Sophie Wessex was offered Kate Middleton's title - but Prince Edward stepped in
ok.co.ukThe Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh have seen a huge and deserving rise in their popularity in recent years.The couple first met during a charity event at the Queen's Tennis Club in London in 1993 and announced their engagement six years later on January 6, 1999.
Ahead of their wedding, the palace announced that the pair would be styled as The Earl and Countess of Wessex.The news came as a surprise to the public as it was expected that Edward, the Queen's youngest son, would be given a traditional Dukedom like his two elder brothers.
However, it later came to light that the monarch had offered Edward and Sophie the Dukedom of Cambridge (the title which the Prince and Princess of Wales were granted when they married in 2011), but the Prince refused it for a very surprising reason.
In becoming an Earl, rather than a Duke, Prince Edward was the first royal in his position since Tudor times. But the unusual title wasn't a snub from the late Queen at all, and it was actually his request to be titled the Earl of Wessex.
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