User:John Kenney/Tuvaluan Royal Family

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The Tuvaluan Royal Family is a shared royal family. This article describes the Royal Family from the perspective of Tuvalu. In some other Commonwealth Realms, the concept, function and position of the royal family is similar, but the historical and cultural significance may differ. For information on the Royal Family in the other Realms, see Other Realms.

The Tuvaluan Royal Family is a group of people closely related to the Tuvaluan Monarch; it is a non-resident royal family, as those who comprise the group live in the United Kingdom. The Tuvaluan government maintains an official list of Royal Family members. Those on the list carry the style His or Her Majesty (HM), His or Her Royal Highness (HRH), or sometimes The Right Honourable.

1 Composition
2 Styles
3 See also
- 3.1 Other Realms
- 3.2 Other
4 Footnotes

[edit] Composition

Members of the Royal Family in the direct line of succession owe allegiance to the Sovereign in right of Tuvalu. As such, they are subjects of the Tuvaluan Sovereign, although not strictly Tuvaluan citizens, and thus, though they do not have an automatic right of abode in Tuvalu, they are entitled to Tuvaluan consular assistance and to the protection of the Queen's Armed Forces of Tuvalu when they are outside of the Commonwealth Realms, and in need of protection or assistance.

The current Tuvaluan Royal Family are members of the House of Windsor. Though the Tuvaluan Crown is recognized as legally separate from the UK Crown, the two countries (along with the fourteen other Commonwealth Realms) are in a personal union relationship, meaning they share the same Monarchy. Thus, all the members of the Tuvaluan Royal Family also comprise the British Royal Family.

Tuvalu could potentially break from the symmetrical relationship with the other Realms, giving it a different Royal Family to that of the other countries.

Apart from Tuvalu, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family regularly perform public duties in the other fifteen nations of the Commonwealth in which the Queen is Head of State (see, for example, List of Commonwealth visits made by Queen Elizabeth II). As the Crown within these countries is a legally separate entity from the Tuvaluan Crown, it is funded in these countries individually, through the ordinary legislative budgeting process.

After the divorce of the Prince of Wales from Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1996, the Princess's name was removed from the official list of Royal Family honourees.^[1]

[edit] Styles

In Tuvalu, only the Sovereign has a title established through law. Other members of the Royal Family are accorded a courtesy title, usually the title they have been granted in the United Kingdom.

Further information: Style of the Tuvaluan Sovereign