Oh dear. Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell Oprah interview aired, a debate has been underway in the press over allegations of racism in the monarchy. So Mr S read a comment piece on the progressive newspaper-turned-website the Independent with intrigue. With the eye catching title: ‘I’m a black British member of the aristocracy – I know what Meghan said was true’, Alexander J. Maier-Dlamini the 11th Marquess of Annaville, said that he had no doubt the Duke and Duchess were telling the truth given his own experiences in aristocratic circles.
The only problem? His title does not appear to actually exist.
Despite claiming to be the ‘last of the Irish peerages’ there is no record of ‘Annaville’ in the London Gazette, Burkes or the Roll of the Peerages. The only references to the title appear to be online and by or about the author – curious given that in theory there should, with ten previous holders, be a few hundred years worth of history.
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