Titles Deprivation Act 1917

Background

The British Royal Family was closely related to many of the royal and princely families of Germany. In particular, the 1837 accession of Queen Victoria had caused the Kingdom of Hanover, which had been in personal union with the British crown for over a century, to pass to her uncle the Duke of Cumberland and his descendants, who simultaneously retained his British titles and princely rank. Similarly, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, whose German titles passed eventually to the descendants of their youngest son Leopold, Duke of Albany. Thus, during World War I, both Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover were British princes and dukes, even while they were also officers in the German Army (as was the latter's son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, who also held British princely rank).

In Parliament, beginning on 18 November 1914, Swift MacNeill, a Protestant Irish Nationalist and constitutional scholar who served as Member of Parliament for South Donegal, condemned the Dukes of Albany and Cumberland as traitors and demanded to know "what steps will be taken to secure that [they] shall no longer retain United Kingdom peerages and titles and a seat in the House of Lords." Despite meeting resistance from Prime Ministers Asquith and Lloyd George, MacNeil continued his campaign until losing his seat after the 1918 election. After MacNeill lost his seat, Horatio Bottomley, Member for Hackney South, took up the charge.

On 13 May 1915, King George V struck the names of seven German and Austrian royals (some of whom had never been British) from the roll of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter; but peerage titles cannot be withdrawn except by Act of Parliament. In 1917, therefore, Parliament passed the Titles Deprivation Act authorising the deprivation of peerage titles, as well as princely dignities.

Deprivation of titles

The Act allowed the King to establish a committee of the Privy Council, which was to include at least two members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The committee was empowered to take evidence and report the names of British peers or princes "who have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or who have adhered to His Majesty's enemies". The report would then be laid before both Houses of Parliament; if neither House passed a motion disapproving of the report within forty days, it was to be submitted to the King, whereupon the persons named therein would lose all British dignities. Thereafter, a successor of a person thus deprived of a peerage would be allowed to petition the Crown for revival of the deprived title; the petition would be referred to a committee of the Privy Council, which would recommend whether the petitioner be reinstated or not.

Under the Act, the King appointed to the committee:

The committee was established by an Order in Council issued by the King on 27 November 1917.

The committee issued its report on 1 August 1918 and it was thereafter laid before the Houses of Parliament. Since no resolution was passed by either House disapproving of the report, it was presented to the King on 28 March 1919, and, on the same date the King issued an Order in Council depriving the following persons of their titles (the names are listed in the form given in the King's Order in Council):

In addition to the Dukedom of Albany and the Dukedom of Cumberland and Teviotdale (the latter title being represented by two of the four people above), the title of Viscount Taaffe was also lost by its bearer. The Viscounts Taaffe had emigrated from Ireland to Austria in the 1700s and had served the Austrian emperor since that time, even while their Irish title was confirmed as recently as 1860.

No descendant of any of these four persons has ever petitioned the Crown for the revival of their titles.