Is Catherine a Duchess or a Princess? Kicking a dead horse is fun, but someone has to do it

It should have been simple and straightforward. Registering Prince George's birth. The first of many bureaucratic events he will have stay awake for later in life. His father Prince William, listed his occupation as  'Prince of the United Kingdom' on Prince George's birth registration. No one argued with that. It was listing Catherine's occupation as 'Princess of the United Kingdom' which got the 'drama' and 'mess' started.

Confusion abounded on twitter. Is she a princess or isn't she? At the time of the royal wedding the powers that be at the royal palace were insistent that Catherine was NOT a princess. Case closed, end of story. Personally, I accepted their word and got on with my life, even though deep in my heart of hearts a little voice told me they were wrong.

So the powers that be said Catherine isn't a princess. Certainly there was disappointment. Why wouldn't there be? Princess sounds so much more romantic than Duchess, doesn't it? Disney doesn't have a line of Disney Duchesses now do they? No little girl says 'I want to be a Duchess for Halloween'. Dammit! Catherine should be a princess. Women with 'Princess' fantasies suddenly had to switch gears to 'Duchess' fantasies instead. Oh the horror!

And then Prince George's birth registration came along, confusing everyone in the process. Had William elevated his wife to 'Princess of the United Kingdom' hoping the Queen, the fount of all honor, and other sharp eyed royal watchers wouldn't notice? Foolish Prince! How dare he go play polo at a time like this?

I admit it. I'm not above the fray. No one loves a good, meaningless royal discussion to distract me from the day to day hum-drum of my existence, more than I do. So I grabbed my popcorn. But after a day or so, when do we stop beating the dead horse? Facts are important, duly noted. But look, the poor horse is dead! Or did it wisely escape to greener pastures? Thankfully unable to read the twitter one-upmanship and royal reporters being beaten to death with dusty textbooks before starting an 'inquest' with their last breath. The Powers that be have 'mislead' the public for the last two years! Lies! Incompetence! The Republican movement nod their heads in agreement "See how we feel now?"

For the love of cheese and crackers, what is the world coming to when Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, the official of all official sites, can't even get this minor point, which has been blown out of all proportion, right?

Discuss amongst yourselves. I'm off to get some more popcorn.

© Marilyn Braun 2013

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.