Prince Harry has children. Those children will have children and so on. How many generation is it that the mother/father is royalty but the kids are not and considered a common folk?
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The clue is in the word hereditary, all the children and children of the monarch’s bloodline will be royal, and they will all be in line to the throne. until they get Romanov’ed or the UK abolishes the monarchy (something that will be very hard with the law of Kings Consent (the power to veto anything in parliament or the house of lords that effect royal interests)
There is no rule here because there is no rule about what constitutes the royal family. The Royal house hold has published lists and here is one:
[https://www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/media/annex_d_-_royal_family_11.pdf](https://www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/media/annex_d_-_royal_family_11.pdf)
But the people not on that list aren’t necessarily commoners either.
It depends on the country. Some countries have extensive royal families (and nobility who are not themselves royal but also not commoners) such as the UK. Others, such as Japan have very limited royal families.
In the UK there are basically three levels of society. The nobility (ie people with titles), the gentry (people without titles but above commoners, historically land owners), and the commoners. The rules on who goes where is somewhat complicated but you can look them up if you want.
As for the British Royal family, the King/Queen can generally decide to grant titles to whomever they want, but custom and societal pressures do place some limits. Since a decree by King George V in 1917 the children and grandchildren of the current sovereign have the right to the titles of Prince or Princess. So outside of the main line of succession you’ll lose the automatic right to a title of Prince or Princess after three generations. The great grand nieces and nephews of Charles III for example would not be entitled to Prince or Princess by that rule.
However, members of the British Royal family may (and many do) also hold other noble titles (such as Duke, Earl, etc) which may or may not be hereditary and pass down to their heirs or entitle their children to Noble titles. The rules for these are quite complicated and differ from title to title and realm to realm (England, Scottland, Wales, etc).
Finally, while they may not automatically gain titles, descendants of previous monarchs may remain in the line of succession to the throne. There are, as of last count over 5,700 living descendants of the British Royal line, some obviously very distant from the current main line. That may seem like a lot but one need not actually look very far to find the first person in the line of succession who does not currently have a title and is thus technically a commoner, and that would be Prince Harry’s son Archie, currently 6th in line to the throne. There is some question remaining of whether he and his sister will become Prince and Princess per the rules of George V (Charles III can change them), but assuming they do get titles it’s only a few more steps to the next current commoner, #10 in line Sienna Mozzi, daughter of Princess Beatrice, grand-niece of Charles III.
Due to A) Queen Victoria having so many children and grandchildren as well as B) World War I, the 1917 Royal edict limited “royalness” to the children of the Monarch and the male-line grandchildren of a Monarch.
Of course the sitting King (or ruling Queen) can adjust that – prior to young Prince George’s birth in 2013, there hadn’t been a living Monarch who had a living Prince of Wales (Charles) who had a living heir apparent (William) who in turn also had an heir apparent (George) in a very long time, if ever.
Elizabeth did not amend the 1917 edict. She wrote out Letters Patent, specific grants of nobility (or in this case, royalty) to ensure George, and later Charlotte and Louis, were granted the styles of “Prince” or “Princess” and the right to be address as “His/Her Royal Highness”, since William was going to be the next Prince of Wales.
A good example of the status quo is HRH Prince Richard, the current Duke of Gloucester. His father was HRH Prince Henry, the 1st Duke of Gloucester, and his grandfather was HM King George V.
Prince Richard’s oldest son, though, is Lord Alexander Windsor. Once Prince Richard dies and passes the title, Alexander will become His Grace the (3rd) Duke of Gloucester. He’ll be a Duke, and that’s no small thing, but because his last royal ancestor was a great-grandparent, he won’t be a Royal Duke.
So to answer your question – assuming descent from younger siblings of a Monarch, no unexpected deaths/abdications, and no marriages to or inheritances from other royals or noble title-holders? Three generations to go from HRH to plain Lord/Lady, and a couple generations more to become a plain old Mister or Miss.
When they run out of money, power, and influence. Or when the rest of the world stops over idolizing people who are obviously no different than anyone else besides from their born into status. Humans love to gossip and they love a soap opera, or celebrity tabloids, which is why I think royalty is fascinating to people.
Prince Harry’s cousin Zara (daughter of princess Anne) does not have the title princess, but Prince Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenia do
There’s a technical explanation in this newspaper article, but the late queen’s eldest grandchildren are commoners
So it can be two generations
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/zara-tindall-princess-mike-why-not-b1024994.html
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