Apologies if this has been asked before (I can’t be the only person who wonders about these things, right?)…
Has any royal - king, queen, prince, princess - ever been a doctor? Not necessarily a physician, but a real doctorate that you have to work for, nothing honorary. I know that nowadays these people tend to be quite well educated, but I’ve yet to hear of one getting, say, a PhD. Have to admit that I haven’t been paying close attention, though.
Anyway, if such a case exists, what would the person be called? HRH Dr Insertnamehere Insertnumberhere PhD?
I know most people don’t use their doctoral titles outside formal occasions, but for royalty I’m assuming there’s no such thing as casual day…
Isn’t the Emperor of Japan also a qualified marine biologist? As for what a royal academic would be called it would simply by HRH Prince X, with no reference to the doctorate. Only military ranks can be used in conjuction with royal or noble titles. For example when Prince Andrew was in the Royal Navy his full style was something like “Lieutenant His Royal Highness the Prince Andrew” or " Lieutenant His Royal Highness the Duke of York" after marriage, but on an everyday basis we was professionally addressed as “Lt York” or “Sir”.
The Emperor has written papers on Marine Biology but doesn’t have an academic qualifications. He studied Political Science, but never received a degree in that either.
Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria was an ophthalmologist, and a fairly prominent one in his own time. According to his Wikipedia entry he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree at the Ludwig Maximilians University in 1872, and met the requirements for the official degree the following year. I’m not sure what they called him, though.
Although he was “just” a Duke, Karl-Theodor was a member of the Bavarian royal family (his mother was a royal princess, daughter of King Maximilian I and half-sister of King Ludwig I). I don’t believe he was in the line of succession for the throne though, or if he was he was pretty far down the list. I don’t know if that’s good enough for the OP or not.
The Master Speaks: What did Prince Andrew’s superiors in the Royal Navy call him? - The Straight Dope
As to the OP, I know of no royal person who has earned a degree entitling him or her to the title “Dr.” As you say, only military titles are typically interspersed with royal titles in the British practice.
I would be surprised is anyone in our Royal Family had any qualifications that involves actually working.
Why bother working for title recognition when it is given to you by accident of birth?
Princess Diana was famous, if that is the right word, for not having any qualifications when she left school - actually that is quite a feat to achieve, since she went to a very good school. She was famous as the ‘no O-level one’.
Didn’t harm her career much, she got her Royal title without too much work, lie down for 20 minutes a few times.
As for a Royal getting a PHD, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Why would someone like Charles want a proper qualification when he can pontificate about architecture and get an attentive audience, despite not actually knowing anything about it.
Being Royal means never having to rely on your academic career, and never having to need to prove you are capable in some field of endeaver.
That chip on your shoulder must be uncomfortable!
Maybe they don’t need to prove it, but my understanding was that your Queen was widely regarded as a very, very shrewd international relations wonk, and that PMs genuinely tend to value her advice.
The Duke of Gloucester is a qualified architect. Various other members of the Royal Family are university graduates (the Prince of Wales, his son William, the Earl of Wessex etc).
As I understand it, Prince Charles was (is?) quite a dullard and people in the know considered it a minor miracle that he earned a university degree. I certainly had trouble swearing allegiance to him in the Canadian citizenship oath - it involves pledging fealty to “Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors”. Ugh, I feel dirty just thinking about it. I’m hoping no one ever expects me to take a bullet for him, I’d probably shove him in front of me, and possibly his kids too. Really, I’m always bemused by the American veneration of the British royal family.
It’s easier to admire an authority figure when they have no actual power over you.
Ok, having done some research, Sheik Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, the Sheik of Sharjah, which is one of the UAE has a PhD in History from Exeter University, and a PhD in Political Geography from Durham University. I think these are actual doctorates and not just honorary ones.
Pope Benedict XVI, who probably doesn’t count, has a Doctorate of Theology from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has a Doctorate of Law from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.
So that you can feel you have an accomplishment that you’ve actually earned? So that you can impress people who aren’t impressed by aristocratic titles?
Both Prince Felipe and Princess Cristina have Spanish Bachelor’s and foreign Masters degrees; Princess Elena has a Spanish Bachelor’s, she’s taken courses abroad but I don’t think there’s an associated degree. They’re the first members of the Spanish royal family to go to university. No doctorates. I know that Letizia (Felipe’s wife) as a Spanish Bachelor’s and a Mexican Master’s; Jaime de Marichalar (Elena’s husband; I’m not sure whether their divorce is final or not) has a Master’s; I don’t know whether Iñaki Urdangarín (Cristina’s husband) had a Bachelor’s at the time of their marriage, I remember one of the things he wanted to do was take some university courses but no idea at which level - but then, his main professional qualifications are a couple Olympic medals, which I believe qualify as hard work.
Felipe is also a graduate of the Spanish military schools, but it was a “for you only” program, he rotated through all three schools.
The 3 schools being army,navy,airforce ?
Given that the Royals, of one flavour or another, go to the best schools and get entry into the best universities, this is not at all impressive. Also there is a good deal of forelock tugging at certain universities which apply a lower standard of entry to our ennobled inbreeds than to others.
At present around 20% of Britons hold a degree or higher and that number is increasing, but then, they will have to use their qualifications to make their way in life and need to prove their abilities, being Royal means you have a choice, and the choice of Royals is the easy path - no need to work.
Chip on my shoulder? Why not I ask, the media portray the Royals as something to be respected and deferred to, something that I don’t see all that much with an other group of non-working populations.
So Her Majesty is a shrewd operator, so what? I could say that about many individuals. Uneducated, untalented and unearned respect is what Royalty represents to me.
It’s taken the best part of a thousand years to rid ourselves of disproprotionate representation of the ennobled in parliament, and we still have not levered them out compltetely, remember that in the UK we did not have democracy until women got the vote in 1020 and that was highly qualified, it took another 8 years for us to truly obtain a representative democracy - meantime the Royals have had all the influence they could ever wish, without ever having to do anything for it, or prove to the populace that they were intellecually equipped for such a role.
Put the lot of 'em against a wall and let history judge.
Yes, sorry.
According to their biography, he also has a law degree.
As a compliment to them, the Royal Family of your country has a very nice webpage, Nava. 
The only one whose bio stops as soon as royal marriage starts is Letizia’s, it seems.
The law degree is the Bachelor’s. The Master’s is in PoliSci from Georgetown.
Letizia has generally being busy “apprenticing,” she hasn’t held her own positions after the marriage. Eventually I imagine she will, but between learning the ropes, the children, her sister’s suicide… she’s had more than enough in her plate acting as “Princess Consort” and Mom.
No, I meant that… in the other bio main pages, they write their current jobs, sports, cultural activities (Ambassador of this and that, diplomatic visits here and there)… while her bio brief (at least in English, didn’t check it in Spanish like the others) cuts short, even before her marriage. Doesn’t even say “She married in Madrid to the Prince and has two kids with him.” It does have a link to official activities (like the rest of them).
But that’s just nitpick on the page design.
Thanks for the clarification about the bachelor’s. The bio brief of Elena says she trained to be a teacher, and then later says she got a degree of Education. Is the “teacher training” different from a bachelor’s? The Spanish version is not helping me, as I’m not familiar with Spain’s post-secondary education terminology.