Princess Charlotte showing more confidence in public appearances.
10-year-old princess, 3rd in line to the throne, has started letting go of her mother's hand.
When Princess Charlotte stepped out in public recently, it was in many ways like previous appearances with her family.
Along with her parents, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, she and her brothers Prince George, 12, and Prince Louis, 7, smiled and greeted members of the public who had been waiting to see them.
But unlike past appearances where Charlotte has stayed close by her mother’s side and held her hand, the 10-year-old showed signs of increasing confidence, setting out on her own.
"We are seeing signs of [Charlotte] becoming more independent, but also reminders that she is still, certainly in the eyes of her parents and her family, just supposed to be a normal 10-year-old girl," Justin Vovk, a royal historian and member of the advisory board of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada, said in an interview.
At home, Charlotte and her brothers are just kids, Vovk said, noting that appears to be a high priority for William and Catherine.
"It's clear that they feel this is very important to their children in giving them stability for their futures and it is something that helps them connect with the general public in the way that previous generations of Royals have struggled with."
In that vein, Catherine made it clear the other day that Charlotte is tossing a rugby ball around now and then with her brothers, who have been playing the sport at school.
"Charlotte is playing rugby but at home with the family, so she isn't yet at school," the Daily Mail reported Catherine saying during a reception for members of England’s women’s rugby team at Windsor Castle.
That Charlotte would be playing rugby at home isn’t necessarily that surprising.
"All three of the children seem to have inherited a thorough enjoyment of outdoor pursuits, sports, things like that," said Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and visiting research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, in an interview.
"So given that both parents are themselves rugby enthusiasts, it would be surprising if [Charlotte] wasn't playing rugby."
Charlotte’s public profile is being very "carefully curated" by her parents, Rowbotham said.
"They have understood there is considerable press interest in them, in their children, in the Royal Family in general, and that keeping the children entirely out of the public eye is not sensible."
Along the way, Charlotte has developed "sufficient confidence in her own right, very possibly more self-confidence than her older brother," Rowbotham said, noting also that she is no longer clutching onto her mother’s hand when they appear in public.
"If she's holding anybody's hand, it's likely to be Louis’s.… There is a definite big sister dynamic between that pair and she very clearly takes seriously her big sister responsibility to tell her … younger brother off for inappropriate behaviour."
Charlotte is third in the line of succession for the throne, behind her father and elder brother, George. Changes in 2013 abolished male-preference primogeniture in the succession, meaning a younger son would no longer displace an older daughter. In other words, Louis does not bump Charlotte down the list.
As the younger sibling of someone who will be the direct heir to the throne, Charlotte also finds herself in the role of the spare.
It’s a role that has come under particular scrutiny through the experiences of others who at one point were the younger sibling of the direct heir, whether it was Princess Margaret, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor or Prince Harry.
Vovk questions whether the term "the spare heir" has as much currency anymore, at least with the Waleses.
"We do see [George] out at certain events with his parents. I'm thinking … when he was meeting with veterans — and certain activities that are important for him to learn in terms of what his constitutional responsibilities will be," said Vovk. "But for the most part, when we see the children out, we see them out together. There doesn't seem to be that much differentiation between George and Charlotte and Louis."
King Charles’s younger sister, Princess Anne, was the spare for a few years, before the birth of Andrew in 1960, and Rowbotham says it’s likely that Anne has offered William and Catherine some advice on the matter of being a spare.
William and Catherine are, Rowbotham said, trying to concentrate on not pressuring any of their children in any particular direction. She noted, for example, the emergence a few years ago of indications that Prince George would not be put under pressure to automatically join one of the Armed Forces.
"They did not say he would not. They very carefully said it's going to be up to him to choose what he wants to do," said Rowbotham.
"And I think they're very carefully taking the same approach, trying to make sure that Charlotte has a sense that she can grow up to be pretty much who she wants to be."
Still, Charlotte is likely to have more opportunity to chart her own course than George will.
"Because she is not expected to become the sovereign, she has a degree of quote-unquote freedom in terms of being able to choose causes a little bit more broadly than George does," Vovk said.
"I think we will learn a lot about her in the coming years just by the projects she becomes involved in."
William and Catherine are ensuring Charlotte mixes with enough people who can show her alternatives to just being a working royal, Rowbotham said.
"That, I think, is a careful strategy to ensure that she doesn't feel she is just the spare."
Back to battle the media again.
Prince Harry was back in court in London this past week, continuing his legal battles with the media. But this most recent time in the witness box turned emotional.
His voice cracked in the High Court as he spoke of how alleged media intrusion "made my wife’s life an absolute misery," the BBC reported.
Media intrusion — particularly from the British tabloids — has long been a target of Harry, who now lives in California with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their two children.
As Harry keeps pursuing these cases — this is the third — it does appear to be wearing on him, said Vovk.
"The composure and the … stiff upper lip that is the hallmark of the Royal Family is starting to fade."
The current case alleging unlawful means of gathering information by Associated Newspapers Limited involves celebrity claimants including singer Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley. It is expected to last into March.
Business as usual — and no visit with Harry.
As Prince Harry was in London for his court appearance, other members of the Royal Family were getting about with royal business as usual.
While Harry had a short visit with his father, King Charles, in London back in September — their first meeting in nearly two years — no such get-together was on the books this time around.
"This is a serious court case. The judge sits in one of His Majesty's courts," said Rowbotham. "No way, without causing a constitutional crisis, could Charles go anywhere near him. Nor the Queen, nor the Prince of Wales, nor the Princess of Wales. They could not meet him."
On Tuesday, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were in Scotland, with engagements focusing on Scottish heritage traditions, including curling and weaving.
"There's a clear effort to be strengthening the monarchy’s Scottish ties and to be promoting unity and co-operation at a time when those principles around the world seem to be directly under threat," said Vovk.
William and Catherine also visited a community-run pub in a former mining village. While they were there, William praised the role pubs can play in their communities.
"I want to help pubs," he said, according to a report in the Daily Mail. "This is the best place to come and get to know each other."
William’s comments reflected a theme common in his royal work.
"He didn't just talk about getting a pint," said Vovk.
"He talked about … the cultural function pubs serve to make social connections, to bring people together in a way that you don't get through the internet, through television," said Vovk.
"It really reinforces the emphasis that the [William and Catherine] place on making genuine person-to-person connections."
Engagements this week by King Charles and Queen Camilla featured diplomacy — he met with the president of Indonesia — and long-standing philanthropic interests — she visited a charity that supports people with cancer.
Camilla offered words of praise for the founder of the charity, Maggie Keswick Jencks, saying she was "convinced that people living with cancer crave a beautiful, comforting environment as they face the unknown; a place where they needn’t pretend to be fine; where they can receive expert support, sympathy and a cup of tea — and where laughter can come as naturally as tears, because sometimes that’s what’s wanted."
Trump, King Charles and a U.S. visit to be confirmed
When U.S. President Donald Trump threatened the U.K. — among other European countries — with further tariffs over their support for Greenland as an autonomous Danish territory, it set off all manner of speculation about the fate of an unconfirmed but widely expected state visit by King Charles to the U.S. this year.
"Trump gives King a Greenland-sized headache," read the headline in The Telegraph earlier this week, after the U.S. president turned his attention to talking up his desire to acquire Greenland.
The tariff threat has faded, with Trump now saying he has a "framework of a future deal" on Greenland.
That "actually does change the game quite a bit in terms of a royal visit," Vovk said via email Thursday.
Tags: Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Louis, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Meghan, Lilibet
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