Princess Royal: History and Key Facts

Princess Royal is a title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been seven Princesses Royal in history; the title is not inherited, and there can be only one holder of it at any one time. Princess Anne became the Princess Royal in 1987.

The title Princess Royal came into existence when Queen Henrietta Maria (1609–1669), daughter of Henry IV, King of France, and wife of King Charles I (1600–1649), wanted to imitate the way the eldest daughter of the King of France was styled "Madame Royale". Thus, Princess Mary (born 1631), the daughter of Henrietta Maria and Charles, became the first Princess Royal in 1642.

It has become established that the title belongs to no one by right, but is given entirely at the sovereign's discretion. Princess Mary (later Queen Mary II) (1662–1694), the elder daughter of King James II, and Princess Sophia Dorothea (1687–1757), the only daughter of King George I, were each 'eligible' for the title but neither received it: at the times they respectively became eligible for the style, Princess Mary was already Princess of Orange, and Sophia Dorothea was already Queen in Prussia. No Princess Royal has ever acceded to the British throne; Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, was the only title holder to simultaneously be heiress presumptive, until she was displaced by the birth of her younger brother Prince Albert Edward (later King Edward VII). With the changes to the rules of succession agreed by the Commonwealth Realms in Perth in 2011, to absolute primogeniture, Princesses Royal in the future are now more likely to accede to the throne.

Princess Louisa Maria (1692–1712), the youngest daughter of King James II (died 1701), born after he lost his crown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689, was considered to be Princess Royal during James's exile by Jacobites at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was so called by them, even though she was not James's eldest living daughter at any time during her life.

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