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


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Even when William gets married, his wiife won't be able to take on all the events that the Duchess of Gloucester, The Princess Royal and Princess Alexandra do now.
:flowers: We are all talking as if Anne is going to drop dead at any moment. She could be like her grandmother and live to a ripe old age. Anne has always been active, both physically and mentally. Birgitte is roughly Anne's age and Alexandra a little older.

I do wonder whether, in 30+ years people will be so keen to invite a royal to visit or open an event. Many of todays youngsters would much rather have someone from Eastenders or a celeb.:flowers:
 
A previous poster was right. Unless it's William or Harry doing an engagement very few people turn out to see the Royals when they do an engagement and practically no young people are interested. I remember passing the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow years ago shortly after Edward and Sophie were married and noticed a couple of policemen and a few other smart people standing at the entrance. I watched from across the street when a big car pulled up and out came Edward and Sophie. I myself was interested to have a look but I can tell you that not ONE other person was paying any attention whatsoever so what's it going to be like in 10-20 years from now?
 
Honestly its hard to predict the future. But if you have a way...please let me know :) about the Mega Millions winning numbers!

I think people do have an interest in the Royals (maybe not everyone but enough). Didn't people kind of say the same thing before Diana arrived. Not that she saved the British monarchy so let's not go down that road. Let's just say the arrival of Diana led to the introduction of the current royals to some people (myself included). So William and/or Harry's wife might do the same.
 
I'm sure we'll fall in love with whoever the boys marry. We love the pageantry of the weddings, the opportunity to see what treasures emerge from the Queen's treasure trove, the new clothes, the romance ("whatever that means" :whistling:).

Maybe the girls won't have to serve the House of Windsor permanently.
 
A previous poster was right. Unless it's William or Harry doing an engagement very few people turn out to see the Royals when they do an engagement and practically no young people are interested.[snipped.]I myself was interested to have a look but I can tell you that not ONE other person was paying any attention whatsoever so what's it going to be like in 10-20 years from now?
Exactly.

Apart from members of this forums, who under 50 knows/cares who the minor Royals are?
There is no need anymore for an extended Royal family. People who are deferential and or interested to Royals just because they are Royals are a dying breed.

For the current and next generations, star power will be needed to get them interested in Royalty.

To be honest I am a bit baffled by this discussion. I wasn't aware the future of the York girls was a matter of debate, I thought it was accepted the girls would lead private lives...

I think they or their parents should make the girls' intentions clear: either they intend to live a life of duty, and Royal protection is as justified for them as it is for the Wales boys, or they intend to do their own thing, with some duties here and there when they feel like it or when there is some big family event, in which case Andrew should pay-up.
 
Maybe they really should consider living like Zara or Lady Sarah Chatto, if all they're setting themselves up for is grief.

Lady Chatto found art and Zara has riding as their passions. Neither York lady seem to have found what they are passionate about. Perhaps in time they will. As with Zara, any commercial ventures they become involved in down the line, they will be knocked on for using royal titles and/or connections. Time will tell if they can be as good in their chosen field as Zara has in hers, and develop coping skills to overcome their critics, which will be many. If they continue their course as if on a permanent gap year, they will be chucked into the same lot as Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
 
A story about Sarah Ferguson approaching Michelle Obama to request support for the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT), a charity of which Sarah is a patron, brought up something interesting. It's to do with the context of Beatrice and Eugenie attending formal royal events (or at least high-powered informal royal events).

This is the link from the Mail online.
quotes from the article... [the bolding is mine]

Sarah Ferguson made the private visit to Washington to ask Mrs Obama if she would get involved with the (ACLT).
I understand the Duchess’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, persuaded her to contact the First Lady after they met the Obamas during their State visit to Britain in April.
My source tells me: ‘Sarah decided to contact Michelle after Beatrice and Eugenie met the Obamas during an official dinner.
‘The girls told their mother they thought Michelle was great and that she was very approachable.

