When Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Andrew would be stripped of his remaining royal titles, the fallout immediately spread outward — to his ex-wife, who lost her Duchess of York style, and to his daughters, whose own statuses suddenly became a matter of intense public speculation. And then came the question nobody expected: why do Princess Beatrice's children have titles, while Princess Eugenie's do not?
The answer involves an Italian count, a centuries-old title system, and a quirk of aristocratic inheritance that has left royal watchers both fascinated and confused.
First, What Actually Happened to Andrew
The Palace confirmed the dramatic move in an unusually blunt statement: "His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor."
The decision followed years of controversy over Andrew's friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the allegations made by Virginia Giuffre in 2019 — allegations Andrew has always denied. He stepped back from royal duties that same year, but the newly released Epstein files kept his name in the headlines, and pressure on the King to act finally became irresistible. Andrew has also reportedly left Royal Lodge, his residence of decades, which he shared with Sarah Ferguson until their long-ago divorce.
Notably, Beatrice and Eugenie keep their princess titles, which flow to them as grandchildren of the late Queen through the male line, not through their father's dukedom. Their positions are unaffected by their father's disgrace — a distinction royal commentators have called both merciful and legally necessary.
The Children of the Two Princesses
Beatrice shares two daughters — Sienna and Athena — with her husband, property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and is stepmother to his son, Christopher Woolf. Eugenie has two sons, August and Ernest, with her husband, Jack Brooksbank.
Here is where it gets interesting. Unlike the children of Prince William, or even Prince Harry's children, who received royal titles upon their grandfather's accession, the York sisters' children hold no British royal titles at all. As grandchildren of a monarch through a non-reigning line, they were never in line for HRH styles, and the sisters were not granted peerages when they married — unlike, say, the Dukedom handed to Harry on his wedding day.
The Italian Connection
So why do Beatrice's daughters still carry a title? The loophole lies with her husband. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi descends from Italian nobility and holds the title of Count, which under his family's tradition passes to his children. As a result, little Sienna and Athena are, technically, Italian nobility — Countesses in their own right through their father's line — while their cousins August and Ernest, born to Jack Brooksbank, a brewer's descendant and brand ambassador with no aristocratic lineage, hold no hereditary title whatsoever.
It is a distinction that has nothing to do with royal favoritism and everything to do with the accidents of marriage. The same quirk means Beatrice herself reportedly uses the Italian title in some private contexts — though palace practice keeps such things firmly off official documents.
Titles, Scandal and the Next Generation
Royal historians note that the divide between British royal titles and continental ones is increasingly common among the extended family, as younger royals marry commoners and foreign nobles alike. For Beatrice and Eugenie — who both hold full-time jobs and are described as working at charity level rather than as full-time royals — the distinction is largely ceremonial.
But in the wake of their father's fall, symbolism matters. Commentators point out that the sisters have handled the fallout with quiet dignity, continuing their charity work while keeping a visible distance from their father's controversies. Their children, blessedly, are young enough that the family's turbulence will be nothing more than history-book pages to them.
What Happens to the Children's Names Now?
The Palace statement addressed Andrew, but families do not live in legal documents. Beatrice and Eugenie have continued using their princess styles in public, and their children's names remain unchanged on official records — Sienna and Athena Mapelli Mozzi, August and Ernest Brooksbank. Genealogy experts note that none of the four children ever used the surname Mountbatten-Windsor in daily life anyway, which insulates them further from their father's fall. Court circular watchers also point out that the sisters' charity patronages, carefully separated from their father's network over the past several years, continue untouched. In practical terms, life for the cousins proceeds almost exactly as before: school runs, birthday parties, and family Christmases where one chair at the table is conspicuously empty. The main change, royal aides admit, is atmospheric — a family once defined by its awkward loyalty to Andrew is now quietly rebranding around the next generation.
The Bottom Line
So: Beatrice's daughters have titles because their father is a Count; Eugenie's sons don't because theirs isn't. One family married into Italian nobility, one didn't, and the British Crown — busy dealing with a scandal of its own making — had nothing to do with either. In the strange economy of aristocracy, it turns out the most valuable inheritance isn't royal at all. It's simply who your grandfather was.
