The king's permission to marry was not sought because it was expected to be denied, since Christian's "fiancée" was an untitled commoner. Though Frederick IX had liberalized traditional practice by allowing royal spouses who were not themselves royal, but who claimed noble blood and were known by courtesy titles (Anne Bowes-Lyon was the granddaughter of an earl, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, and through her first marriage to the son of an earl bore the title of viscountess; Henri de Laborde de Monpezat used the title of count, though his family's claim to nobility was later acknowledged to be flawed), it would not be until 1995 that Margrethe II would allow her children to marry commoners with neither title nor claim to noble blood. Christian was given the title count of Rosenborg and the style of Excellency, as was customary in the twentieth century for Danish princes who renounced or forfeited their dynastic rights.