Prince Louis was the first member of the royal family to miss out on a huge privilege due to a big decision the Queen made, just half a decade before he was born.
- Prince Louis missed out on being ahead of his sister, Princess Charlotte, in the royal line of succession.
- The Queen made a huge amendment to royal protocol so that Prince William’s children would take their rightful place in line to the throne at Buckingham Palace, no matter their gender.
- In other royal news, the heartbreaking reason Princess Diana never remarried has been revealed.
Three-year-old Prince Louis is the first male royal to be below his sister in the line of succession, after his great-grandmother, the Queen, made it possible for the female offspring of an heir to come before brothers born after them, in the line of succession.
Her Majesty made a big change to the rules the year Prince George was born.
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 scrapped male-preference primogeniture, so that Prince William’s first born child could be a direct heir to the throne, even if they were a girl.
This means that if Prince George had been a girl, we would have had another Queen on the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William.
The new absolute primogeniture rule means that Princess Charlotte comes ahead of Prince Louis in the line of succession, while previously Louis would have overtaken his sister from the moment he was born, purely because of his sex.
This is what happened to the Queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne, who was born after her brother, Prince Charles.
The Princess Royal was second in line to the throne when the Queen and Prince Philip were parents of two.
But when Her Majesty welcomed her third and fourth children, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, Princess Anne was bumped down the list because her new siblings were boys.
The royal precedent hasn’t changed things too much for little Louis, though.
He was entitled to his His Royal Highness title and is fifth in line to the throne, so the prospect of Louis taking the crown some day isn’t completely out of the realms of possibility.
Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte also have their great-grandmother to thank for their HRH titles, as before the Queen sought legal changes, it would have just been Prince George who was granted such royal title.
Before the monarch revamped the old-fashioned ruling, Charlotte and Louis would be known as Lady Charlotte Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Louis Mountbatten-Windsor.
Despite the big changes made for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Cambridge children, Prince Louis has missed out on several aspects of royal life that his older siblings were able to enjoy.
Louis has never travelled abroad with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a royal visit, while Prince George and Prince Charlotte jetted off overseas to accompany their parents on important engagements when they were just babies.
Prince George joined his mother and father for a tour of New Zealand and Australia when he was just nine months old.
And when Princess Charlotte was 16 months old, the Cambridge family took on a tour of Canada.
The little royals left Kensington Palace and flew off once again a few months later when the Cambridges visited Poland and Germany.
Due to the pandemic and the Duke and Duchess travelling without the children more often, Prince Louis is yet to take on his first tour abroad.
Prince Louis is also yet to make his first appearance at a royal wedding, having been too young to attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nuptials in 2018 and the Covid-19 health crisis meaning tying the knot surrounded by The Firm was off the cards for Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who married in a private ceremony in 2020.
