Anne of England and Charlotte of Wales, the different destinies of two second royal daughters

He just completed 73 years old, he is the hardest working member of the British royal family and is the closest person to the king Charles III, but “only” seventeenth in line of succession to the throne, despite being the second child of Elizabeth II and of the prince Philip: the princess Anna she never resented this slip into the rear, which became more and more insurmountable with the growth of the family.

Blame, so to speak, of theAct of Settlement, law of 1701 under which the British crown was passed on through the male birthright; if King George VI and his wife Elizabeth had had a third son, for example, Elizabeth II would never have ascended the throne. Anna, born in 1950, was like that overtaken by younger siblings Andrea and Edoardo, born respectively in 1960 and 1964, remained fourth for a long time, but things changed quickly with the arrival of their children and later grandchildren, transforming it in the British royal who moved the furthest down the line of succession in her lifetime.

A fate that does not touch, however, Charlotte of Wales, second daughter of Kate and William and third in line after her father and older brother George, she who is likely to one day receive the title of Princess Royal, the same one that Anna owns today (it is usually assigned to the eldest daughter of a sovereign). In fact, in 2013, the year of George’s birth, the British Parliament approved the Succession to The Crown Actwhich regulates succession only on the basis of birth order and not on gender and which applies to all those born after October 28, 2011; Charlotte was the first British princess to benefit from the new rule, so when her younger brother Louis was born she remained in place.

Among the novelties, also the fact that the eventual marriage to a Catholic it would not lead to loss of positions, tied only to birthright. Before Princess Anne, today, there are the new generation of Windsors: not only the three children of her nephew William, but also Archie and Lilibet, children of Harry and Meghan Markle, Sienna, daughter of Beatrice of York and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and the two children of her sister Eugenie, August and Ernest. For the princess it is not such a fundamental thing, after all she did not want titles even for her children, Peter and Zara: “I think it was the right thing to do,” said to Vogue in 2020, “I think it was easier for them.” After all, a title is not everything in life, nor is a throne in destiny. She didn’t get it, and she was happy all the same.