Roslyn
Heir Apparent
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2006
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- 4,140
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- Tintenbar
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- Australia
Thank you, Roslyn. I read this but it doesn't concern Royal titles or the titles of foreign Royals married to British citizens, just the titles of nobility which were acquired through foreign service (eg The duke of Wellington had been granted the title of a Spanish (or Portugese?) count and his heirs use it. Other British citizens worked for the emperor, so were granted titles of the Holy Roman empire).
I can't find anything specifically addressing the issue, but I think the answer lies in general principles.
A member of a foreign Royal family who is not the sovereign is really only a commoner unless he/she has a title, and would be caught by the provisions relating to nobility if he/she has a title. If they have a foreign title they will be be required to acknowledge at the time they apply for British citizenship that the title will not receive official recognition. That person might be known as "HRH" in their own country but the HRH is only a style, not a title, and any "Prince" or "Princess" attached to it is only a courtesy title. Once out of the home monarch's domain, the courtesy title means nothing unless HM recognises it, which she can do at her whim, and seems to have done in the 1981 case. And I am sure it all goes back to the "divided loyalty" argument relied on in Arundell of Wardour.