As her older brother grapples with his new role as King Charles III, Princess Anne has already taken center stage in the mourning period with the emotional task of accompanying her mother’s coffin on the various stages of the final journey. Accompanied by her husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, she traveled behind the Queen’s hearse, showing her grief on the six-hour official journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh on Sunday. She will also accompany her mother’s coffin on the RAF flight from Scotland to London, along with Laurence and the Very Reverend Professor David Fergusson, who served as the most senior of the 10 chaplains personally chosen by the Queen. Some see the audience role as a sign of the importance she will have in the new monarchy, acting as a wise adviser and confidant to her older brother as he takes on the enormous responsibilities of the crown. While there is speculation that the Queen’s second eldest child and only daughter may acquire a high title in addition to that of Princess Royal, her importance in Charles’ court is assured. As she made clear in an unseen interview that aired on ITV on Sunday night, everyone will be carrying the baton for the Queen. Anna said her mother led by example and her children followed her example by “watching and learning”. He told ITV: “There’s no manual, in that respect: it was about listening and learning, not making assumptions and certainly not throwing your weight around.” New title or not, Anne and the King are said to be extremely close – they’re just 21 months apart in age, with the Queen’s only daughter and her third and fourth children, Prince Andrew and Prince, 10 and 14 years apart. Edward. Opting not to go to university, Anne has dedicated her working life to charities and is consistently ranked as one of the hardest working royals, taking on even more duties in the past year due to her mother’s ill health. She had 36 royal engagements scheduled this July alone, and in 2021 she’ll have 387 engagements, two more than her older brother. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. He is involved in hundreds of charities and has been a patron of Save the Children for over 50 years. She is also admired in some quarters among those who support a weakened royal family for the fact that her children, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, have been encouraged to live as normal a life as possible without royal titles. “I’m very lucky that both my parents decided not to use the title and we grew up and did everything they gave us the opportunity to do,” Zara, an accomplished equestrian and Olympian, told The Times in 2015. The princess broke the royal mold by becoming a competitive equestrian, making her debut in public competition aged 11 and in 1971 becoming Britain’s first royal to win a European gold medal, winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award later that The year.
