A smiling Princess Beatrice has been spotted at her first public event since her grandmother the Queen's funeral last week.
Beatrice, a granddaughter of the late monarch, attended a special lunch in London today, where she teamed a ruffled black coat with a forest green hair band and matching clutch bag. The lunch was the eighth annual lunch held in aid of the Lady Garden Foundation - a charity that helps women affected by gynaecological cancers. Beatrice was pictured posing with Astrid Harbord, a rumoured former flame of her cousin Prince Harry, as well as socialite Tamara Beckwith.
Her outing comes over a week after the funeral of Beatrice's grandmother the Queen and in the week that royal mourning ended.
It also comes after it emerged Beatrice has earned a royal promotion - alongside her aunt Queen Consort Camilla - following the accession of King Charles and the death of her grandmother.
The pair are now Counsellors of State, which means they can step in if the monarch is unable to perform duties "due to illness or absence abroad".
By law, Counsellors of State are the top four people in the line of succession who are over the age of 21 as well as the monarch's spouse.
Now Charles is King, it now means the Counsellors of State are Prince William, Harry, Prince Andrew, Camilla and the next person in line over the age of 21, which is Beatrice.
According to the Royal Family website : "Counsellors of State are authorised to carry out most of the official duties of the Sovereign, for example, attending Privy Council meetings, signing routine documents and receiving the credentials of new ambassadors to the United Kingdom."
However, they cannot be delegated Commonwealth matters, create peers, appoint a Prime Minister or dissolve Parliament - unless it is the monarch's express instruction.
Commenting on the change in roles, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Express.co.uk : "The role of Counsellors of State, currently the Consort of the monarch and the next four in line of succession to the throne, is to act in the event of the sovereign’s incapacity or absence.
"New Counsellors of State are the [former] Duchess of Cornwall, as the King’s Consort, and Princess Beatrice."
Some royal watchers have recently expressed their surprise at the fact that Princess Anne is not a Counsellor of State, as she is often called the hardest-working member of the Royal Family.
A now-abolished rule of male royal primogeniture means Anne as a female does not get succession rights, bumping the Queen's third-born Andrew up the line ahead of her - and meaning the fourth Counsellor of the State title goes to his eldest, Beatrice.
The male royal primogeniture rule was changed in 2013 under the Succession to the Crown Act, which gave women equal succession rights to men.
But the rule is not retrospective, and only applies to those born after October 28, 2011 - meaning Anne misses out.
