After George VI died, his wife became known as the Queen Mum.
Should Elizabeth die before Prince Phillip, will ol’ Phil be known as…the King Da?
Any guesses? Is there some sort of protocol for this?
After George VI died, his wife became known as the Queen Mum.
Should Elizabeth die before Prince Phillip, will ol’ Phil be known as…the King Da?
Any guesses? Is there some sort of protocol for this?
My guess is that he will be called Prince Philip.
I’m sure someone will chew me out if I’m wrong, but…
Prince Philip will, as far as I know, remain Prince Phil. The Queen Mum only got a special title because her name was also Elizabeth. So she had been Queen Elizabeth since her husband’s coronation. When her daughter took the throne, the elder Elizabeth became known as the Queen Mother to avoid confusion - “Queen Mum” is just a variation on that. The “title” was invented for her and is purely honorary.
Unless some young woman in the family marries a man named Philip, and the new Philip is also made a prince, there’s no need to come up with anything special to call Queen Liz’s husband.
IIRC, The Queen Mother didn’t like the usual term (Queen Dowager) for the King’s widow and, as Flodnak pointed out, she couldn’t just continue to be called Queen Elizabeth because of the potential confusion. So she coined “Queen Mother” and used that. I don’t have a cite for this, I’m afraid – it’s just “something I read somewhere.”
I used to drive around town quite a lot and the funny thing about the Queen Mum is what happens every time she has a stumble. It really is “OK, this time it’s curtains” as a large slice of the world’s media race to that stretch or green between her and her daughter’s homes, set up more satellite dishes than you can shake a stick at and camp out for three days. The hot dog vendors arrive, milk gets delivered…
Then they all pack up and the pre-made TV Specials get put back on the shelf. Morbid but very entertaining to see.
The pre-made TV specials have been sitting on BBC shelves for about 15 years now… by the time she does actually pop her clogs, the specials are going to be so dated everyone’s going to look like really bad dressers (though in the case of the Royal Family, you really wouldn’t be able to tell, as they’ve all been wearing the same thing for the past few decades…)
We just love them all here in Australia… (ahem)
Thanks much for the extra info
Queen Dowager was the term I was thinking of but couldn’t remember. Now that that bit is settled, please let me make my OP a little clearer…
If Queen Dowager is the term for a widowed queen, is there a similar term for a widowed king?
No, because a widowed king is still a king.
I should say, he’s still on the throne as a king, and there’s no other king. But once the king kicks it, there’s a new king and queen (or in this case, a prince and queen), from the latter of which the Queen Dowager must distinguish herself.
Saturday Night, the weekend magazine supplement to the National Post (don’t bite me, matt, for referring to one of Conrad’s papers) had an article on the Queen Mum for Mother’s Day. It says she invented the term “Queen Mother” because she didn’t like the technical term, “Queen Dowager.”
GabbaGabbaHey wrote:
NOT!!!
Roll on the Republic…
I believe that Matt_McL is wrong, but only 'cause of some looseness in terminology by some of the earlier posts (I’m ASHAMED of you people!) (BTW, how do you use the emoticons?). In any event, Phil is the Prince Consort - the only reason he’s not the King Consort is that QEII didn’t give him the title - and that, IMHO, doesn’t make for a happy marriage.
So, you can be “King” without being King. The question is still open then - what would we call him if the next (real) King was also Phil?
SuaSponte, whether Prince Philip is a king or not, it makes no difference as to why there’s no King Father.
Think of it this way.
The current Queen Mother used to be the Queen because she was married to King George. When King George died, she was no longer married to the King and so stopped being Queen. Instead she became Queen Dowager (or in her case, Queen Mother).
Say she had died instead of George. George himself was the king; he didn’t get the title through marriage so he didn’t lose it when his wife died. So he wouldn’t have any reason to change his title.
I have no idea what Prince Philip will be called when Queen Elizabeth II dies. Hopefully he’ll die first and they won’t have to think about it. My guess is that they’d just call him Prince Philip, period.
Matt_mcl
The point I was trying to make, and shame on me for the looseness of my terminology, is that the Queen Mother was never the Queen. While King George was alive, she was the Queen Consort. This is a title granted to the wife of the King Regnent to indicate that she is not the reigning Queen. Similarily, Prince Phillip is actually the Prince Consort, and the reason that he is not King Consort is b/c QEII, in her wisdom, decided not to grant him that title – it’s the Queen’s sole perogative. As a side note, if Charles and Di had stayed together and Charles had ascended to the throne, he would then have decided whether Di would become Queen Consort or remained Princess Consort (her formal title when she was married to Chuck).
Now, assume that QEII had accorded Phil the title of King Consort. Upon QEII’s death, and Charles’ ascension to the throne, what would Phil’s new title be? We hope he ain’t consorting with Charles (though it would explain some things). Someone help me out, but I do not think there has been a situation where a Queen Regnent of England died leaving a widower, much less where said widower had been accorded the title of King Consort. (Bloody Mary is nagging at me).
In any event, “Dowager” is a feminine title. I guess the real question is, what is the masculine form of dowager?
The queen consort is still a queen, as in the King and Queen. Just because she’s not a queen regnant doesn’t mean she’s not a queen.
Queen means 1) a female monarch; 2) the king’s wife; 3) matt_mcl when he’s with his friends or bitchy or high or any combination thereof.
Since dowager is synonymous with matriarch and matron, how about patriarch or patron? Queen Dowager, King Patron? King Patriarch? Then, of course, we could go afield and call him the King Codger.
Chuck L.
Bear with me here - suppose Prince Charles marries again - to an Elizabeth and comes to the throne in the event that Queen Elizabeth dies and predeceases Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Would the Queen Mother then become the Queen Gran…
Bear with me here - suppose Prince Charles marries again - to an Elizabeth and comes to the throne in the event that Queen Elizabeth dies and predeceases Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Would the Queen Mum not then become the Queen Gran ?!
Not unless Charles has a sex change.
Also, when Edward abdicated the throne (Mrs Simpson - Bart’s grandmother), he became Duke of Windsor.