Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones have two children together. Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor, their first child, was born on November 8, 2003.
On December 17, 2007, her younger brother James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor was born.
At Surrey’s Frimley Park Hospital, both siblings were born. Lady Sarah Chatto, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Lady Alexandra Etherington, Francesca Schwarzenbach, and Rupert Elliott are Louise’s godparents.
Louise was seven years old when she attended Prince William and Kate’s 2011 wedding as a bridesmaid.
She attended Windsor Castle’s St George’s School before relocating to Ascot’s St Mary’s School in 2017.
September 2022 saw Lady Louise’s start of her English studies at the University of St Andrews.
James’ godparents are Alastair Bruce of Crionaich, Duncan Bullivant, Thomas Hill, Denise Poulton, and Jeanye Irwin. He was baptized in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle in 2008.
He went to Eagle House School, a prep school in Berkshire that is close to Sandhurst.
In April 2015, Louise and James went to South Africa with their parents, marking their first international journey.
Buckingham Palace serves as the official residence of the family in London. However, they also reside in Surrey’s Bagshot Park.
Eight grandchildren were born to the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
They were grandparents to Princes William and Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and Peter and Zara Phillips in addition to Louise and James.
Not all were granted hereditary titles, and Prince Edward made a deal with his mother when he married Sophie, saying that his children would not be addressed as His or Her Royal Highness, but rather as offspring of an Earl.
Louise and James are the first male descendants of the Queen without a royal title; Zara and Peter, Princess Anne’s children, do not either.
Additionally, they are the first members of the family to be permitted to use the Mountbatten-Windsor family name appropriately.
Rather than being HRH Princess Louise of Wessex, Lady Louise is known as Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.
James, on the other hand, is not HRH Prince James of Wessex; rather, he is using his father’s secondary title, the Earl of Wessex, out of politeness.
When Sophie, who wed Prince Edward in 1999, reaches 18, she says her kids won’t serve the Royal Family in an official role.
In 2020, she stated to The Sunday Times, “We try to instill in them the knowledge that they will almost certainly need to work for a living.”
As a result, we decided against using HRH titles.
“They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but it’s highly unlikely.”
James is ranked fifteenth in the British monarchy’s succession, whereas Louise is ranked sixteenth.
As of November 2023, the youngest child of the Queen, their father, is fourteenth in line.
Following a decision in 2011 by the leaders of 16 British Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Jamaica, to include daughters in the centuries-old custom of royal succession, the laws governing royal succession have undergone substantial changes.
