just isn't true.
*All* women married to royalty are known by their husband's names unless they themselves have an equal or superior title, rank or style.
Lady Diana Spencer - HRH The Princess of Wales
Kate Middleton - HRH The Princess William, Duchess of Cambridge
Meghan Markle - HRH The Princess Harry, Duchess of Sussex
There is a several generation difference between Princess Michael and Kate Middleton or Megan Markle.
Women of Marie-Christine's generation took their husband's name as married women and usually ceased using their maiden names all together. Girls or women of modern times usually have had lives of their own prior to marriage (professional and of private) and for various reasons wish to keep use of their maiden names alive. That and or the media or whoever else continues to do so. In any event it is streets better than "Princess Diana", which is not only incorrect but silly to anyone that knows anything about royalty.
None of this changes the fact KM *is* The Princess William and so forth legally, and became so upon her marriage to Prince William.
When commoners marry into royal families it causes problems because they lack titles, styles, and rank of their own. Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Princess Mary of Teck, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, etc.. were all just that; daughters of kings and thus princesses in their own right. Princess Alexandra wasn't just called a princess because she married one, but because she also legally was one herself.
Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz (Princess Michael of Kent) was a commoner with a title inferior to a royal, hence it has been dropped and she has taken up those acquired via marriage.
HRH Prince Michael of Kent is the grandson of George V and thus was a royal prince from birth. His territorial designation (Kent) comes via the dukedom of his father HRH Prince George, Duke of Kent. Younger sons of dukes have the courtesy title of "Lord". But since Prince M. is the son of a royal duke he is a "prince", which is far better. However Prince M. does not have any subsidiary titles. So unlike Kate Middleton (HRH Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge), Princess Michael of Kent is either that or nothing else besides her maiden name and title.
Prince Michael of Kent is a second son; his elder brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent out ranks him; and is wife HRH The Duchess of Kent out ranks Princess Michael of Kent.
Dowager peeress is the mother, stepmother, or grandmother of the reigning peer, and the widow of a preceding one. This applies to royal consorts (female obviously).
Princess Michael cannot become "dowager" because (again) her husband is a second son. Should Duke of Kent predecease his wife, technically Katherine, Duchess of Kent would be the "dowager" of that family as her son George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews would immediately rise up to the dukedom of Kent. Sylvana Palma Windsor, Countess of St Andrews (wife) would also at once become duchess of Kent.
Use of dowager began fading out use by widows of peers by early 20th century. It conjured up images of some old (and formidable) Victorian widows in fiction and fact who went around draped in heavy weeds.
Senior widows of peers have the option of using their Christian names before their titles instead of dowager. This is the same form used by widows of peers who do not qualify for to use "dowager", and divorcees of peers; " X, duchess of whatever" as in Diana, Princess of Wales
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