It has already been announced that Westling will be known as Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, but now King Carl Gustaf is considering whether to bestow the HRH title, according to SVT.
The rank of Royal Highness is in the king’s personal gift.
“Daniel’s title is being discussed, although from what I have heard nothing has been decided yet,” Anette Wallner from the Royal Court’s press office told SVT’s Rapport programme.
The final decision on the title will be announced on Sunday, Wallner added. Westling will formally receive any title on his wedding day, 19th June.
Raising Daniel to the rank of HRH would give him the same status as other senior members of the Royal Family such as Prince Carl Philip, Princess Madeleine and Princess Lilian. Other members of the family, such as the king’s sisters, Princesses Margaretha, Desirée and Christina, lost the rank after marrying commoners.
There is no recent precedent in Sweden for the king to follow when deciding Daniel’s title, as Crown Princess Victoria is set to be the country’s first reigning queen since Ulrika Eleonora in the eighteenth century. But in other European monarchies, husbands of queens or female heirs to the throne have been granted the style HRH, such as in the case of Prince Henrik of Denmark or Britain’s Prince Phillip.
Magdalena Ribbing, etiquette expert for Dagens Nyheter newspaper, said a decision to grant the title would mean that Daniel would achieve the same rank as the Crown Princess.
“And that would actually be more equal, actually,” she said.
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