Kate is in labor!!

[vtdiamond]

www.cnn.com/2013/07/22/world/europe/uk-royal-baby/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

I was so excited to wake up to the breaking news alerts!  I'm guessing girl. 

[Deleted]

So excited!

[mellymel]

So excited!!

[Heisenberg]

YAY!!!
I'm probably more invested in this than I should be. :-P

[womet]

So exciting! I checked the news right when I woke up to see if she was. I hope she has a girl.

[Willis Jackson]

Squeeeeee!

I have a feeling it's a girl, too. I have no idea why.

[mellymel]

I am hoping for a girl, too, mostly because of the new heir law.

But, Charlotte is one of the top name picks, which is what we just named DD. I kinda hope the royal baby is not a Charlotte

[msmerymac]

I was lounging in bed and heard the news when my husband turned on TV and basically stood right up.

I WAS thinking boy, but for the last few weeks I've had a feeling about girl. If a boy, George will be somewhere in the name. If a girl, Elizabeth and Frances will be somewhere in the name. Charlotte/Charles and Philip/Phillipa would be good choices too, I think.

[jessesgirl08]

So excited!!!

[Willis Jackson]

If anyone needs some reading material while we wait, this is interesting.

I bet Kate's glad they don't have the home secretary there to verify the birth anymore. Then again, wouldn't it make more sense to be at the conception?

[justjen]

Exciting! I'm pulling for a girl.

[mbcdefg]

Yay! Although I wish my phone didn't ping at 5:30 am to inform me.

Anyone want to do a thread guessing sex, time, weight, length, and name (although we probably won't hear the name for a while)? Hardcore royal watchers, want to throw in a guess for the godparents?

[Deleted]

NO NO NO! THE BABY WAS NO SUPPOSED TO BE BORN UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY.  

[vtdiamond]

Jul 22, 2013 6:44:16 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Yay! Although I wish my phone didn't ping at 5:30 am to inform me.

Anyone want to do a thread guessing sex, time, weight, length, and name (although we probably won't hear the name for a while)? Hardcore royal watchers, want to throw in a guess for the godparents?

Yes!  I'm up for a guessing thread!

[Deleted]

Yay I hope for a girl as well, wasn't this awesome news to wake up to?

Hoping for Charlotte Diana

[MrsDarcy]

Why wasn't Kate given the title of Princess as Diana was?

[rubytue]

Yay!! Here's to a short labor and a baby being born today. Sorry v, but I think I'll get to be birthday buddies with the new heir

[womet]

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:33 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Why wasn't Kate given the title of Princess as Diana was?

I read that it was because she is a commoner. 

[MrsDarcy]

Jul 22, 2013 8:16:39 GMT -5 womet said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:33 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Why wasn't Kate given the title of Princess as Diana was?

I read that it was because she is a commoner. 

So Diana wasn't a commoner? Sorry, I don't know much about the Royals. I guess girl though!

[mbcdefg]

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:33 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Why wasn't Kate given the title of Princess as Diana was?

Buckle up for a long-winded explanation, lol:

Diana actually wasn't given the title of "Princess Diana." The media just chose to refer to her by that name, and I believe that Diana herself actually pointed out to them that they were wrong on at least one occasion.

Diana's official title while married was Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales. She was also entitled to the style of The Princess Charles, because wives who marry into the royal family take on the feminine versions of their husband's titles.

So Kate is technically known as HRH Princess William, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathern, Baroness Carrikfergus, since William was given the Duke/Earl/Baron titles on their wedding day. She takes the feminine form of William's titles. Her highest-ranking title is The Duchess of Cambridge so that's what she goes by most commonly. The second the queen dies, she will become HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, since the Cornwall title immediately goes to the heir (and Cornwall outranks Cambridge so Cornwall goes first). Charles will have to actively make William the Prince of Wales at some point for her to get the Princess of Wales title since it isn't automatic.

After they divorced, technically Diana should've been stripped of all her titles and sent on her merry way. But since she was the mother of the second and then-third in line heirs to the throne, they changed the rule a bit ... she was stripped of the style "Her Royal Highness" and was simply referred to as "Diana, Princess of Wales." (This is why Sarah Ferguson, formerly The Duchess of York, is now "Sarah, Duchess of York" and she'll have to give up the DOY title if Prince Andrew ever remarries.) If Diana had been alive when Charles got re-married to Camilla, she would've forfeited the POW title and Camilla would've gotten it. Camilla actually is the POW now, but she chooses to go by Duchess of Cornwall (the next highest-ranking title she has) out of respect for Diana.

So, long story short, both "Princess Diana" and "Princess Catherine/Kate" are totally incorrect.

ETA: One example to look at would be Princess Michael of Kent. She's married to the queen's cousin, Prince Michael of Kent. Prince Michael wasn't given a dukedom or an earldom or anything, so he doesn't have a title to pass along (the "of Kent" style is because his father was Duke of Kent, and children inherit their father's styles). So she's Princess Michael because she can't be Duchess/Countess of Anything since he doesn't have anything. If William wasn't given the Duke of Cambridge title or anything else on his wedding day, the only proper way to refer to Kate would've been "Princess William of Wales."