I can't remember all the details of who attended what during the Obama's visit (perhaps such detail was lost during the firestorm over "the hug" :D)
but I found it interesting that both girls would be invited to attend an "official dinner" and had personal contact with the Obamas, or at least Michelle Obama. My guess is that this dinner would have taken place at Buckingham Palace which would mean they were specifically included by HM.

Without reading too much into it (although meeting with the US President and wife is a significant "big deal") this may be evidence that an ongoing support role within the Royal Family is planned for Beatrice and Eugenie. Is Princess School already in session?





 
I am not surprised that both girls are invited to an official dinner for President Obama. They are the Queen's granddaughters. I think people might overlook their position in society because of their mother.
 
Exactly. They are Royal Highnesses, afterall.:flowers:


I am not surprised that both girls are invited to an official dinner for President Obama. They are the Queen's granddaughters. I think people might overlook their position in society because of their mother.
 
I guess my question is, what value would Bea and Eugenie add to an event?

Back when Princess Alexandra was their age, the only other "young" women in the RF were the Queen and Princess Margaret. The Yorks are growing more remote from the throne with each passing year, and we expect William and Harry to bring young women into the fold eventually. Public interest will center on those women, and the Yorks will become even less interesting to the public. So I wouldn't expect them to be the recipients of massive amounts of invitations because people simply won't care about their activities.
 
I disagree.

People from what I understand started to lose interests in the Gloucesters and Kents when Charles, Andrew, Anne and Edward started to marry and have their families. Up and into that point, the minor royals were well known and continued to perform duties on behalf of the Queen. They are not as well known today but they still handle events on behalf of the Queen.

As long as the York girls start to focus on school and duties on behalf of the Queen and later King Charles, interest will remain somewhat the same. When Harry and William start marrying and having kids....people will start to care less about the York girls. But until they (William and Harry) have kids...Bea and Eugenie are still 5th and 6th in line to the throne...I know it bothers some people (no ne on this forum that I am directing this to) but there you have. FIFTH and SIXTH...until Wiliam and Henry have kids (and with their chosen careers....anything can happen) they are very much a factor.
 
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Right, if some disaster befell the Wales family, Andrew would be king or one of his daughters would be queen.

As long as the York girls start to focus on school and duties on behalf of the Queen and later King Charles, interest will remain somewhat the same. When Harry and William start marrying and having kids....people will start to care less about the York girls. But until they (William and Harry) have kids...Bea and Eugenie are still 5th and 6th in line to the throne.....
 
The Yorks are growing more remote from the throne with each passing year,

They haven't become any more remote from the throne since they were born.

Beatrice was born 5th in line to the throne in 1988 and she still holds that position.

Eugenie was born 6th in line to the throne and is still 6th so they are not getting more remote with each passing year.

Until either William and/or Harry have legitimate children they will stay in those positions or even more closer if neither William or Harry have a child before the Queen passes.

It is still conceivable that Beatrice could become Queen in her own right due to the nature of the lives of William and Harry and their military careers and their non-working activities, which also involve a degree of risk.
 
I disagree.

As long as the York girls start to focus on school and duties on behalf of the Queen and later King Charles, interest will remain somewhat the same. When Harry and William start marrying and having kids....people will start to care less about the York girls. But until they (William and Harry) have kids...Bea and Eugenie are still 5th and 6th in line to the throne...I know it bothers some people (no ne on this forum that I am directing this to) but there you have. FIFTH and SIXTH...until Wiliam and Henry have kids (and with their chosen careers....anything can happen) they are very much a factor.

I agree, Beatrice and Eugenie are fifth and sixth in line to the throne. Yes, someday (barring a tragic accident) Charles and his sons will carry the brunt of royal duties, and later on it will be William and his family as Harry's children become more remote from the throne, but...until William and Harry do have children, anything could happen. Even in the last 75 years, there have been tragic and untimely deaths in the royal family: the Duke of Kent, Prince William of Gloucester, and even George VI who was in his fifties when he died. Members of the royal family have died without children in the last 50 years (Edward VIII, who remained unmarried until his forties).

