Duties and Roles of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie 1: Discussion Until 2022


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With William's third child on the way, any chance of these two having any sort of royal duties is over. They are simply expendable in the grand scheme of the Monarchy and should settle for quiet lives away from the public eye.
 
With William's third child on the way, any chance of these two having any sort of royal duties is over. They are simply expendable in the grand scheme of the Monarchy and should settle for quiet lives away from the public eye.

I completely agree with this.

They are now completely unnecessary when it comes to royal duties. There is little point in either of them continuing to be princesses at all.
 
They will always be princesses just because of who they were born to. That's not going to go away. They are, however, most likely to remain as private citizens that just happen to have the Queen as their grandmother.
 
I completely agree with this.

They are now completely unnecessary when it comes to royal duties. There is little point in either of them continuing to be princesses at all.

They can continue to be princesses, they simply will have no roles or participation in the inner workings of the Monarchy.

Being HRH is both a blessing and a curse to them. On one hand, they get all the privileges of being members of the Royal Family, staying at Royal Lodge, parties in NY and holidays in Thailand at the Queen's expense, etc. On the other hand, they can never truly lead private lives like Peter and Zara.

And it will only get worse once Charles becomes King. They'll be even more irrelevant then.

By the time they die, their position might be similar to that of Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, when she died in 1944. So far removed from the core RF that nobody can remember what sort of relationship they would have with the monarch.
 
They are born princesses and will remain princesses. What they do now is as a private citizen. Like anyone born to wealth, they can choose to focus on charity work and not have a job as Beatrice is doing. Eugenie has a full time job. The events they attend are the same as Zara, or even further down like the kids of the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester. Who are even further from the throne.

There may come a day where they will be needed. The reality is that the Gloucesters and Kents are retiring off.And it will be a good thirty years or close before even George is ready to take on any duties. William and Harry will have a heavy load to carry, as their aunts and uncles slow down as well.

Considering they get no public funding at all, I don't get why people complain. They are private citizens. What do people expect them to do, join a convent and never be seen???
 
Being HRH is both a blessing and a curse to them. On one hand, they get all the privileges of being members of the Royal Family, staying at Royal Lodge, parties in NY and holidays in Thailand at the Queen's expense, etc. On the other hand, they can never truly lead private lives like Peter and Zara.

They can stay at Royal Lodge for the reason being that their father has a lease on the property. As far as I know, nothing in the two York princesses' lives are ever at the Queen's expense. Their father, Andrew, pays out of pocket for their security. How they finance whatever they do, is their own private business.

They, however, are very unlikely to have to live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. They have things such as trust funds and its possible that a lot of their holidays are cheaper than most because they've been invited by friends. For example, if a friend just happens to be Holly Branson Andrews, cheap flight via Virgin could be possible because Holly's dad owns the business. Stay at Necker Island for free as Holly's dad owns the place. Cruise the Mediterranean cheap because friends own a yacht. That kind of thing. ;)
 
:previous: Exactly, they stay at Royal lodge because it is their father's home. He paid a lease on the home. They also pay rent on their apartment they have in SJP. Or at least their father does. None of this money comes from the queen or from tax payers. And if it came from the queen, comes from her own money and would be hers to complain about no one else's.

The York girls fund their life the same way their cousins do, through trust funds. They have substantial trust funds like the Wales boys do.

And as Osipi pointed out, many of their holidays are practically free if not. They spend a lot of time with their friends the Bransons at their private homes, and I doubt Richard and his kids charge them. They also go to Switzerland where they own a home.

Many of the so called 'vacations' are not vacations anyways. When they are pictured 'dining out in NY with a designer' Beatrice was there presenting an award for the UN. When Eugenie was 'partying in Miami', she was there for a big art event being hosted by her gallery.
 
Why are people trying to sideline B&E at this particular point. One day they may not be needed but I don't think George and Charlotte should be grouped into that streamline royalty when they may not be doing royal duties for another 2 decades; and if they are anything like the or father and mother they won't be full time until they are in their 30's. I'm not saying B&E are valuable commodities, just that people need to stop acting like WnK have already produced 3 working royals.
 
