Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry didn’t want Archie to have ‘Earl of Dumbarton’ title

After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first child was born on May 6 2019, many were wondering if he would receive a Royal title.

As Archie is the first-born son of a duke, he could have assumed the courtesy title of Earl of Dumbarton, as heir to his dad’s Scottish earldom.

But the couple announced he would be known simply as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor.

It’s believed that Harry and Meghan deliberately turned down the moniker Earl of Dumbarton because they wanted Archie to have as normal a life as possible.

Sunday Times Royal correspondent Roya Nikkah said on ITV documentary Harry and Meghan: The Week that Shook the Royals: “I was told when Harry and Meghan announced their pregnancy in Australia in 2018 that they did not want the Queen to vary the rules to make Archie a prince.”

She continued: “They were very happy for him not to have a title. They wanted him to be unencumbered by the restrictions that come with titles.”

Meanwhile, according to Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, it could have been part of his parents’ “wider masterplan” to step back as Royals.

Mr Little told Daily Express: “The fact Archie isn’t Earl of Dumbarton or styled HRH makes me wonder whether this wasn’t already part of a wider masterplan.”

Meghan and Harry announced they would be stepping back as senior members of the Royal Family early last year.

However, according to Meghan Markle’s latest interview with Oprah Winfrey, it wasn’t the couple’s choice to not give Archie a Royal title.

She claimed it was because the Royal Family didn’t want Archie to have a Royal title.

Meghan told Oprah: “They were saying they didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security.

“This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I was going, hold on for a second.”

She continued: “They said [he’s not going to get security], because he’s not going to be a prince. Okay, well, he needs to be safe – so we’re not saying don’t make him a prince or princess, but if you’re saying the title is what’s going to affect that protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder, you’ve allowed that to happen, which means our son needs to be safe.”

Archie’s cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have Royal titles.

But the Prince/Princess titles and HRH styling are actually only given to grandchildren of the monarch, as well as the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales – meaning Archie isn’t eligible.

Royal expert Robert Jobson explained: “According to a 1917 letters of patent issued by King George V, the title of HRH Prince or Princess passed to ‘the children of any Sovereign of the United Kingdom and the children of the sons of any such Sovereign’. Both Harry and Meghan know this.”

The Queen did however change the rules for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge so that all their children could have Royal titles.