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As the soon-to-be newlyweds recalled later, they were completely taken aback when he [Prince Philip] suggested to his youngest son that it was his express wish he should become the next Duke of Edinburgh.
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As Buckingham Palace announced in a statement on their wedding day on June 19 1999: “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales have also agreed that the Prince Edward should be given the Dukedom of Edinburgh in due course, when the present title held now by Prince Philip eventually reverts to the Crown.”
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As the then Earl of Wessex told me in an interview for The Telegraph magazine in June 2021, two months after his father died: “It was a lovely idea; a lovely thought.”
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A month after our interview at the Wessexes’ Berkshire home, Bagshot Park, reports emerged that Charles, the Prince of Wales at the time, was not set on the idea of granting his father’s wishes.
A source was quoted in The Sunday Times saying: “The Prince is the Duke of Edinburgh as it stands, and it is up to him what happens to the title. It will not go to Edward.”
Another source close to the Prince added: “Edinburgh won’t go to them [the Wessexes] as far as the Prince is concerned.”
Edward never thought inheriting the title was a done deal, telling the BBC in an interview to mark what would have been Philip’s 100th birthday in June 2021 that the idea was “a pipe dream of my father’s”.
He added: “Of course, it will depend on whether or not the Prince of Wales, when he becomes king, whether he’ll do that, so we’ll wait and see. So yes, it will be quite a challenge taking that on.”
But Charles’s sudden change of heart did raise eyebrows among royal watchers, not least after the Wessexes had taken on a more prominent role within the Royal family since Prince Andrew stepped back from public life in 2019, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit royal duties in 2020.
Edward had taken on several of his father’s patronages and, along with his wife, has carried on the mantle of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, founded by Philip in 1956 to help young people develop life and work skills.
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Nevertheless, Clarence House did not push back on the suggestion that Charles was in two minds, with a spokesman telling reporters: “No final decisions have been made.”
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Last November, it then emerged that the palace powers-that-be were considering saving the title on Princess Charlotte “to honour the line of succession”.
As a source told The Mail on Sunday: “Charlotte’s position is historically significant because she is the first female member of the Royal family whose place in the line of succession will not be surpassed by her younger brother.
“So it is constitutionally significant that Charlotte should be given such a corresponding title, because it is not beyond the realms of possibility that she will accede the throne if, for example, Prince George does not have children.”
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