He now is HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus.

Thus Kate won’t be known as Princess William after the wedding ceremony, but HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. Any notion that the Queen would give her a title in her own right is also, for now at least, out of the window. Ergo, any press reports calling her Princess Catherine or Princess Kate will be wrong

The Dukedom of Cambridge became extinct in 1904 with the death of the grandson of George III and as a Marquessate in 1981.

The addition of Northern Ireland’s Baron Carrickfergus is interesting.

Unlike Daniel and Victoria, there won’t be a year and half of engagement time. The couple will marry next year in the spring or summer. Incidentally, would it have been so hard to set a date before sending out the announcement? One hopes that the health of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh holds up until then, anyway.

As William isn’t yet the first in line, Kate’s position won’t be the same as Diana. There is already someone in that spot. Furthermore, unlike Diana, she has grown up in a time where there aren’t all that many secrets left regarding the Family, as well as being quite a bit older than Diana was. The twosome will start out living in Wales, due to William’s training, so a bit more space than just hanging about in London.

I’ve already read comments that it was smart of them to wait until now, to avoid making the mistakes of his parents. Who certainly were good examples of how not to act in a royal marriage, no?

It can be debated again and again how/where/how much she should have been working prior to marriage, but with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh being well past retirement age, and Charles and Camilla approaching retirement age… There should surely be enough work to hand around.

With the Olympics and the Diamond jubilee coming in 2012, this seems like the ideal time to have a royal wedding. The Queen will surely have to foot a large portion of the cost, given the current cuts in everything, but it should also be an event bringing in the cash to Britain.

An engagement is a happy occasion. Even when one says yes to living on diaplay for the rest of her life.

Best of luck to them both.

In the meantime, he’s hunting at Sandringham, with his girlfriend.

Ladbrokes is taking bets on when the shave will come. Will he still be carrying a beard on the 25th?

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway grew a beard on his honeymoon to New York in 2001, that he still sports. As his wife said she prefers him with the beard, it might explain why it is still there.

Felipe of Asturias also grew a beard on his honeymoon. It lasted for a while, but eventually a razor got the better off it.

(According to Klikk.no, we’re now seeing the return of the beard in men’s fashion, and the rougher, the better, so maybe Wills is just following the times?)

Personally, I think that on some men, a beard can look excellent. In Haakon’s case, it helped him to get some definition to the face, and he doesn’t look quite as young and eager now as he did without one. William… well, it seems inevitable that it will go at some point, given the RAF stance.

But does the beard make him appear more grown up?