Is it true the Queen of England has a mentally retard sister locked up in an asylum?
What you may have heard was that the Queen Mother had a retarded sibling who was kept secret for many years - she/he was left out of all the genealogy sources like Burke's and Debrett's. The Queen's father also had a brother with epilepsy who was kept apart from the rest of the family and died young.
Why weren't Princess Margaret's children labelled prince and princess but her sister's (queen) children were given the title?
Simple.Because the Queen is sovereign. The fact she is a woman then becomes irrelevant in how her children receive titles. Even some of the Queen’s own grandchildren (Peter Phillips & Zara Tindall) do not have royal titles simply because their mother (The Princess Royal) is a woman.Princess Margaret’s children took the style of the children of an Earl, their father’s title being Earl Snowdon. Hence her son was known as Viscount Linley (Earl Snowdon’s subsidiary title) until his death when Lord Linley became the 2nd Earl. The Princess Royal’s first husband, Captain Mark Phillips declined an Earldom on his marriage to her and thus their children have no aristocratic titles or styles because he has none.Princess Margaret’s daughter is styled Lady Sarah as the daughter of an Earl. Only the grandchildren of the sovereign through the male line are entitled to the style His/Her Royal Highness and Prince/Princess and the great grandchildren through the male line entitled to the style of Lord and Lady respectively (e.g. Lord Nicolas Windsor, son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent - note: he was Lord Nicolas Windsor at his birth not when his father succeeded to the Dukedom).This dates back to letters patent signed by HM King George V in 1917 when the rules for royal styles and titles was changed to what we have now.Incidentally, Viscount Severn, son of the HRH The Earl of Wessex is entitled to the style HRH Prince James of Wessex as is his older sister Lady Louise entitled to the style HRH Princess Louise of Wessex but their parents want to protect them from the full burden of royal life I suppose until they can choose for themselves on their majority.
How come Princess Anne's children aren't called Prince and Princess?
Royal titles in Europe descend through the male line, not the female, unless the mother is the monarch or first heir to the throne. Anne is neither. Therefore, her children could have royal titles only if their father were royal, and he isn't. They don't have aristocratic titles either, because again, these titles descend from the father, not the mother, except in very rare cases. Mark Phillips refused a peerage when he married Anne, so his children do not carry even the titles that the offspring of an earl would have. When the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, married, her husband did accept an earl's title, so Margaret's children are Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah, but only because of their father's title, not their mother's.
Why aren't Prince Edward’s children prince and princess?
They are. They’re just not called so.Because they are the children of one of the sovereign’s sons, they are entitled to be known as Princess Louise and Prince James of Wessex (their father’s territorial designation.) However, given their placement int he line of succession and their desire to give them a less restricted uprbringing, their parents have chosen to have them “styled” (using the title of) the children of an earl (Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex.) So Louise is known as Lady Louise Windsor (An earl’s daughter is called “Lady FirstName” and “Windsor” is the Royal family surname.) Her younger brother James is known as Viscount Severn, a lesser title of his father’s (standard for the oldest son of an earl or any other peer.)Theoretically, when they are grown up, if they prefer to be known as Princess Louise and/or Prince James, they have the legal right to do so.
On Downton Abbey (2nd series, 3rd show): Why is Lady Grantham referred to as a Countess?
