of Gloucester, and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. The former was not a princess by birth, while the latter was born a princess of Greece and Denmark. Both women asked the Queen to use their given names after their husbands' deaths. Wife of a prince who has a peerage: HRH The Duchess/Countess of X, or, prior to 1917, possibly HH Since 1996, divorced wife of a prince who held a peerage: N, Duchess/Countess of X. (e.g. Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York) Wife of a son of a Sovereign, who has no peerage: HRH The Princess Husband. Wife of another prince who has no peerage: HRH Princess Husband of X. (X usually taken from father's Dukedom) Prior to 1917, the wife of a prince in the third generation, who has no peerage: HH Princess Husband of X. Exceptions There were only two historical princesses who would have been exceptions to the 1917 rule, but they died long before that. The sisters Sophia Matilda and Caroline Augusta Maria born in 1773 and 1774 were male line great-granddaughters of George II. All of the other exceptions were still alive in 1917 and were no longer permitted to use the style of HRH and Princess. There have been several exceptions in recent history to these rules, but all have come by order of the Sovereign, mostly through letters patent. In November 1905, King Edward VII allowed the two daughters of Louise, Princess Royal to use a princely title and the style of Highness. They were not entitled to the style of Royal Highness. The 1917 letters patent which stripped great-grandchildren of a British sovereign of the style of Highness with a princely title was complicated as it did not technically overrule Edward VII's letters patent, as the former practice was mostly an unspoken courtesy as opposed to a written rule. The elder sister, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, was already married by that time, to Prince Arthur of Connaught: he was a male-line grandson of Victoria, and so entitled to use the style of Royal Highness. Alexandra was therefore styled Her Royal Highness Princess Arthur of Connaught from her 1913 marriage for the rest of her life, and the 1917 letters patent did not change this. Her younger sister, Princess Maud, on the other hand, was unmarried in 1917. Until her 1923 marriage, she continued to use the title of