Princess Maud, later Countess of Southesk, was a granddaughter of the British king Edward VII. Maud and her elder sister, Alexandra, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title of Princess and the style of Highness. Despite the fact that they were not daughters of a royal duke, they were sometimes unofficially referred to with the territorial designation of Fife but in official documents, until their marriages, they were always styledHer Highness Princess Maud or Alexandra, without the territorial designation "of Fife". Although Princess Maud did not otherwise carry out royal engagements, because of her position in the Commonwealth's order of succession she served as a Counsellor of State between 1942 and 1945.
In 1900, Queen Victoria granted Maud's father a second dukedom of Fife in the peerage of the United Kingdom with a special remainder providing for the succession of the duke's daughters and their male-line descendants to the title, in default of a male heir. Maud became second in line to the dukedom, after her elder sister Alexandra, and her descendants would eventually succeed to the peerage. As a cognatic great-granddaughter of a British monarch, Maud was not entitled to the title of a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland nor to the attribute Royal Highness. Instead she was styled Lady Maud Duff, as the daughter of a duke. She was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne at the time of her birth. On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII gave Maud's mother the title of Princess Royal. He further ordered Garter King of Arms to gazette Maud and her sister with the style and attribute of Highness and the style of Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names, with precedence immediately after all members of the British royal family bearing the style of Royal Highness. She took part in the carriage procession for members of the royal family when she attended the funeral of Edward VII in 1910. She attended the coronation of her uncle, George V, on 22 June 1911 with the royal family, styled as "Her Highness Princess Maud" Maud's uncle, King George V, in letters patent dated 20 November 1917, restructured the styles and titles of the royal family by restricting the titles of Prince or Princess and the style of Royal Highness to the children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign's sons, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. The Letters Patent also stated that "the titles of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness, and the titular dignity of Prince and Princess shall cease except those titles already granted and remaining unrevoked". This had no direct effect on Maud and her sister, whose rank and style derived from the specific promotions granted to them by their grandfather, Edward VII. However, Maud complied with George V's wish that she stop using her title and style of Princess and Highness. He did not, however, retract the royal warrant conferring the princely title and attribute upon her. She rode in the carriage procession with members of the royal family at the funeral of George V in 1936; on this occasion she was styled in the London Gazette as "Lady Maud Carnegie". She also attended the coronation of her first cousin, King George VI in May 1937, taking part in the procession of Members of the royal family, but not in the procession for Princes and Princesses of the Blood Royal, and was officially styled as Lady Maud Carnegie.
Princess Maud consistently appeared at the Court of St. James's among the royal family, although she did not undertake official or public duties. During George VI's absence in Africa in 1943, Maud served as a Counsellor of State. At the time of her death in 1945, she was thirteenth in line to the British throne and heir presumptive to the dukedom of Fife, since her sister's only son Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, had died in 1943. Maud's only son James, Lord Carnegie, succeeded his aunt as 3rd Duke of Fife in 1959. He succeeded to his father's titles in 1992. Princess Maud died in a London nursing home on 14 December 1945 after a bout of acute bronchitis.
Titles and styles
3 April 1893 – 9 November 1905: Lady Maud Duff
9 November 1905 – 12 November 1923: Her Highness Princess Maud
12 November 1923 – 10 November 1941: Lady Maud Carnegie
10 November 1941 – 14 December 1945: The Right Honourable The Countess of Southesk
Though still entitled to the title and style of Princess and Highness after marriage, Maud chose to discontinue their use.
