ROBERT HARDMAN: Other dukes push their own agendas, Edward is a spare who just moves on

The news has been decades in the making. By creating his younger brother the Duke of Edinburgh, the King has fulfilled a plan first announced the morning Prince Edward was preparing to marry Sophie Rhys-Jones at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Over the ensuing years, this couple has continued their royal duties, supporting the Sovereign and discreetly helping to keep the royal show on track, even as other minor sons have done their best to derail it.

Therefore, royalists around the world will be happy that the Earl and Countess of Wessex have received their long-awaited promotion to Duke and Duchess.

Last night, at a dig in both York and Sussex, a family friend said: “Other dukes could always be pushing their own agendas, whereas that has never been Edward’s style.” It’s a “spare” that just gets by.

Within royal and charity circles, people will be particularly pleased by Sophie Edinburgh, as she is now.

As Countess of Wessex, she has been a popular and hands-on patron of their various charities and was very close to the late Queen.

During the Covid hardships and following the death of Prince Philip, the Queen is said to have taken great comfort in having her daughter-in-law and her two youngest grandchildren close by on the other side of Windsor Great Park.

It is said that the queen admired his unremarkable dedication to royal duties, and non-royal ones as well. During the pandemic, the new Duchess was seen working under the radar in a Covid food kitchen.

The Queen’s affection was reflected in numerous small but significant gestures over the years.

In 2012, she appointed her daughter-in-law as a vice-sponsor of her Diamond Jubilee Trust and watched Sophie use it to advocate for the fight against avoidable blindness across the Commonwealth.

In 2015, when faced with the decision of who to send to a very awkward royal funeral – that of Richard III, recently discovered under a Leicester car park – the Queen sent the Countess of Wessex.

However, the origins of yesterday’s announcement go back even further than Edward and Sophie’s wedding day in 1999.

This was a decision that grew out of the Mediterranean sun and carefree days on the beach more than 70 years ago, the last time Britain had a Duchess of Edinburgh.

The title was given to Prince Philip when he was about to marry Princess Elizabeth in 1947. Our late Queen adored what some called her ‘Edinburgh years’: that brief period until her accession to the throne in February 1952.

The newlyweds loved creating a family home for themselves and their two young children at Clarence House. And when the Royal Navy sent the duke to the Mediterranean fleet in Malta, the duchess went too.

During the day, she enjoyed the freedom of driving alone to the shops or to seaside picnics (for the first time in her life, she actually brought her own money).

At night, there was dancing at the Marsa Polo club and at the Phenicia Hotel, where the band always played People Will Say We’re In Love when the Edinburghs came in. Very happy days, indeed.

People often asked why the Queen never gave her husband the title of Prince Consort, as Queen Victoria did to Prince Albert.

One of the reasons, I was told on more than one occasion, was that she really liked Prince Philip just the way he was as Duke of Edinburgh, a permanent reminder of her days as Duchess; she didn’t want him to be anything else.

By the time the couple’s youngest son was preparing to marry in 1999, the title had become synonymous with so much more: The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Lectures, to name just two.

Prior to Prince Edward’s wedding, the heralds of the College of Arms had been working out options for the usual wedding-day title, based on the various spare ducats in the royal wardrobe.

I understand that the initial plan was to create him the Duke of Cambridge. However, the Queen and Prince Philip had another idea.

Prince Edward and his fiancée were asked if they would like to defer the title of duke and duchess until the title of Edinburgh was once again free (as it would be after the death of both parents). The dukedom of Cambridge would await another prince.

Furthermore, Edward had already spent many years actively supporting the Duke of Edinburgh Award in many different capacities and was clearly the successor of choice when it came to this particular aspect of his father’s work.

He is currently a Trustee and Chairman of the Trustees of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Foundation. Sophie has also been a stalwart of the organization.

In 2016, the prize celebrated its 60th birthday with a scheme called the Diamond Challenge. Sophie got there by training for several months and completing a grueling 450-mile charity bike ride from Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace in just five days.

The most interesting thing about the revival of the dukedom by the King is that it is only for one generation.

We are well used to life peerages, first created in 1958. Britain now has a lifetime dukedom. It means that the duke’s son, James, will not become Duke of Edinburgh.

You now assume the courtesy title of Earl of Wessex. Following Prince Edward’s death, he too will become Earl of Forfar, a title the Queen bestowed on her youngest son in 2019 to reflect her strong ties to Scotland.

The Edinburgh sons have never worn the ‘HRH’ styles to which they are entitled. Their daughter will remain Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.

However, there is a heartwarming addition to yesterday’s news as it is Lady Louise who has taken on the late Duke of Edinburgh’s love of carriage driving and, indeed, all of his ponies and equipment.

By creating this dukedom for a single generation, the King is sticking to his long-term vision of a ‘reduced monarchy’, restricted to the immediate line of succession. He is determined to phase out the Victorian model of an ever-expanding proliferation of peripheral ‘minor’ royalty.

Republicans may scoff at the irrelevance of titles in the 21st century, but as long as Britain decides to remain a constitutional monarchy, they will be part of the royal furniture.

Their importance within the royal family is reflected in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s continued determination to retain their own titles, despite leaving the royal fold.

Just this week, the Sussexes have also explicitly stated that their children will be known as ‘Prince Archie’ and ‘Princess Lilibet’.

The Edinburghs could have done the same for their children long ago, but they chose not to.

Upon receiving their new title, the couple have now also acquired their own dance. In 1947 the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society commissioned a new reel in honor of the royal wedding.

They called it ‘The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’. He was, needless to say, a favorite of the late Queen.