Princess of Wales’ birthday low key
London: As birthdays go – one fit for a future queen that is – the celebration was low key.
And who can blame the Princess of Wales for marking her 42nd birthday with jelly and ice cream at home with the children rather than something more high-profile, after the whirlwind of recent months?
It is, after all, little more than a year since the late Queen’s death and Catherine’s promotion to Princess of Wales. And it is an elevation which means there is no buffer now between her and William and the throne.
While William has had to step up as the new Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and take on a whole host of further responsibilities, the demands have also been noticeable for his wife. And things are going to start shifting up a gear.
There is much chatter in royal circles that King Charles might even seal his daughter-in-law’s new position in the near future by appointing her as a Royal Lady of the Order of the Garter, the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain, established by Edward III almost 700 years ago, inspired by the tales of King Arthur and the gallantry of his Knights of the Round Table.
The appointment, personally chosen by the monarch for service to the crown or national life, would cement her seniority and place her alongside Queen Camilla, the Princess Royal, Princess Alexandra (and the Royal Knights who include her husband Prince William, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester).
Catherine normally watches the annual Garter Day procession, where the King and his Knights and Ladies walk from Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel, in their grand velvet robes and ostrich-plumed caps, from the chapel’s Galilee Porch.
But many senior figures believe that after more than ten years of peerless royal service she deserves a place in their ranks in her own right.
There is also talk that the Princess – as well as her husband – might be given the power to issue her own Royal Warrants for the first time.
Pressure is growing on the King to decide which members of the family he should permit to issue these sought-after marks of honour, a tradition which dates back to the Middle Ages and enables senior royals to allow companies who regularly provide them with goods or services to use their coat of arms.
Holding a Royal Warrant, which can be displayed on their business premises, products, packaging, stationery, advertising and vehicles, offers huge commercial kudos both at home and abroad.
And while it is likely that the King will first issue some new Royal Warrants of his own, and let Camilla also do so for the first time, the prospect of Princess of Wales warrants would be welcome in many quarters.
Several existing holders I have spoken to believe the value to British businesses of having the Princess of Wales officially endorse them would be almost incalculable.
‘It would be a huge boost to British industry,’ said one. ‘Interest would go through the roof, particularly in areas such as fashion and lifestyle.’
A royal source told me that the issue of whether the Prince and Princess of Wales would get the power to issue their own Royal Warrants was a ‘grey area’ and that a final decision rested with Buckingham Palace.
‘They are aware of it. Hopefully something will happen sooner rather than later,’ they added.
I am also told this year may see the Princess of Wales undertake her first solo royal overseas visit for two years, the last being to Denmark in February 2022.
While there is nothing in the diary yet, it is said to be something that the Princess is ‘actively considering’, in addition to a working trip to Rome with her husband this spring, which I exclusively revealed in the Mail last month, and is long overdue.
For while the Waleses are a formidable force together, travelling abroad on her own would give Catherine a chance to spread her wings and better highlight the causes she is personally passionate about.
Her last official trip overseas more than a year ago was to Boston in support of her husband’s Earthshot Prize awards.
Indeed, the Princess’s workload is something that often prompts debate — and can elicit complaints that she is not pulling her weight.
The annual round-up of royal engagements published last month (unofficial, but rarely disagreed with by palace aides) calculated that she carried out just 134 engagements in the previous 12 months – approximately one every three days.
It is without doubt a fraction of those carried out by other senior royals well into pensionable age, including the King (516), Princess Anne (410) and even the 79-year-old Duke of Gloucester (190), and quietly noted to be a ‘little on the low side’.
The mother-of-three takes a seat alongside a group of children as they took part in a series of activities during the day-out in Copenhagen
This is something that rankles those close to her, however, who stress that she and her husband have long made clear their desire to be more involved with a smaller number of charities, both in front of and behind the scenes.
One tells me: ‘What the court circular numbers don’t show is the hours and hours she spends with the team designing the programmes you see in public.
‘Like her husband, she is deep in the reeds of the planning, something which isn’t reflected in the number of engagements undertaken each year. It’s irritating.’
Others point out that even as Princess of Wales, Catherine’s priority remains her children: Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis.
And if recent public engagements are anything to go by, she is successfully managing to raise three well-adjusted youngsters who are gently coming to terms with the huge public interest in them.
Moving to Windsor in 2022, where the family of five have settled nicely in the decidedly cosy (by royal terms) four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage, definitely helped them all adjust to their new status.
While the sad death of Queen Elizabeth in the autumn of that year — on the day the children started at Lambrook School — put paid to plans for them to spend more time with Gan-Gan, the move has been ‘good for them all’, says one who knows them well.
There’s a trampoline in the garden and the children can often be seen cycling around the Windsor estate with their parents.
William and Kate share the school run and are a familiar feature cheering on at the sidelines of their children’s sports matches – even queuing for the tombola at the recent Christmas fair – and admired as ‘a lovely little family,’ by locals. Nevertheless, while the children are at school, Catherine has been working hard on a number of key initiatives, the fruits of which are due to be shared imminently.
As always, her passion to highlight the crucial early years of childhood and how our experiences between birth and the age of five affect us as adults is her main priority.
In the early part of the year the Princess will make public the work of her ‘business task force’ which has been investigating the role industry can play in child development.
And, to be fair, it’s to her immense credit that she has already attracted the involvement of some huge businesses – Lego, IKEA, NatWest, Unilever, Avila, Deloitte, Co-op and Iceland – just months into the project.
An increasingly confident public performer – although by no means the finished article – she’s also keen to take on more of a ‘social leadership’ role like her husband.
‘She’s always thought long-term change, not short-term gain. There’s no rush for an easy win,’ says a source close to her.
In fact, you may think that’s rather been Catherine’s mantra for life.
And by the looks of it, such an instinctively pragmatic approach will serve her very well indeed in this next phase of her extraordinary royal career. But first – a small slice of birthday cake.