Cora is the Countess of Grantham, Viscountess Downton, as she is married to the Earl of Grantham, the Viscount Downton. Lady Grantham is the short form of this title.Her character's background is that she arrived in England as a wealthy American heiress set to marry into English nobility. She married Robert Crawley, Viscount Downton, the future Earl of Grantham. With a large dowry, the marriage ensured the survival of the estate and as part of their marriage contract, Cora's fortune was tied to the estate (as discussed heavily in Series 1).Once Robert's father passed away, he gained the title of Earl, and became the 5th Earl of Grantham, at this point, Cora became a Countess (the wife of an Earl).They can however, both be addressed as Lord Grantham and Lady Grantham. In Britain, Barons, Viscounts, Earls and Marquesses can be referred to as Lord X instead of their full title. This is why you will have heard Robert being addressed as both Lord Grantham and the Earl of Grantham, and why Cora is addressed as both Lady Grantham and the Countess of Grantham.Further notes: He is addressed as Lord Grantham by fellow nobility, and Your Lordship or Mi’Lord by the servants. When servants are talking amongst themselves, he is referred to as His Lordship. It would be incorrect however to refer to him as Lord Robert. Cora can be addressed as Lady Grantham by fellow nobility, and as Your Ladyship or Mi’Lady by the servants. When servants are talking amongst themselves, she is referred to as Her Ladyship. It would be incorrect however to refer to her as Lady Cora.Courtesy titles are given to the Daughters of Earls, hence we have Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybil.Violet is known as the Dowager Countess as she was married to the late Earl of Grantham, as his widow, she is now the Dowager Countess. In real life, Highclere Castle (where Downton Abbey is filmed) is owned by the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.During the party in Series 4, the Dowager Countess assists Branson in the art of high society when he mistakenly calls the Duchess of Yeovil “Your Grace.” She informs him that the term is only appropriate for a servant or an official at a ceremony. In a social situation, he is to call her “Duchess.” When Branson replies that there’s no logic in these titles, she delivers another one of her classic lines: “If I were to search for logic, I should not look for it in the English upper class.”
Prince Charles' first wife Diana was sometimes called "Lady Diana" and sometimes "Princess Diana". Are both correct?
As others have pointed out, it's difficult, and it is made even more difficult due to the divorce.The simple answer is that it was never technically correct for her to be called Princess Diana, although that was common usage.Diana's father was John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer. He came to the title with the death of his father in 1975. Before that he held the courtesy title Viscount Althorp, which is the second title in terms of rank of Earl Spencer. Diana was born in 1961 while her father was Viscount Althorp. At that time she would have been known as The Honourable Diana Spencer. Similarly, her younger brother Charles was The Honourable Charles Spencer. When their grandfather died in 1975 Diana and her two sisters gained the courtesy title of Lady, while Charles became Viscount Althorp. Just to complicated things a bit more, Diana had an older brother, John who died ten hours after birth. Had John lived until his father became Earl, he would have become Viscount Althorp while Charles would have been Lord Charles Spencer. As it stands John was buried as The Honourable John Spencer.With me so far?Once Diana married Charles she became Her Royal Highness Diana The Princess of Wales. The media and most people, finding this styling clumsy to use, referred to her as Princess Diana or, even more familiarly, as Princess Di. After all of she was the Princess of Wales she must be entitle to the title Princess followed by her name.Following the divorce, she lost the styling of “Her Royal Highness” and became Diana, Princess of Wales and would have retained that title unless and until she remarried. Charles Spencer's first wife became The Right Honourable Countess Spencer when Charles became Earl Spencer until their divorce at which point she became Countess Spencer (losing the “Right Honourable” styling) until she married Jonathon Aiken when she formally became Mrs. Jonathon Aiken, and then when they divorced Ms. Victoria Aiken.But no matter what happened in her personal life she would always have been called Princess Diana.
Why is Prince Edward not already a Duke and has to wait for his parents to die instead?
The Queen had originally intended to give Prince Edward the title ”Duke of Cambridge” when he married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, but Edward requested the lesser title, “Earl of Wessex,” instead. The story goes that he saw a movie with a character who was an Earl of Wessex and liked it, and Her Majesty gave it to him.A dozen years later, Edward’s nephew, Prince William, was given the Cambridge dukedom on the day he married Catherine Middleton.When Edward’s father, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh dies, Prince Charles will inherit his father’s title. After The Queen has also died, it’s the intention that the Edinburgh dukedom will be recreated for Edward by his elder brother, King Charles III.Edward’s wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will then become Duchess of Edinburgh. Queen Elizabeth II is the present holder of that title, and before she became Queen, her full title was “Her Royal Highness, the Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Duchess of Edinburgh.” Only a child of the monarch is entitled to have the word “the” in front of their name.As things stand at the moment, his full title is, “His Royal Highness, the Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis, Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn.”After he receives the Edinburgh dukedom, “Earl of Wessex” will remain one of Edward’s subsidiary titles, and he will probably pass it onto his son, James, who currently holds another of Edward’s lesser titles, “Viscount Severn.“