List of British royal consorts

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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is the only male consort to be awarded the title of Prince Consort.

A royal consort is the spouse of a ruling king or queen. Consorts of monarchs in the United Kingdom and its predecessors have no constitutional status or power but many have had significant influence. Prince Philip is the longest-served and oldest-ever consort. His mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who died aged 101, lived longer than any other royal consort but at the time of her death she did not hold the position of queen consort, as her husband King George VI died 50 years before her. Since the death of Prince Philip, the position is vacant. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is expected to become the next royal consort upon the accession of Charles, Prince of Wales, as king.

History[]

Since the union of England and Scotland in 1707, there have been ten consorts of the British monarch. Queens between 1727 and 1814 were also Electress of Hanover, as their husbands all held the title of Elector of Hanover. Between 1814 and 1837, queens held the title as Queen of Hanover, as their husbands were Kings of Hanover. The personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria because the succession laws (Salic Law) in Hanover prevented a female inheriting the title if there was any surviving male heir (in the United Kingdom, a male took precedence over only his own sisters, until the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 which removed male primogeniture). In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became the Province of Hanover.

Exceptions[]

Not all wives of monarchs have become consorts, as they may have died, been divorced, had their marriage declared invalid prior to their husbands' ascending the throne, or married after abdication. Such cases include:

• Divorced before spouse became monarch: Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of George, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (the future King George I), married 22 November 1682, divorced 28 December 1694, died 13 November 1726.
• Invalid marriage before spouse became monarch: Maria Fitzherbert, wife of George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), married 15 December 1785, marriage invalid, died 27 March 1837.
• Married after spouse abdicated: Wallis Warfield, wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII), married 3 June 1937, widowed 28 May 1972, died 24 April 1986.

An unusual case was that of Caroline of Brunswick, who had separated from her husband George IV prior to his accession, and although his consort in law, had no position at court and was forcibly barred from attending George IV's coronation and being crowned. This caused public outrage.

Only George I and Edward VIII were unmarried throughout their reigns.

Kings consort[]

All female consorts have had the right to be and have been styled as queens consort. However, of the three British male consorts to have existed since 1707, none was considered king consort:

• Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne likewise never received the official style of Prince Consort, but was raised to the peerage of England as the Duke of Cumberland in 1689, several years before his wife's accession in 1702.
• Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria, did not take an English peerage title but was granted the title of Prince Consort as a distinct title, in 1857, the only male consort in either the United Kingdom or its predecessor realms to have officially held the title. It was suggested at first that he would become king consort, but this was decided against by the Government.
• Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, already raised to the peerage as Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, was made a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957. He was not styled as Prince Consort.

Future consorts[]

If Charles, Prince of Wales ascends the throne, his current/second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will automatically take on the title and style pertaining to the queen consort unless legislation is passed to the contrary. It has been stated, however, that it is intended that she should be styled not as a queen consort, but as "princess consort"^[1] although all references to "princess consort" were removed by both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House on their respective websites by the summer of 2018.^[2] In 2020, however, Clarence House confirmed that plans for Camilla to adopt the style of princess consort remain unchanged.^[3]

List of consorts[]

Consort (Name before becoming royal consort)			Birth		Wedding		Became royal consort		Ceased to be royal consort	Death
			Date	Parents	Date	Spouse (Name as monarch)	Date	Coronation		Date	Burial
Prince George of Denmark and Norway			2 April 1653	Frederick III of Denmark and Norway Duchess Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg	28 July 1683	Anne	1 May 1707 Creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain	Not crowned	28 October 1708 55 years, 209 days		Westminster Abbey
Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach			1 March 1683	John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach	22 August 1705	George II	11 June 1727 Spouse's accession	11 October 1727	20 November 1737 54 years, 172 days		Westminster Abbey
Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz			19 May 1744	Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen	8 September 1761	George III	8 September 1761 Marriage to the monarch	22 September 1761	17 November 1818 74 years, 126 days		St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel			17 May 1768	Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Princess Augusta of Great Britain	8 April 1795	George IV	29 January 1820 Spouse's accession	Not crowned (see Pains and Penalties Bill 1820)	7 August 1821 53 years, 72 days		Brunswick Cathedral
Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen			13 August 1792	Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen Princess Louise Eleanore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg	13 July 1818	William IV	26 June 1830 Spouse's accession	8 September 1831	20 June 1837 Spouse's death	2 December 1849 56 years, 311 days	St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha			26 August 1819	Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg	10 February 1840	Victoria	10 February 1840 Marriage to the monarch	Not crowned	14 December 1861 42 years, 110 days		St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle then Frogmore Mausoleum
Princess Alexandra of Denmark			1 December 1844	Christian IX of Denmark Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel	10 March 1863	Edward VII	22 January 1901 Spouse's accession	9 August 1902	6 May 1910 Spouse's death	20 November 1925 80 years, 354 days	St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Princess Mary of Teck			26 May 1867	Prince Francis, Duke of Teck Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge	6 July 1893	George V	6 May 1910 Spouse's accession	22 June 1911	20 January 1936 Spouse's death	24 March 1953 85 years, 302 days
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon			4 August 1900	Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck	26 April 1923	George VI	11 December 1936 Spouse's accession	12 May 1937	6 February 1952 Spouse's death	30 March 2002 101 years, 238 days
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark			10 June 1921	Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark Princess Alice of Battenberg	20 November 1947	Elizabeth II	6 February 1952 Spouse's accession	Not crowned	9 April 2021 99 years, 303 days

Lists of consorts by tenure[]

Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, is the longest-serving royal consort in British history.

Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, is the longest-serving queen consort in British history.

References[]

External links[]

• www.royalty.nu