As King Charles III’s coronation approaches, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, will be in attendance.
Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London on 2nd May 2015, and on the day of Charles’s coronation, she will be eight years old.
As the second child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, she is third in line to the throne, after her older brother and father, since King Charles is her grandfather.
Due to the introduction of the Perth Agreement, which replaced male preference in the line of succession with absolute primogeniture – when the child of the sovereign has the same right to the throne no matter their gender – Charlotte did not move down the line of succession when her younger brother, Louis, was born. This makes her the first British princess to rank above her brother in the line of succession.
When she was born, her official title was Charlotte, Princess of Cambridge, before her parents took the Wales title following the death of Charlotte’s great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.
She is affectionately called “Lottie” by her parents.
In March 2016, William and Kate took Prince George and Charlotte to the French Alps – their first holiday as a family of four before Louis was born.
Later in June, she made her first public appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade.
That Christmas, Charlotte and George both attended their first Sandringham Christmas Day Service at St Mary Magdalene.
Later that year, she joined her parents and her big brother on her first overseas tour – an official visit to Canada.
Charlotte also accompanied her family on their official visit to Poland and Germany in July 2017.
To mark her second birthday, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared a photograph of Charlotte at their home in Norfolk, which was taken by Kate. The family lived primarily in Anmer Hall in Norfolk during Charlotte’s infancy, before moving primarily to Kensington Palace in 2017.
In January 2018, Charlotte started at Willocks Nursery School in South Kensington, London.
In April of the same year, Charlotte became a big sister to Louis. Charlotte and her big brother George went to visit their mother at the hospital to greet the newborn.
Charlotte began attending school at Thomas’s Battersea Preparatory School in London, joining George, in September 2019.
Along with her older brother, Charlotte met David Attenborough in September 2020. A video was released of the children asking Attenborough questions regarding environmental conservation.
Later that year, the children made their first red carpet appearance accompanying their parents to the London Palladium for a performance of a pantomime held to celebrate key workers for their efforts during the pandemic.
Charlotte made her debut in a royal carriage procession at her great-grandmother’s platinum jubilee celebration weekend and joined the Trooping the Colour carriage procession in 2022.
On the same weekend, Charlotte and George made their first official visit to Wales with their parents, where they attended concert rehearsals in Cardiff Castle. The next day, Charlotte accompanied her parents, the late Queen, Charles and Camilla on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
In September 2022, Charlotte and her older brother Prince George accompanied their parents to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
William and Kate have kept efforts to shelter their children from the press and only appears on official visits or in officially released photographs. The family currently reside in Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park.