[CallingAllAngels]

www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/why-did-diana-become-a-pr_b_2457149.html

[womet]

Jul 22, 2013 8:20:19 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:16:39 GMT -5 womet said:

I read that it was because she is a commoner. 

So Diana wasn't a commoner? Sorry, I don't know much about the Royals. I guess girl though!

She was born into an aristocratic family with royal ancestry. 

Thanks to mbcdefg for the royal lesson. You are sooo much better than the reporters on tv. 

[MrsDarcy]

Thanks all! Especially mbcdefg. . She should totally go by Baroness Carrikfergus.

[mbcdefg]

Jul 22, 2013 8:16:39 GMT -5 womet said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:33 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Why wasn't Kate given the title of Princess as Diana was?

I read that it was because she is a commoner. 

Sort of. Kate wasn't denied a princess title - she never had the right to be Princess Catherine to begin with.

Only a princess of the blood is entitled to be called Princess HerName. So that was the queen before she was queen; her daughter, Princess Anne; and her granddaughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie (the ugly hats at William's wedding). Also the queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra of Kent, since she was the male-line granddaughter of King George V. And if Kate's baby is a girl then she'll be HRH Princess Blahbiddyboo of Cambridge***.

The queen has another granddaughter, Lady Louise (a bridesmaid at the same wedding), who technically should be called Princess Louise, but her parents and the queen decided to skip the prince(ss) titles for their children to take some pressure off them, so she and her brother get the titles of an earl's children since their father is the Earl of Wessex.

If Kate were a foreign royal princess marrying into the British royal family, which was commonly the case up until maybe 100 years ago, she'd be entitled to keep being called Princess Catherine since it was her birthright.

Diana was a member of the nobility, not a member of royalty - since she was the daughter of the Earl of Spencer, she was known as The Lady Diana Spencer when she married Charles.


*** ETA since I thought of it: This part actually required some intervention from the queen. Since William is a grandson of the monarch and not the son of the monarch (yet), all his children weren't automatically entitled to be a prince or princess. The law previously said that the title of prince(ss) would extend to the monarch's children and male-line grandchildren, and the "eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales" (POW being Charles) ... so William's first son would be Prince XXX of Cambridge since he would've been in line as the heir eventually, and any other children would be Lord/Lady XXX Cambridge. The queen changed the rule so that all of William's kids will be Prince(ss) XXX of Cambridge.

And if Prince Harry gets married and has kids while the queen is still alive, his children will only be Lord/Lady XXX of WhateverDukedomHeMightGet, unless the queen steps in to change the rule again (which I doubt, since his kids won't be high-ranking heirs since they're all behind William and his kids). If his kids are born after Charles becomes king then they will be Prince(ss) XXX of WhateverDukedomHeMightGet.

But I've always wondered what happens if Harry's kids are born when Elizabeth is alive and they're born as Lord/Lady Whatever ... do they get upgraded to Prince(ss) once Charles becomes king?

[mbcdefg]

Jul 22, 2013 8:25:19 GMT -5 womet said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:20:19 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

So Diana wasn't a commoner? Sorry, I don't know much about the Royals. I guess girl though!

She was born into an aristocratic family with royal ancestry. 

Thanks to mbcdefg for the royal lesson. You are sooo much better than the reporters on tv. 

It drives me BANANAS when they get this stuff wrong. Not only because I know the answer is wrong, but because I was a reporter myself and it just shows laziness on their part that they didn't do the proper research into all this. And not for nothing, but they've had a really long time to prepare for this so you'd think they'd take some care to get it right.

[mccallister84]

Jul 22, 2013 5:32:59 GMT -5 Heisenberg said:

YAY!!!
I'm probably more invested in this than I should be. :-P

Most definitely.  I had multiple text messages alerting me that she was in labor when I woke up. 

[womet]

Jul 22, 2013 8:29:54 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:25:19 GMT -5 womet said:

She was born into an aristocratic family with royal ancestry. 

Thanks to mbcdefg for the royal lesson. You are sooo much better than the reporters on tv. 

It drives me BANANAS when they get this stuff wrong. Not only because I know the answer is wrong, but because I was a reporter myself and it just shows laziness on their part that they didn't do the proper research into all this. And not for nothing, but they've had a really long time to prepare for this so you'd think they'd take some care to get it right.

I think some of the British reporters are giving more accurate information. The Americans are not as accurate. 

[SJ]

We are lucky to have you mbcdefg! Thank you!

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:52 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Yay!! Here's to a short labor and a baby being born today. Sorry v, but I think I'll get to be birthday buddies with the new heir

Happy birthday! <)

I'll try not to be bitter

[mbcdefg]

Jul 22, 2013 8:59:02 GMT -5 v said:

Jul 22, 2013 8:11:52 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Yay!! Here's to a short labor and a baby being born today. Sorry v, but I think I'll get to be birthday buddies with the new heir

Happy birthday! <)

I'll try not to be bitter

Hey, maybe you'll still get a name twin!

And happy birthday rubytue!