Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, six, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s eldest children, returned to school this week after months of homeschooling during the lockdown.
At Thomas’s Battersea School in south-west London, the young royals are now in Year 4 and Year 2, respectively.
Despite the fact that Prince George and Princess Charlotte are two of the world’s most famous children, they are not addressed by their royal titles at school.
To their classmates, the siblings are simply known as George Cambridge and Charlotte Cambridge, a nod to their parents’ titles. This was also the case for Prince William and Prince Harry, who at school adopted Prince Charles’ surname Wales.
In the public eye, members of the royal family are known only by their first names and His or Her Royal Highness.
Their surname, such as Mountbatten-Windsor, may be different from their house name, such as Windsor.
Male-line descendants of the monarch, without royal styles or titles, shall bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor, according to a declaration made by the Queen in Privy Council in 1960.
When Harry and Meghan gave birth to their first child, Archie, in May 2019, they chose not to give him a title and instead gave him the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Their daughter Lilibet Diana, who was born in June 2021, is the same.
During a meeting with emergency responders in Northern Ireland last year, Prince William expressed his feelings about his children returning to school after a lockdown.
William told a police officer that he suspected other mothers and fathers were going through the same thing he was.
“I think every parent is breathing a sigh of relief that school has resumed,” the father of three said. “Five months – it’s been wonderful, but it’s been a long five months,” he continued.
Prince Louis, William and Kate’s youngest child, turned three in April and began nursery in April 2021. The toddler, like his older sister Charlotte, attends Willcocks Nursery School in Kensington, which is close to Kensington Palace.