Princess Charlotte is set to break a centuries-old royal dilemma, according to experts. The young royal is often praised for her poise in public, and she regularly reminds her brothers, Prince George and Prince Louis, of royal etiquette; at the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022, Charlotte was spotted telling George when to bow, and she was also seen telling Louis off for dancing on the Buckingham Palace balcony last year.
However, she is also reported to be a strong and fearless member of the Wales family. During a public engagement in 2017 – when Charlotte was just 2 years old – Princess Catherine told those in attendance that she was already ‘the one in charge’ at home, and at school, her nickname was ‘Warrior Princess’.
Although she’s just 10 years old, Charlotte’s royal future is already being assembled behind the scenes, according to insiders. Shortly before she was born, Queen Elizabeth II officially changed the rules around the order of succession and according to political and contemporary historian Dr Nige Fletcher, this has completely changed the historical ‘heir and spare’ narrative. In a new Channel 5 documentary, Royal Heirs and Spares: Rivalry and Resentment, he explains (per Sky News): “For the first time in British history, the spare is a princess, even though she has a younger brother. Princess Charlotte is in line after George, after a change in the law, and she now outranks her brother, Louis.”
In his memoir, Prince Harry discussed how he felt impacted by the ‘heir and the spare’ attitude, and he also said he ‘worries’ about Charlotte and Louis facing a similar fate. At the time of the book release, he told The Telegraph: “Though William and I have talked about it once or twice, and he has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility, I still feel a responsibility knowing that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare. And that hurts, that worries me.”
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According to insiders, William and Kate are working hard to ensure that their three children remain close despite the fact that George will have to follow a different path. A source told New Idea that George and Charlotte are already veering away from the ‘fraternal curse’, claiming: “William’s observed there’s much less competition between George and Charlotte, who’s become her big brother’s number one cheerleader. She wants him to be the best, and he trusts her to tell him the truth, even when it hurts.”
They added: “It’s a very similar dynamic to Charles and Anne, who would have made an incredible monarch. William and Kate agree that modernising the succession rules and the arrival of Charlotte may have stopped this awful fraternal curse.”
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