,
8 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
It took 24 hours to get to the bottom of this but in today’s Daily Express we report on how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - and indeed the Queen - are in breach of a legal requirement to make the names of Archie’s godparents available to the public. 
Details of christenings, including the names of godparents, are normally recorded in parish registers available for inspection on request. It had initially looked like private chapels such as the one at Windsor Castle were not covered by the requirement. In fact, they are.
But christenings of royal babies are recorded in a special royal register held privately by the Queen. Normally this wouldn’t matter so much because the palace would announce the names of the godparents. On this occasion, however, Harry and Meghan are breaking with precedent.
A spokesperson for the Church of England told the Daily Express: “Under the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 all baptisms must be registered and the record made is normally publicly available for searches and for the making of certified copies.”
“However the register to be used in this case is held privately by the Royal Household on behalf of the Crown and we understand that it has never complied with the usual requirement.”
So essentially, according to the Church of England’s lawyers, the Royal Family has been flouting this requirement. The UK Parliament says Church of England measures are laws with the same force and effect as Acts of Parliament.
So Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor appears to be one of a tiny number of royal children for whom it is not possible to obtain christening details because the family ignores the law. His great-grandmother is Supreme Governor of the Church and @JustinWelby is christening him.
In the past the palace has announced the godparents, as far as I can tell, for senior royals. eg When Princess Margaret’s daughter, Lady Sarah Chatto, was born she was seventh in line to the throne, like Archie. The godparents, none of them public figures, were named.
