Lady Louise Windsor

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Happy Birthday to Lady Louise Windsor! The eldest child and only daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, she is the youngest granddaughter of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, and was the first male-line grandchild of a monarch to be styled as a daughter of an Earl, rather than a Princess. Her godparents include Lady Alexandra Etherington, Lady Sarah Chatto, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten. She attends St George’s School, near the family home at Bagshot Park, and was a bridesmaid at the 2011 wedding of her cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, and a special attendant at the wedding of Princess Eugenie. Like her grandfather, Lady Louise an avid equestrian, even carriage driving professionally this past summer, and has begun her studies at St Andrew’s University in 2022. We wish her a Very Happy Birthday and Many Happy returns!

5 thoughts on “Lady Louise Windsor

    1. I have always been curious about who actually came up with the idea for the Wessex children to use the style of an earl instead of HRH Prince/ Princess. The official story is that it was Edwards idea.
      interestingly Lady Louise could have a future title that I have never seen discussed in public: Duchess of Edinburgh. I realize most readers already know about The Queens announcement about Edwards titles upon his marriage but a little background information for the uninformed.
      It has been a tradition for centuries that the sons of a monarch are created duke upon marriage if not before; The Queen decided that she wanted her youngest son to carry on her husbands’ title of Duke of Edinburgh ; therefore she created him an earl as a ‘Holding title” until the Dukedom becomes available; the path to that title gets complicated for folks to follow.
      The current Dukedom of Edinburgh was created for Prince Phillip when he married the then Princess Elizabeth; it followed the traditional rules of the day which stated that only male heirs of the body legally begotten could inherit the title; therefore once Prince Philip dies the title will be inherited by Prince Charles as the 2nd Duke of Edinburgh( 1947 creation); however once Charles becomes king all his titles merge with the crown; it is at that time that the title becomes available again; it is assumed ( based on The Queens announcement at Edwards marriage) that the family has made some informal or even written agreement that King Charles will then create prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh under a new creation. I find it hard to believe that in the 21st century that a heredity title could be created without absolute primogeniture; therefore following that train of thought Lady Louise as her fathers eldest child would be his heir to the Dukedom of Edinburgh, and her brother James would inherit the earldom of Wessex.

      1. As much as I would personally like for there to be absolute primogeniture, the fact that James has the title of Viscout Severn is indicative that he will be succeeding to all of his father’s titles. You also have to remember that hereditary titles are still under hereditary primogeniture, which has been debated in parliament, but as of yet hasn’t been changed. If the peerages are under absolute primogeniture, then Lady Louise would be both Duchess of Edinburgh and Countess of Wessex. James would be styled as ‘Lord James Windsor’ or (if he does decide to take up the style to which he is entitled) ‘HRH Prince James of Edinburgh’. Fingers crossed that these changes do happen, as I would also like to see Princess Beatrice succeed as Duchess of York.

  1. Well, even if absolute primogeniture were established for all peers, it would depend on whether it’s created retroactively or not in order for Princess Beatrice and Lady Louise to inherit, wouldn’t it? When absolute primogeniture was established in Sweden, it was done retroactively and that’s how Crown Princess Victoria displaced her brother, but that is not always the case. When they established it in the UK, I’m not sure they even considered that because all the eldest children down the line happened to be males, so I don’t know if then they would make it retroactive for the peers. Who knows?

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