[Hitch]

Originally Posted by issybird

That’s essentially my point. Diana transcended the correct form and since everyone referred to her as Princess Diana, I think you’d have come across an awful ass to insist on PoW and I assume TPTB at the Beeb made that call.

ESPECIALLY an American ass. :-) I freely admit at the time that she was roaming free in the wild, I did on more than one occasion say something like "cough cough Diana, Princess of Wales" around those who PERSISTED in talking about her as if they were her BFFs. ("Princess Diana this," and "Princess Diana that" and on and on and on...). I may have also been especially irritated because her much-vaunted engagement ring just happened to look pretty much exactly like mine. That, trust me, is bloody irritating. ("oh, look, you had a ring made JUST LIKE DIANA'S!" "Uh, no, I had this before I ever heard the name Diana Spencer, but gosh, thanks." Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

I can't speak for all you good folks, but...not that I wanted anything bad to happen to the poor woman, the Gods know, but I was pretty sick of hearing about her, by the time it did.

Prince Harry, Prince William, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward…. they all have titles that supercede, but the other is still correct and obviously still in use. Prince Philip was another. The issue with Meghan (and Kate) is that they obviously can’t be called princess a la Diana, who was a one-off, so what’s the alternative? Technically, they’re Princess Harry and Princess William, and that’ll never go over. At least DoS and DoC is correct; the one that grates is when they turn it into Duchess Kate or Duchess Camilla, which is not a thing. (And of course Camilla really is the Princess of Wales anyway.)

Well, they could call Harry Sussex and William's current duchy is what? Cambridge, right? So, Sussex and Cambridge and their...wives. And presumably, Kate and Camilla would not want to be addressed 'correctly.' I wouldn't want to be called Duchess William, either. Sheesh.

What about something less onerous? Lady Sussex and Lady Cambridge? Meh, probably not. And the actress would probably have a hissy. But it's technically correct.

Once the aristocracy goes probing into and changing its underpinnings, it’s all over for them. And the “equality” argument in that context is risible. The keystones of the aristocracy are tradition and preferment.

Oh, I know. I just...let's face it, ladies, even those of the aristocracy, caught the short end of that stick. Married off like breeding cattle that came with their own semen and all that. (That's a joke.)

It wasn't all that horribly long ago that if a woman had her own inheritance, it STILL belonged to her husband the moment that they wed and if he blew it all at the track (of whatever), well, tough. Honestly, were I a woman in that day and age, I think I should have felt compelled to remain single--out of self-preservation, financially if naught else. It took quite a while for that nonsense to go the way of the Dodo, too.

Hitch