:previous:
Now your comment had me in stitches because one of those hard working royals is not even born yet...........:lol:and the other two are still babies in a sense....hard working now, yes they are hard working at growing up and learning to walk and talk and what, shaking hands, cutting ribbons already....??. Ah, if only we could really see the future here.....what would Princess Charlotte be wearing tonight? :whistling::lol:
And how many children do Eugenie and Beatrice have to carry out royal duties?
 
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I am putting this post here, as it seems more appropriate, but it’s in response to comments in the Beatrice current events thread regarding her appearances at various CHOGM events and whether this signals a change in her role towards more participation going forward. I think not.
My theory is that at one time there was a possibility that Beatrice and possibly Eugenie would do Royal work, but that changed for a couple of reasons.
First, times have changed & the appearance that too many Royals are being supported is not well received by the public, the Queen is surely aware of this shift in public attitude.
Second, it 2002, when Beatrice was around 14, Edward and Sophie became full time Royals - this I think was not expected, but required by Edward’s company not making money and by the issues with Sophie’s company - thus Edward and Sophie in a sense ‘took’ the open slots.
Third, while the Queen seems content to subsidize her two younger sons, and Charles will undoubtedly continue to do so once he is King, I doubt that he wants to pay for their offspring as well nor, I suspect, does he want to saddle William with that responsibility.
Most likely Beatrice and Eugenie will fill in occassionally much as the Michaels currently do. Beatrice may pop up w/out CC credit assisting her father because they seem to want that (indeed even her mother has shown up at at least 1 pitch at the palace event) and the Queen seems ok with that. It’ll be interesting to see how Charles views those appearances in the future.
 
The York princesses, as well as all other grandchildren of Elizabeth II, are or will be quite wealthy. In the case of the York princesses, in addition to their inheritances, they will be able to live in the fantastic Royal Lodge for the rest of their lives, so they don't need a royal paycheck. If one or both of the York princesses want to do royal work it is because they either want to give back or, of all the potential options they have, they find doing royal work appealing.

If Charles and William don't want to use them to do royal work, that's their prerogative, it just frees them up to pursue other vocational interests and of course more time to party and vacation.
 
Perhaps they are wealthy, perhaps they are merely well off, like Princess Margaret’s children, or perhaps they are not so well off (like some of the Queen’s cousins) it’s hard to know as the terms of any trusts which may benefit them aren’t open to public scrutiny.
They will be beneficiaries to their father’s lease at Royal Lodge @ some point (assuming he does not remarry and leave a widow) which has 60 years to go at this point - not sure they’d want to live there together or to assume responsibility for paying for the upkeep/running of the property, tho’.
Beatrice, especially, has a rather expensive lifestyle and how much her personal assets could support that w/out funds from her father isn’t clear to me.
 
Actually sndral, you are quite incorrect as to why Edward and Sophie became full-time royals. With both Charles and Andrew being divorced, the senior royals were down two ladies meanwhile Sophie was busy having her kids and being a mother. Both of their careers had been burned at ground zero by the constant, unrelenting intrusion of the paparazzi's since Diana and Fergie's respective separations and divorces were over. Edward was then finding his way just as any other person that found their chosen career didn't work out for him.

When they finally moved into doing more royal engagements, it was those that were better served by sending a married couple such as the wedding celebrations of the heirs of the royal houses of Europe which tended to take two to three days. HM wasn't stupid and she sent them and they have made many friends and royal connections ever since.

I think they thought that there would be no need for either Beatrice and Eugenie as they had the POW, Camilla and Andrew were fully employed and then William married. I don't think they were prepared for Catherine to wait for a little and then have two kids and one on the way. That interrupts the flow of any engagements performed by Catherine and limits what they can do with William to some degree. Now Harry is marrying and they can see the same writing on the wall.

I do not believe that Eugenie aspires to become a full-time royal whereas I think Beatrice very well may. Either way it is interesting that HM made use of both York girls during CHOGM and both attended the Gala Dinner to end it. Now we seeing Beatrice attending the Queen’s national scout parade at Windsor Castle, and looking very lovely too.
 
