Saturday, June 9, 2018

Thank you from Charlotte




A thank you for Princess Charlotte's third birthday.  This photo was taken by the Duchess of Cambridge for Charlotte's first day of school.

4 comments:

Kalnel said...

I guess the royal proofreader is locked up in the Tower!

Michelle said...

Was a bit surprised to see them reuse this picture on her birthday. I always love the ones of the kids at home! I so wish they'd do a documentary similar to the one Charles & Diana did with William & Harry in the late 1980s, showing bits of their private lives. Obviously that isn't going to happen but one can dream! At least we've seen plenty of them recently: the hospital, the wedding, Trooping the Colour, and pictures today of Kate, George & Charlotte at polo. Getting spoiled!

Do you know if there is any sort of precedent that would indicate what will happen to the Trooping the Colour balcony appearance once Charles is king? I know he's in favor of a slimmed-down monarchy, and the fact of the matter is that you can't include generation after generation of cousins, etc. indefinitely simply due to the eventual lack of space. At some point there's going to be an end to including the descendants of the more distant family members. Given Charles' opinion on slimming things down and the fact that the start of a new reign would create a natural point at which to exclude certain people, I wonder if that will be the case. Still, it would seem somewhat... I don't know... not cold, but uncomfortable, perhaps, to suddenly exclude people who have always been included. I was surprised at Harry's decision to exclude certain family members from his wedding given that people he didn't even know were included, but I don't know if that's solely down to him or if the Queen agrees. She had to have at least approved of his plan or else they'd have been there, but that doesn't necessarily mean she liked it, just that she was okay with letting Harry make the decisions. If it's reflective of the view of the most senior royals as a whole, might we expect to see far fewer family members on the balcony under King Charles? Is there a precedent for the eventual exclusion of certain relatives, or has this even been "a thing" for long enough to have any sort of precedent?

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The balcony includes the children and grandchildren of royal highnesses -- so when the Dukes of Kent & Gloucester, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael, are no longer with us, their families will no longer be included. Rare to Princess Margaret's kids and grandkids on the balcony. So expect to see the balcony, at some time in the future, to include Charles and siblings and their children and grandchildren.

Unknown said...

I agree - at the moment it is descendants of George V. Am sure that a new reign will see only descendants of George VI on the balcony - Snowdons and Chattos included but as you say they are rarely there even now...