Lady Louise Windsor is not a working member of the Royal Family, but as she gets older there may be “space” for her to work for the Firm, according to a royal expert.
The daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Louise celebrated her 20th birthday earlier this month and is currently studying for an English Literature degree at St Andrews University in Scotland.
Her and her younger brother James, Earl of Wessex, were also not granted the titles of Prince or Princess, similarly to their cousins Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, as their parents wanted them to have as normal a life as possible.
However, now the number of working royals has been depleted thanks to the departure of Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, meaning there could be room for Louise to step up and take on more royal responsibility.
Richard Fitzwilliams told GB News that there are a large number of organisations and institutions which previously had a royal patron, so that “does leave a space for Lady Louise Windsor, possibly.”
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He added: “What has been obvious and Princess Anne pointed it out a while ago, is that when King Charles came to the throne, there was all this talk about a slimmed-down monarchy. Firstly, the monarchy had already been slipped down with the Sussexes and Andrew no longer performing royal duties.
“Secondly, there are only four working royals under the age of 70. So with some of those, Princess Alexandra, the Duke of Kent and so forth, there is a time limit to what these individuals can achieve.
“When it comes to Princess Anne, she’s done a tremendous amount and she undoubtedly will for the foreseeable.
“But the facts are simply that the Duke of Edinburgh had 992 patronages, the late Queen Elizabeth II had 600, and Charles had over 800 as the Prince of Wales. There isn’t the possibility of taking all those up with the current set of working royals.”
Mr Fitzwilliams also referenced Prince William’s recent speech in Singapore, where he talked about his desire for more radical social change helped by the Royal Family.
The Prince of Wales launched his Homewards project this year to try and tackle homelessness in the UK, and his Earthshot Prize has awarded millions of pounds worth of grants to help fight climate change.
Princess Kate also has her own specialist area of philanthropy, as she has dedicated herself to improving early years learning and development for children, launching her own campaign Shaping Us at the beginning of the year.
Out of all the late Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren, Louise was said to be her favourite as the pair bonded during the family’s trips to Balmoral.
A royal insider told The Sun in 2019: “The Queen loves the fact that Louise and James relish their time at Balmoral, and she has become particularly close to Louise, who seems to have become her favourite grandchild, closely followed by James.”
Born in December 2007, James was the Queen’s youngest grandchild, thirty years after her oldest grandchild Peter Phillips, who was born in November 1977.