Second, it 2002, when Beatrice was around 14, Edward and Sophie became full time Royals - this I think was not expected, but required by Edward’s company not making money and by the issues with Sophie’s company - thus Edward and Sophie in a sense ‘took’ the open slots..

I don’t agree with that. Edward is the Queen’s son, so there was always room for him as a working royal. It’s a matter of ignorance he wants to pursue this full time or carve out his own path in a private career. Don’t really see that as an effect on Beatrice or Eugenie. I honestly think they days of a monarch’s nieces and nephews carrying out public duties were long over. Even in Princess Margaret’s case, her children live private lives. I don’t think we are going to see a monarch’s cousin being a working royal again. Public attitude has changed and the time required to perform duties have changed with advancement of technology.
 
I think they thought that there would be no need for either Beatrice and Eugenie as they had the POW, Camilla and Andrew were fully employed and then William married. I don't think they were prepared for Catherine to wait for a little and then have two kids and one on the way. That interrupts the flow of any engagements performed by Catherine and limits what they can do with William to some degree. Now Harry is marrying and they can see the same writing on the wall.

I don’t think so. I don’t think Meghan will have as much time to adjust as Kate did. Just judging by the amount of engagements she’s done so far, things are different. So with this addition, I really don’t think Beatrice will become a working royal in any official capacity. Likely an odd event here and there, but doubt they will be getting their own private secretaries to support an office any time soon.

At the end of the day, Beatrice and Eugenie can take on charitable work if they wish to, but they’ll have to do it on their own or funded by Andrew. Judging by the CC credit for the Queen’s birthday party and the lack of CC mentioning of Scout event Beatrice went to, it’s pretty clear the status quo isn’t changing anytime soon. They appeared in CC for the birthday concert, but while everyone else got their own mention, they were listed as Duke of York, accompanied by Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Were their their father’s date or something? It’s just odd.
 
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Perhaps they are wealthy, perhaps they are merely well off, like Princess Margaret’s children, or perhaps they are not so well off (like some of the Queen’s cousins) it’s hard to know as the terms of any trusts which may benefit them aren’t open to public scrutiny.
They will be beneficiaries to their father’s lease at Royal Lodge @ some point (assuming he does not remarry and leave a widow) which has 60 years to go at this point - not sure they’d want to live there together or to assume responsibility for paying for the upkeep/running of the property, tho’.
Beatrice, especially, has a rather expensive lifestyle and how much her personal assets could support that w/out funds from her father isn’t clear to me.
The funding that Beatrice currently gets from her father is going to be her own money at some point in the future. Her father is going to get even richer when he inherits from his mother, and assuming Andrew does not grossly mismanage his inheritance, then Beatrice's wealth will increase when she inherits from her father.

Beatrice does live an expensive lifestyle but I suspect that she is the recipient of favors like private plane trips and that is not going to change in the coming decades.

The Royal Lodge consists of almost 100 acres of land, the main building has 30 rooms and I think that there are additional buildings on the grounds. I doubt if Andrew will leave a widow, but even if he did it seems like there is plenty of room there for all of them to live comfortably there. Plus I suspect that if one or both York princesses wants to live in the city, then they can buy a place in London, or perhaps even get an apartment on one of the royal properties with it being announced that they will be paying market rent, but in reality the rent will be much less than what other Londoners pay for similar digs.
 
:previous: Eugenie was going to move into Ivy Cottage in KP at one point. Can’t remember how much rent was announced or if it was fair market rent. But that’s on hold because of mold issues I believe.
 
