For in the past decade, the majority of European nations that have monarchies have legislated for same sex marriage. However, royal laws haven’t caught up. In the future, if a king takes a husband or a queen takes a wife, what title will be bestowed upon them?
It’s actually an important question? The whole area of royal titles remains inherently sexist. We take it for granted that a reigning queen’s husband won’t be called king because, for some reason, a king is seen as higher than a queen. That’s just blatant sexism if you think about it. Why is one title automatically more important than another? However, it also focuses the mind on another big issue for royalty. Not one single monarchy has any plan for what the husband of a king or the wife of a queen would be known as. And in 2025, isn’t that just a bit, well, wrong?
We all know that royal history is littered with kings who never wanted wives and queens who didn’t want to marry princes. They lived in times where their sexuality wasn’t just frowned upon, it could cost them their lives. The consequences of conforming with expectations were often tragic and sometimes disastrous. And with the growth of primogeniture came the pressure of producing an heir. And while all dynasties have to recreate to continue, we all know medical advances have changed that forever. Let’s not be Victorian about this.
Personally, I can’t ever see another monarch, heir or royal pretending to be heterosexual and breaking their own and someone else’s heart to marry into the opposite gender just to keep up appearances or perpetuate the family line. And that is exactly how it should be, right across society. But it also means that now is actually the time to have the debate about titles of all kinds. Because at some point, before we’re all much older, decisions have to be made.
In fact, the whole royal title system needs a good look at. Half the European monarchies right now have female heirs which means that half will have female regnants in the next half century. And not one single one of them has any real clue what to call the partner of their female ruler.
A female regnant’s husband isn’t called a king, partly because it’s believed by some that a king outranks a queen. The notion that a male version of a title is inherently more powerful than a female one might well belong in the Middle Ages but it is still given a beating heart here in the 21st century by shouts of tradition. No one was worried that Frederik of Denmark will find himself a shadow ruler when his wife became Queen Mary yet his distant cousin, Victoria of Sweden, would be seen by some to be at risk of becoming a power pawn if her husband was known as King Daniel on her accession. Those four letters, king, are seen to hold more power than ‘queen’ even though our greatest examples of constitutional monarchy in recent times have come from women. It’s a bizarre situation that refuses to let go of past prejudices.
And it means we could well face a world of strange regal contradictions that only help to perpetuate gender discrimination. Let’s take a hypothetical world of two male and two female regnants. One king marries a woman who becomes queen consort while the other weds a man who is perhaps given a courtesy title of prince, duke or earl. One of the queens regnant weds a man who becomes a prince but not a king. But what of the queen regnant who weds a woman? She could become a queen consort as that is seen as lesser than a queen regnant. The whole situation is confusing, bizarre and outmoded. Surely that only suggests, in a very public way, that not all marriages are considered equal?
If you’re asking me (and if you’re not then look away now), it’s time to just make king and queen interchangeable. The male version of the role is king, the female is queen. A queen regnant’s husband should be a king consort just as her wife should be a queen consort. A king’s husband, too, should take the title of king consort while a wife remains entitled to be queen consort.
For royalty, t is a question that will need addressing. As countries around Europe ask whether all aspects of their societies are truly equal, it is of increasing importance. So what would you call the King’s Husband or the Queen’s Wife?
