They may not be called Prince, Princess or even Lord — but they are still technically royal heirs.
It sounds like a royal contradiction. Some of Queen Elizabeth II’s descendants have no grand royal titles, no HRH styling and, for the most part, lead remarkably ordinary lives.
But they are still in line to inherit the British throne, reports People.
And the reason comes down to one surprisingly simple distinction: royal titles and succession to the Crown are two completely different things.
Being called Prince or Princess is a matter of royal styling and tradition. The line of succession, however, is governed by law and descent.
That means having no royal title does not automatically knock someone out of the race for the throne.
So who are the untitled royal heirs?
Among Queen Elizabeth II’s descendants are the children and grandchildren of Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie — including members of the Phillips, Tindall, Mapelli Mozzi and Brooksbank families.
They may not receive the same attention as Prince George, Princess Charlotte or Prince Louis, but they remain on the official succession list.
And there are 12 of them who have no British royal title.
Beatrice’s daughters: royal blood, but no royal titles
Princess Beatrice’s daughters, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi and Athena Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi, were born into a very unusual position.
Their mother is a Princess and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II — but her royal titles were personal rather than automatically hereditary.
So despite their place in the succession, the girls are not British Princesses.
Their father, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, also comes from an Italian noble family, giving the girls an aristocratic connection on their father’s side.
But in Britain, that does not change their position in the royal family.
Eugenie’s children face the same royal quirk
Princess Eugenie’s children — August, Ernest and Adelaide Brooksbank — are in much the same position.
Their mother is a Princess of the United Kingdom, but her children did not automatically inherit her royal styling.
So while their names appear on succession lists, they are not Prince or Princess Brooksbank.
It is one of the stranger features of the modern monarchy: you can be a royal heir without actually looking particularly royal on paper.
Then there are Anne’s children
Princess Anne’s family provides perhaps the best-known example.
Her children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, have never held royal titles.
Their father, Mark Phillips, declined an earldom when he married Anne, meaning there was no courtesy title for their children.
But their lack of titles did not remove them from the succession.
Peter and Zara remain in the line to the throne — as do their children.
Meet the next generation
Peter Phillips’ daughters Savannah and Isla Phillips are also untitled members of the Royal Family.
Zara Tindall’s children — Mia, Lena and Lucas Tindall — are in the same boat.
They have royal ancestry, but no Prince or Princess titles.
And unlike the more senior members of the Royal Family, they have largely grown up away from the full-time royal spotlight.
Why aren’t they Princes and Princesses?
The answer goes back to the rules governing royal titles.
Queen Elizabeth II’s arrangements meant that royal titles were generally restricted to particular generations of the family.
In particular, the traditional rules surrounding who automatically receives the style of Prince or Princess have meant that many of her great-grandchildren were born without royal titles.
But the succession is a different matter.
The law governing succession does not say you have to be a Prince or Princess to become monarch.
It’s about descent, legitimacy and birth order.
So while these 12 family members are highly unlikely to ever sit on the throne given the number of people ahead of them, they remain part of the legal line of succession.
The royal family members hiding in plain sight
They don’t have palaces named after them.
They don’t have HRH before their names.
And they aren’t normally seen waving from Buckingham Palace balconies.
But they are still part of the succession.
Royal titles might grab the headlines — but when it comes to inheriting the Crown, it’s the family tree and the law that really count.