Actually sndral, you are quite incorrect as to why Edward and Sophie became full-time royals. With both Charles and Andrew being divorced, the senior royals were down two ladies meanwhile Sophie was busy having her kids and being a mother. Both of their careers had been burned at ground zero by the constant, unrelenting intrusion of the paparazzi's since Diana and Fergie's respective separations and divorces were over. Edward was then finding his way just as any other person that found their chosen career didn't work out for him. ...
I don't know that one theory is more or less 'correct' than any other, unless the Wessex'es have spoken about why they changed course, and I don't believe they have.
I think we agree that originally after marriage they intended to remain primarily private and only do occasional supportive work for the 'firm.' We also agree that that changed and I would agree that it was in part due to the paparrazi's scrutiny of the couple that the decision was made to become full time working royals.
I hadn't thought about the vacuum created by the departure of Diana and Sarah, but agree, that was not according to plan and thus the need for some one to fulfill those roles arose much earlier than anticipated.
I've said before, I think Beatrice enjoys the freedom that not being a full time Royal allows her to have and that to be a second tier working Royal would seriously limit her current lifestyle and would heighten scrutiny of her by the press (which is bad enough as it is.) So I think that Beatrice not becoming a working Royal is a mutual decision - hers as well as the family's.
 
I don't believe it was a 'mutual' decision at all.

She, reportedly (in many news outlets and from my personal sources) went to both Charles and William to ask them to allow her to do more in the Jubilee year as she wanted to help but was told clearly by both of them she was 'surplus to requirements'.

Eugenie never wanted that life but Beatrice did. Her uncle and cousin though have never wanted her in that role but they didn't tell her until virtually she had finished university. That was why at school and uni she studied courses of interest to her but not in fields where she wanted to work. She studied History and History of Ideas but wanted to work in business so should have studied more Maths/Business based subjects. Had she been told, what she was told in 2011, when choosing her later high school and then university subjects she would have chosen differently.
 
Beatrice can go find something else to do for a job and still do charity work that she favors without doing it officially.



LaRae
 
Her uncle and cousin though have never wanted her in that role but they didn't tell her until virtually she had finished university. That was why at school and uni she studied courses of interest to her but not in fields where she wanted to work. She studied History and History of Ideas but wanted to work in business so should have studied more Maths/Business based subjects. Had she been told, what she was told in 2011, when choosing her later high school and then university subjects she would have chosen differently.

Yeah, sorry but I find this very hard to believe. The writing has been on the wall for a very, very long time that there's no public appetite and essentially no actual need for Beatrice to become a full-time working royal. If Beatrice actually thought that was a realistic possibility up until she left uni then I would have to question her common sense and self-awareness.

Many, many young people get degrees in subjects unrelated to maths/business and yet end up in jobs in finance or law for example. I began my working life on the corporate banking graduate scheme for one of the world's biggest banks despite studying law and politics at uni. Others on the course studied psychology, modern languages, philosophy, history i.e. degrees unrelated almost entirely to the world of corporate banking. A decent result in a degree from a decent university will ensure you can meet the minimum entry criteria for any number of graduate positions in finance and business.

Beatrice has shown little in the way of serious career aspirations in the years since she graduated despite having the kind of background and contacts which will have given her options the vast majority her age do not enjoy.
 
... [snipped]
Eugenie never wanted that life but Beatrice did. Her uncle and cousin though have never wanted her in that role but they didn't tell her until virtually she had finished university. That was why at school and uni she studied courses of interest to her but not in fields where she wanted to work. She studied History and History of Ideas but wanted to work in business so should have studied more Maths/Business based subjects. ... [snipped]
This is the oddest field of studies I have ever heard of.
 
I don't believe it was a 'mutual' decision at all.

She, reportedly (in many news outlets and from my personal sources) went to both Charles and William to ask them to allow her to do more in the Jubilee year as she wanted to help but was told clearly by both of them she was 'surplus to requirements'.

Eugenie never wanted that life but Beatrice did. Her uncle and cousin though have never wanted her in that role but they didn't tell her until virtually she had finished university. That was why at school and uni she studied courses of interest to her but not in fields where she wanted to work. She studied History and History of Ideas but wanted to work in business so should have studied more Maths/Business based subjects. Had she been told, what she was told in 2011, when choosing her later high school and then university subjects she would have chosen differently.

