List of British royal consorts

Since the union of England and Scotland in 1707, there have been ten consorts of the British monarch. Queens between 1727 and 1814 were also Electress of Hanover, as their husbands all held the title of Elector of Hanover. Between 1814 and 1837, queens held the title as Queen of Hanover, as their husbands were Kings of Hanover. The personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria because the succession laws (Salic Law) in Hanover prevented a female inheriting the title if there was any surviving male heir (in the United Kingdom, a male took precedence over only his own sisters, until the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 which removed male primogeniture). In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became the Province of Hanover.

Not all wives of monarchs have become consorts, as they may have died, been divorced, had their marriage declared invalid prior to their husbands' ascending the throne, or married after abdication. Such cases include:

• Divorced before spouse became monarch: Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of George, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (the future King George I), married 22 November 1682, divorced 28 December 1694, died 13 November 1726.
• Invalid marriage before spouse became monarch: Maria Fitzherbert, wife of George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), married 15 December 1785, marriage invalid, died 27 March 1837.
• Married after spouse abdicated: Wallis Warfield, wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII), married 3 June 1937, widowed 28 May 1972, died 24 April 1986.

An unusual case was that of Caroline of Brunswick, who had separated from her husband George IV prior to his accession, and although his consort in law, had no position at court and was forcibly barred from attending George IV's coronation and being crowned. This caused public outrage.

Only George I and Edward VIII were unmarried throughout their reigns.

All female consorts have had the right to be and have been styled as queens consort. However, of the three British male consorts to have existed since 1707, none was considered king consort:

• Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne likewise never received the official style of Prince Consort, but was raised to the peerage of England as the Duke of Cumberland in 1689, several years before his wife's accession in 1702.
• Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria, did not take an English peerage title but was granted the title of Prince Consort as a distinct title, in 1857, the only male consort in either the United Kingdom or its predecessor realms to have officially held the title. It was suggested at first that he would become king consort, but this was decided against by the Government.
• Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, already raised to the peerage as Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, was made a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957. He was not styled as Prince Consort.

If Charles, Prince of Wales ascends the throne, his current/second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will automatically take on the title and style pertaining to the queen consort unless legislation is passed to the contrary. It has been stated, however, that it is intended that she should be styled not as a queen consort, but as "princess consort"[1] although all references to "princess consort" were removed by both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House on their respective websites by the summer of 2018.[2] In 2020, however, Clarence House confirmed that plans for Camilla to adopt the style of princess consort remain unchanged.[3]

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