No royal title for Princess Eugenie’s daughter as line of succession is officially updated

More than two weeks after the birth of the newest member of Britain’s royal family, the official line of succession has been updated to reflect the growing House of Windsor.

Princess Eugenie’s daughter, Adelaide Elizabeth Annina Brooksbank, was added to the list this week following her arrival on August 3.

The baby girl sits at 15th place, just underneath her older brother Ernest, who was born in 2023.

Adelaide’s birth has pushed her uncle, the Duke of Edinburgh, down one place to 16th in the line of succession.

The baby, who is the third child for Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, is identified simply as “Miss Adelaide Brooksbank”.

As expected, she does not have a royal title or the styling of Her Royal Highness.

The baby is the fifth grandchild for the former Duke and Duchess of York, who were stripped of their royal titles by King Charles in October last year because of their links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

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When Andrew lost his titles, both Princess Eugenie and her sister Princess Beatrice kept theirs, along with their HRH status.

However, neither are working royals.

Princess Eugenie is a director at the art gallery Hauser & Wirth in Mayfair and she and Brooksbank split their time between living at Ivy Cottage, on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London, and in Portugal, where he works in hospitality and marketing.

What determines the line of succession?

The line to the British throne dates back to the 17th century, and is influenced by both descent and parliamentary statute.

Originally, the order was determined by the Bill of Rights of 1681 and the Act of Settlement of 1701.

The stipulations laid out in these statutes have undergone some change in the centuries since, most recently in 2015 when the Succession to the Crown Act (2013) came into force.

One of the major changes brought about by this Act was that female royals born after October 2011 would no longer be displaced in the line by their younger brothers.

Princess Charlotte, born in 2015, was the first to benefit from this amendment, holding her place as fourth in line when Prince Louis was born in 2018.