I just think people are sometimes too hasty to assume that William and Harry will both marry and have children and carry on the family line, or that this will happen before Charles ascends the throne. Things don't always work out that way in life. And even if they did...take this fairly believable scenario: The Queen dies aged 100 in 2026, so we're already assuming she lives a very long life. At this point Charles would be 77 or 78. Now suppose William has married in his early thirties and had his first child around the age of 35 in 2017--not a stretch of the imagination at all. His children at this point would be under the age of 10 and wouldn't be carrying out any royal duties for at least another decade. Now suppose Harry is still a bachelor at 42--not a huge impossibility. That leaves an elderly Charles and Camilla (assuming she's still alive), William and his wife, and Harry. Even if Harry were married, that's only 6 people, two of whom are elderly. And anything could happen to Harry or William.

I can understand people wanting to end public duties for the more minor members of the royal family, I just don't see Andrew and his daughters as being all that minor. Yes, when William and Harry's children are grown up I wouldn't see the need for Beatrice and Eugenie to do royal duties but until that point, I think they are still too close to the throne to go and live an anonymous life. That's why the royal family has a line of succession, isn't it?--so that someone will be there to take the throne "just in case" something happens to the next-in-line. Yes this might be stretching it a bit, but it's not out of the realm of imagination: what if a terrorist managed to kill William in my first scenario? That would leave Charles and Camilla (who aren't going to have any more children), a couple of young children, and Harry who has no descendants to take his place.

I think Beatrice will probably take a gap year after she graduates from college, maybe get a few years of work experience somewhere, but gradually take on royal duties. I think Eugenie will probably do the same, because I can't see the two sisters having totally different roles in the RF.
 
People from what I understand started to lose interests in the Gloucesters and Kents when Charles, Andrew, Anne and Edward started to marry and have their families. Up and into that point, the minor royals were well known and continued to perform duties on behalf of the Queen. They are not as well known today but they still handle events on behalf of the Queen..
The trouble with your comparison is the difference in the times. There is less respect in the UK, (IMO) for the monarchy and if you talk to 'ordinary' people, many can only name HM, Philip, Charles, Anne, William & Harry as royals. B & E will probably not be high profile and who wants a low profile person to open/attend an event, less expensive to ask a cast member of Eastenders/Coronation Street to do the job and better known!
 
The trouble with your comparison is the difference in the times. There is less respect in the UK, (IMO) for the monarchy and if you talk to 'ordinary' people, many can only name HM, Philip, Charles, Anne, William & Harry as royals. B & E will probably not be high profile and who wants a low profile person to open/attend an event, less expensive to ask a cast member of Eastenders/Coronation Street to do the job and better known!

Yeah that is true, the media has made pop stars and other celebrities the new "royalty." But if those trends hold, 20 years from now young people won't care about a 40-something Prince Harry either, and a middle-aged and bald Prince William won't be the draw he once was! If the argument is that younger, glamorous celebrities can draw more attention than the royals so only a few royals should do royal duties, after a while there's no point in having a monarchy at all. They'll all be lower profile than the celebs! I also think that if the situation were that extreme and already no one wanted "low profile" royals to open things, then Edward, Sophie, Princess Alexandra, the Kents and Gloucesters wouldn't be doing royal duties at all.

I guess I see a monarchy as different from a republic partly because the head of state is visibly part of a family. I think there's something meaningful about incorporating a family into your system of government--it shows how important family is to the framework of society. That's one thing I've always admired about monarchies. If you pare the royal family back too much, it doesn't even resemble a family anymore.

I can understand the idea that Beatrice and Eugenie will be lower profile eventually when Harry and William have children, but until that point I think it only makes sense for them to be regular working members of the RF, especially since there are no other princesses and women are often draw bigger crowds than men.
 
You know what would be cool? The one who's dyslexic would make a foundation and go help/teach through that. That would a good thing.
 
