I recently bought a recruit mercanary (the cheapest one) and when they arrived i was shocked to see that they had a royal title, not just any they were a count, a max lvl psycaster, with 5 available royal permits. all this for less than 3000 silver with the discount i used, i believe that it would make sense that mercanaries have no royal title, and if you want a mercanary with a royal title you should have to pay a lot extra.