Princess Charlotte officially started “big school” this morning at Thomas’s Battersea. The four-year-old princess was escorted to her first day by big brother Prince George and her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, while the family was greeted at a side entrance by the same teacher who met William and George two years ago.
My first takeaway on seeing the pictures this morning was that I’m so glad Kate was able to join this round. As you may recall, she was waylaid by HG for George’s first day of school and, honestly, I still feel bad for her(!)
My second is that Charlotte looked as excited as William described her to waiting photographers. George definitely appeared a tad nervous in 2017, but Charlotte looked to be chomping at the bit this morning. I also quite admire the sparkly unicorn key ring on her bag.
Kensington Palace shared video of the drop off:
Princess Charlotte arrives for her first day of school at Thomas’s Battersea, joining her older brother Prince George. ✏️📚🏫 pic.twitter.com/8l63WEjzcw
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 5, 2019
In the time it took me to write this post, KP also followed up with a posted photo of George and Charlotte taken outside their home this morning. This is a great picture (with a lot of personality) – I have a feeling this one will be making it into future biographies of both of them.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a photograph of Prince George and Princess Charlotte at Kensington Palace this morning.
The photo was taken shortly before Their Royal Highnesses left for Thomas's Battersea ✏️📚🏫 pic.twitter.com/oiMKArFQnd
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 5, 2019
On the fashion front, Kate wore a floral Michael Kors dress. We’ve actually seen this before – she wore it to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding rehearsal in May 2018, but we only got a glimpse of it through a car window.
In other royal news, it’s been reported that Harry and Meghan did not make it to Balmoral this year. It was previously expected the couple would partially overlap their visit with the Cambridges. The headlines and tweets that accompany the articles state the couple’s reasoning was that their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was too young to travel, while noting they took him to France and Ibiza this summer.
I highly doubt they declined the invitation because Archie was too young to travel, but if you look at the anonymous quote on which this tidbit is based it simply notes they thought Archie was too young in general. And that’s very possible – there’s a bit more of a structure to the Balmoral estate and a certain formality. Given that Archie is only four months old, I don’t think that’s unreasonable, nor do I think that contradicts the rationale for taking other holidays as a young family.
In more positive Meghan news, the Duchess will be carrying out her first solo engagement since Archie’s birth next Thursday when she launches her capsule collection for Smart Works. I’m hopeful that once a more normal schedule resumes for her some of the media nonsense will die down. We’re also less than three weeks out from the South Africa trip, so with any luck there will be enough substance to distract from the nonsense.
Finally, the Duke of York is back in the news. It was reported late on Tuesday that engagements Prince Andrew was due to carry out in Northern Ireland were canceled by organizers on the grounds that his presence could prove an unwelcome distraction. As of right now, he’s still scheduled to attend a youth golf tournament hosted by the Royal Portrush Golf Club, of which he is patron.
The Club has reportedly advised they believe Andrew’s presence would be inappropriate, but will not rescind their invitation given the Duke’s role within the organization. I hope Andrew and/or staff go ahead and quietly bow out, because the last thing any of us need are a slew of photographs showing Andrew with teenagers running alongside that rather infamous one (see link above).
Finally, there’s a rumor that Kate will carry out an engagement next week on behalf of her Back to Nature Garden, but nothing’s been formally announced and it’s unclear what day she’s expected. I would further note that with the exception of last month’s regatta (that was announced months ago), there’s been a trend of late in which Kate’s engagements aren’t tipped ahead of time. Whatever that is, I hope it goes away soon, and I also hope we get advisement on the Pakistan trip.
While KP always stated the tour would happen this autumn, royal reporters indicated it would be a September visit. Given that we’ve heard nothing and the Sussexes’ Africa visit will eat up the last week of the month, I’m wondering if 1) we won’t be told when they’ll arrive ahead of time for security reasons and/or 2) it’s actually happening in October. I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, there are two more Richard III posts scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, so keep an eye out for those. Last but not least, I’ve created a landing page on Facebook for the site where I’ll start posting each blog post. I’ve not back-filled it with content, but I may do so here and there for the historical posts. Anyway, if you have a Facebook account, feel free to pop by!
Definitely will check out Facebook! I’m a bit light on content on my HistorianRuby page (of late due to my half-year abandonment of my blog) and seem to have more fun and engagements with the British Royal Family Then and Now page!
Oooh! I will start following both 🙂