Even if they do very little service ?
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Harry served 10 years including 2 tours of Afghanistan and William 7 and a half years of full time service. Charles was in both the Air force and Navy. Going futher back Prince Phillip served during the second world war across numerous theatres and operations including the Battle of Cape Matapan on HMS Valiant.
Afraid I cant give much information on why they have specific military titles but the King is the CnC of the armed forces.
There has always been a divide in the military between the enlisted and the officers. In countries that descended from monarchy, the division traditionally was that enlisted came from the lower classes while the officers came from the landed gentry. The idea being that these people were born into power and groomed to be leaders of men. Therefore, the ones who had that capacity would be ideal for commanding men on the battlefield.
Nowadays, that’s kind of antiquated and we get officers from all walks of life (though notably at least in the US, OCS recruits heavily from recent college grads, which does still retain a class element), but since there’s still a monarchy and a strong sense of tradition in Britain, their royal family goes into the military and become officers.
There’s likely a component of “do I want to be the general who demotes or disciplines the prince?” in how their military experience differs from even other officers, but that’s sheer speculation on my part.
Tradition, kings were commander in chief, princes were high ranking officers and military is nothing without its traditions.
The King as the Head of State is for lack of a better term the ‘commander of chief’ of the British Armed forces in the same way as the US President is for the American Armed Forces. The British Armed Forces technically report into the King.
On paper at least the Secretary of State for Defence and Prime Minister take on the role of making military decisions at the Kings pleasure. In other words the King technically puts them in charge of the military so he doesn’t have to do it.
The British military by tradition is the King’s hence why it’s the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
While the army historically was a combination of forces that belonged to the various nobles that was called upon by the King when needed. This is why it isn’t referred to as the Royal Army. Many of the current permanent regiments draw their names and history from noble armies.
The noble in question also often paid for the soldiers and equipment and by extension became the units commander. Which is in part why Officers and Enlisted men are separate, it is an extension of the Nobles vs common folk in the military.
Every year Parliament must pass a bill to continue to allow the King to maintain an army, otherwise by default all the British forces would have to be dissolved. This is was a check in the Kings power that remains to this day out of tradition and like many things in British Government isn’t super well enforced these days.
Since the Royals are so closely associated with the military they are almost all considered active service members.
Most attend military college, King Charles took classes at Royal Air Force College Cranwell and Royal Naval College Dartmouth.
King Charles actually served in the Royal Navy, Prince William was a Helicopter Pilot, and Prince Harry served in Afghanistan. So their military rank and service is legitimate, although William as the heir was kept out of harms way in England rather than being deployed.
King Charles’ medals are also legit, but if you look at what he has they are all good conduct medals, and medals you get for being in the Navy for a length of time. He has no campaign medals for example, meaning he wasn’t deployed to a war.
It is tradition that a royal be promoted at the same time as their peers even if they aren’t actively serving.
So if Williams classmates at college mostly got promoted to Major, William gets that promotion as well by default so that a royal doesn’t end up falling behind in rank compared to their peers. William currently holds the rank of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps.
King Charles technically holds the highest rank in each of the branches having been promoted by his Mother the Queen. Field Marshal, Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. These ranks are now technically moot as he is King and therefore higher in rank than even those.
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Many of the Royal Family have served in the armed forces as officers. Hence, they obtain rank.
I think Charles made it to a Commander before retiring.
He is also Colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment.
It’s an honorary position as a Royal patron and isn’t in the chain of command.
Many royals have this sort of title as well.
It comes from the tradition of Medieval Europe when the nobility was the fighting class and expected to lead in war. Especially the King. The current English monarchs are descendants of one of those Medieval families.
Many of the current Royal family did actually serve in the military as well. It’s a family tradition, you see.
Because the aristocracy is descended from the old warrior class when the king would lead his troops into battle. Prince, duke, earl, viscount, baron and count are all old military ranks.
Duke etymologically descends from the Latin ‘dux’ which translates as ‘leader’.
same reason that joe biden is commander in chief.
whether they’ve served or not their government titles include the others
(yes i know CIC doesn’t actually give military titles, but it’s a close comparison)
Why would the ROYAL family have high rank in the ROYAL Navy and the ROYAL air force?
Gee…
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