This morning Buckingham Palace announced that Princess Beatrice is pregnant with her first child.
The Queen’s fifth eldest grandchild, daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, is expecting a baby this autumn with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
A Buckingham Palace statement said: "Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are very pleased to announce that they are expecting a baby in autumn of this year.
"The Queen has been informed and both families are delighted with the news."
Unlike her cousins Zara Tindall and Peter Philips, and Lady Louise Windsor and James Viscount Severn, Beatrice and sister Eugenie do hold royal titles.
That is because only sons and daughters of the monarch and the children of the sons are entitled to be called prince or princess.
So as they are Prince Andrew’s children, Beatrice and Eugenie are princesses and Charles’ sons William and Harry are princes.
As Anne is the queen’s daughter, her children Zara and Peter were not guaranteed a title. They were offered courtesy ones by the Queen, but Anne declined.
Prince Edward’s children, daughter Louise and son James, do not have HRH titles either but that was his and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex’s decision.
But what about Princess Beatrice’s child - will he or she inherit a royal title?
In the UK, titles pass down through the male line, and therefore, if the father does not have a title, neither will the child – regardless of whether their mother is a princess.
The only way Beatrice's child could inherit a title, therefore, is if the Queen bestows an earldom on Edoardo.
But, as Hello Magazine reports, this does seem unlikely. If the monarch was to grant Edoardo an earldom, it's likely that decision would have occurred at the time of their wedding.
However Beatrice's child will inherit a title, just not a royal one.
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When she married Edoardo last summer, Beatrice became an Italian 'Contessa' or 'Nobile Donna' (noble woman.)
Edoardo's father Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, 68, who descends from Italian aristocracy, told Mail Online prior to the wedding: "Edoardo is the only male descendent taking the family into the next generation.
"He is a count – his wife will be a countess automatically and any of their children will be counts or nobile donna."
