Back during the 2000 election Wanda Sykes declared her candidacy for First Lady (ala Pat Paulsen’s presidential bids a generation before) stating that it shouldn’t automatically be given to the president’s wife. I’m paraphrasing:
“There needs to be two First Ladies. One who stays home and fcks the president and cooks his meals and stuff, and the other one who goes to the schools and attends funerals the president can’t make it to or doesn’t want to and tells kids to stay off drugs and all that. The one who fcks the president should be his wife or his girlfriend and she’s got too much to do just taking care of her man to have to worry about her hair and makeup all the time, she just needs to stay around the White House and chill because taking care of the most powerful man in the world is a full time job. There needs to be two First Ladies, and I wanna be the one who goes to the schools.”
The Duchy of Lancaster is anomalous; feudal logic required that it be absorbed into the Crown once both titles were held by the same person (since you can’t be your own liege lord), but it was deliberately kept in existence as a entity apart from the Crown.
Although the Queen is often described informally as being the Duke of Normandy, there seems some doubt as to whether the title even exists. Certainly it’s not part of the royal style and titles. I seem to remember hearing that the title was formally relinquished in the Middle Ages, but that it all comes down to the exact meaning and status of provisions in such-and-such treaty in Latin… Queen Elizabeth I described herself as Duke of Normandy in at least a couple of formal documents, but I think that’s about it!
I don’t believe the title “Lord of Mann” has ever been used by the Queen herself; I think it’s only used within the Isle of Man to “describe” the Queen.
Prince Charles also has several other titles (e.g. Duke of Cornwall).
Generally speaking, titles granted to the heir to the throne are extinguished at the moment of accession, so they have to be granted to the next heir apparent as completely new titles.
I was under the impression that the titles Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay and their attached titles (Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, etc.) – unlike the title Prince if Wales – were held by the heir apparent by right.
I was also under the impression that the monarch is sovereign over the Channel Islands only as Duke of Normandy.
She is allowed to use the style “Sarah, Duchess of York,” but she is no longer the Duchess of York and she can’t refer to herself as “the Duchess of York.”
Yes, David Norris. In brief, the first openly gay politician in Ireland, elected as a Senator in the 80’s when gay practices were still illegal, although the law was rarely enforced. He is still a Senator, and is generally popular, with a good image as a man of education and culture.
He has announced his candidacy in the next election for president of Ireland (Uachtarán na hÉireann). He has to be nominated by four local authorities, bcause he is not a member of a party. However, he is likely to be a candidate, and should do well in the election.
The Irish presidency is not an executive one. Like those of many European republics. it has largely ceremonial functions on a daily basis, but with some constitutional powers.