King Charles’ plan for ‘slimmed down’ monarchy seemingly hindered

King Charles’ notion to “slim down” the monarchy appears not to be going according to plan as he announced the new titles for his grandchildren and brother Prince Edward.

The King announced Prince Edward as the new Duke of Edinburgh, whereas his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet have been given the ‘Prince’ and ‘Princess’ titles respectively.

According to royal commentator, Richard Fitzwilliams, who told Express.co.uk, about the reason why the King doesn’t seem to be following through with his idea to cut down the number of working royals.

This string of changes is seemingly in contrast with the long-rumoured desire of the sovereign to streamline the Firm to make it more agile, modern and cost-effective.

“The idea of a ‘slimmed-down monarchy’ hasn’t been much in evidence this week with Archie and Lili receiving titles automatically and it being announced that Edward will become Duke of Edinburgh,” said Fitzwilliams.

About the new appointment of Prince Edward, Fitzwilliam shared, “This is a signal honour as he inherits the title that his father was known throughout the world by.”

He continued, “He is involved with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, which has helped millions of young people worldwide since it was first founded by his father in 1956.

“It has been expected that he would inherit the title after Prince Philip’s death, as promised after his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999.”

However, after Prince Edward, the title will not carry on to his children. “On his death it is intended to revert to the Crown, thus reducing the number of royal dukes,” he explained.

Of the Wessexes’ children, James has been given the courtesy title of Earl of Wessex, and following the death of Prince Edward he will become the Earl of Wessex and Forfar.