If the reports were true, then it was inordinately unreasonable to reverse Beatrice's and Eugenie's expectations after they reached their 20s and Beatrice graduated university. (The Government was far more cautious; when they promulgated the Succession to the Crown Act, even Anne was not placed over Andrew, nor Lady Louise over her younger brother.) I find it interesting that William's preferences were said to be taken into account while he was merely second in line and only in his twenties.
 
This is the oddest field of studies I have ever heard of.
I haven't heard of it either. But a lot of university graduates complete non- specific types of degrees such as BA's because they haven't yet decided what they want to be or to do.

In a really interesting interview with a young Princess Anne, Terry Wogan asked her why she didn't go on to study at university as her both her older and younger brother did? Her position was that many of her contemporaries at school went basically because it was there and their majors reflected that. She decided joining her parents on royal tours would provide a much wider education.
 
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If the reports were true, then it was inordinately unreasonable to reverse Beatrice's and Eugenie's expectations after they reached their 20s and Beatrice graduated university. (The Government was far more cautious; when they promulgated the Succession to the Crown Act, even Anne was not placed over Andrew, nor Lady Louise over her younger brother.) I find it interesting that William's preferences were said to be taken into account while he was merely second in line and only in his twenties.

The reason William's opinion would be taken into account is because, at the end of the day, if Beatrice became a full time royal her related expenses would eventually be paid by William.

This is possibly (if you believe the story) why the Queen gave the decision to Charles and William because in the long term William and Charles would have to support Beatrice similar to how HM financially helps out the Gloucesters and the Kents.

The question boiled down to this: did Charles and William think the potential benefit of adding Beatrice to the firm outweigh them having to support her in addition to the Queen's surviving cousins, Charles' siblings, Harry and family, etc... The answer, at this point, seems to be that continuing to add royal cousins is more of a cost than a benefit. While no one's kicking HM's cousins out on the street, they've decided at this point that the Yorks, Wessexs, Harry's future kids, etc.. will not be added to the royal payroll unless the royal family is in a position like it was in the 1950s and 60s where they're hard pressed to find working royals
 
I haven't heard of it either. But a lot of university graduates complete non- specific types of degrees such as BA's because they haven't yet decided what they want to be or to do.

In a really interesting interview with a young Princess Anne, Terry Wogan asked her why she didn't go on to study at university as her both her older and younger brother did? Her position was that many of her contemporaries at school went basically because it was there and their majors reflected that. She decided joining her parents on royal tours would provide a much wider education.
Thanks for the explanation!:flowers:
The concept of "non- specific types of degrees such as BA's because they haven't yet decided what they want to be or to do" is absolutely alien to me. I always thought an university degree had to equip a student with skills for his/her independent plum career.
 
Plus I suspect that if one or both York princesses wants to live in the city, then they can buy a place in London, or perhaps even get an apartment on one of the royal properties with it being announced that they will be paying market rent, but in reality the rent will be much less than what other Londoners pay for similar digs.


Where do they live now?
I know Eugenie and Beatrice share an apartment in St. James' Palace, but it was reported that Beatrice will move out soon.

Last I heard, Jack lived with his parents- officially.

So are Jack and Eugenie currently together at SJP?
Or has Eugenie moved?
 
Thanks for the explanation!:flowers:
The concept of "non- specific types of degrees such as BA's because they haven't yet decided what they want to be or to do" is absolutely alien to me. I always thought an university degree had to equip a student with skills for his/her independent plum career.

It depends on the view of higher education (which also varies between countries; the UK is rather 'output focused' in that the Higher Education focus is far more on preparation for working life than most continental countries - that still have 'binary systems' which distinguish between university education and higher professional education - while the latter is considered university as well in other countries (typically as '(state) college' or 'post- 1992', 'newer university' or 'teaching university', etc). Some degrees (higher professional degrees) prepare you specifically for a profession, however, most degrees at research universities aim to give you an academic education that will serve you quite broadly in various fields.
 
Did Andrew push for Beatrice and Eugenie to be on the slate for CHOGM events to show they should be having more royal engagements? The York princesses hardly get a write up unless their names are tied to a scandal. Kate and Meghan dominate the royal news cycle. I wonder if the engagements are assigned in part who draws the most attention?
 
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