Meet the Newest Royal



It finally happened. After waiting just over nine long months, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle has given birth to the next royal. There were a lot of bets about whether it would be a boy or a girl and what the name would be. Well, this baby boy has finally arrived and his name may come as a bit of a shock.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have walked to the beat of their own drum for almost their entire relationship. From how they met, a blind date and now to where she decided to give birth, not at the famed Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

Meet Baby Archie
With an ode to times past, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to name their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. This is a big name for such a little guy. What is interesting about it is the history behind the last name, not the first name. Mountbatten-Windsor had not been used as a surname that often before Archie’s birth and it was actually created in 1960 to address a very real foreseen issue by Queen Elizabeth II. It was to be used as a surname for those not set to inherit the throne, but still her direct male descendants.

You may have noticed by now that Archie does not bear the title of Prince and it is unlikely he ever will. This is due to the fact that he is a direct descendant of the male line, but not of the line to directly inherit the throne upon the Queen’s demise. This is because the line of succession follows that of the eldest child of the one who is directly in-line to the throne. In this instance, Prince Charles is next in line, followed by Prince William who is his eldest, and then followed by Prince George who is William’s eldest. The pattern becomes pretty apparent.
Because of this historical pattern of title inheritance, Archie is not actually a prince and it is also well-known that the royal Princes had not used last names. It was always simply Prince Harry and Prince William. Baby Archie is paving the way for a new line of descendants who may or may not be titled. The Queen could decide to bestow a title on little Archie although his parents could also refuse it.
Meet the Newest Royal

A New Era
Archie was also born at a hospital around the Windsor area where his parents reside, and not at the Lindo Wing where all of William’s children were born, along with the Princes themselves. It seems like Harry and Meghan want to raise Archie away from the overseeing eyes of Buckingham Palace. It will be interesting to see how he is brought up in comparison to his cousins.