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I believe that would be Pr. Beatrice, Russo. That sounds like a wonderful idea for Bea to get involved with since she knows the difficulties it entails. She has done well and has shown how it is possible to get through this disorder. A good example for others, IMO.
 
I believe that would be Pr. Beatrice, Russo. That sounds like a wonderful idea for Bea to get involved with since she knows the difficulties it entails. She has done well and has shown how it is possible to get through this disorder. A good example for others, IMO.
It's a big problem. She could be a Good will ambassador for it.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned before but what about Sarah's patronages? What happend to them? Could Beatrice and Eugenie take over some of those?
:flowers:
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned before but what about Sarah's patronages? What happend to them? Could Beatrice and Eugenie take over some of those?
:flowers:


They could take over their mother's patronages in time, if she was to relinguish them.

I do think though that Sarah is only 49 (50 next month) that she will hold them for a number of years yet and the girls will need to find other patronages to take over.

I wonder if either of them, in time, will take over Auntie Anne's Save the Children to keep an HRH as the leading light in that organisation. It does have some cache about it to have HRH as the top name rather than some other name. Again though that would be years in the future with Anne only turning 59 this year.
 
Do you suppose with the future wives of William and Harry and the current royal
ladies who have their own patronages will still be room for Eugenie & Beatrice?
 
Sadly enough, it depends on how soon the current generation starts to decline in health and pass away. There are no guarantees that the younger (i.e. Princess Anne, the Duchess of Cornwall) women will live to ripe old ages.:sad:

Do you suppose with the future wives of William and Harry and the current royal
ladies who have their own patronages will still be room for Eugenie & Beatrice?
 
It also depends on whether both Harry and William marry. Albert of Monaco isn't married and there are other cases of heirs to the throne who remained bachelors for a long time. Beatrice and Eugenie could easily be married before both Harry and William are.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned before but what about Sarah's patronages? What happend to them? Could Beatrice and Eugenie take over some of those?
:flowers:
That, imo, would be good training before they branch out on their own.
Captial Idea lumutqueen.
 
Fifth and sixth in line is a long way to the throne when you think about it. If I was their mother I'd encourage both girls to get a university education and a full time job. I don't think tax payers should be funding protection for these adults either. Well maybe just the bare minimum protection since they were raised in the spot light and a few unsavory people might prey on them. Generally, if someone's a bother, they could easily do what everyone else does - call the police, that's what they're there for.
 
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:previous: They are the same age as William and Harry and if life takes over as it should, they will be further and further away as these two get married and two more princesses are added to the "firm".
The idea of a good education is great, since I have to agree with most
that the taxpayers will not continue forever to pay for protection of the
extended family. Besides once the two ladies get married they will have
to devote their time raising their own families, probably away from the
limelight.:flowers:
 
Fifth and sixth aren't that far down the line.
Especially when you consider that the second and fourth are middle aged. And while The Queen, the Queen Mother and Prince Phillip have had nice long lives. That's not the case with everyone. Not wishing anything bad on Charles and Andrew but we are all going to die. Someone can get cancer, have a heart attack, etc. And as previously mentioned, William and Harry have jobs that put them in constant danger. Accidents happen. Again, not wishing death on the Wales boys but there you have it.

Until William and Harry have kids, I would say anyone in the Top Ten is important enough. And as you mentioned before, there are enough kooks out there who target regular people. Only Scotland Yard knows the kooks who have a fascination for royalty. I mean, someone drove a car onto the path of Queen Beatrix bus!

I can't speak for the British public, but once both girls graduate from the university and if they curb down on the clubbing and start picking up patronages, the funding for security might not be such a problem.
 
Gee Zonk....You had me depressed for a second...LOL
On a serious note, none of us knows what is going to happen and although 5 & 6 seem close to the throne, in the distant future with
Charles becoming King, no one know what kind of "court" he will establish
and how many of the royals will be involved.
Still all in all a good degree from a reputable university will weigh itself in gold for any young royal...
 
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