My previous post to mark her 75th birthday is “Why Princess Anne is my fave royal,” August 8, 2025
I enjoy how author Craig Brown creates perceptive biographies through assembling a series of small and large snippets into a coherent narrative that reveals who the subject really was without having to write a traditional profile. In particular, his Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is one of the best royal biographies published in recent years because of that esoteric range of events, diary entries, and interviews.
The big British media outlets have nice odes to the Princess Royal, so I decided to adopt Brown’s technique for this post, including an opinion piece I wrote for the Toronto Star for her birthday. And yes, there are graphics. Enjoy!
The princess was second in line of succession when her mother came to the throne in 1952. Now, she’s No. 18. To show how her position has changed over the last 75 years, I plotted it in Excel.
What’s also clear is how it accelerates as the families of those ahead of her expand:
It took 53 years for her to land in position No. 9 (in 2003, with the birth of Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor to Prince Edward).
It took only 22 years for her to fall another nine positions to her current No. 18 position (with this year’s birth of Athena Mapelli Mozzi to Princess Beatrice)
That accelerating trajectory down the line of succession follows that of other royals, such as Princess Alexandra of Kent, cousin of Elizabeth II. When she was born in 1936, she was No. 6 in line of succession behind the sons of George V and their children:
George VI and his two children, the future Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret
The Duke of Gloucester
Her father, the Duke of Kent
Her brother, Prince Edward of Kent
Today, the 88-year-old princess is No. 58 (Ed note: I’ve fixed the error in my list of those ahead of Alexandra at the time of her birth on December 25, 1936.)
There have been two more ‘spares’ since Princess Anne. Her younger brother, Prince Andrew, moved ahead of her into second spot when he was born in 1960 because of the rules of succession favoured sons over daughters. Then, in 1984, Prince Harry was born to the heir to the throne, Prince Charles and his late first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. He famously used the name of “spare” for the title of his memoir. (In 2013, the rules regarding order of succession switched to birth order.)
To see how each of the three royals have fared when it comes to the line of succession, I first plotted their position by year, then translated that data into ages (at birth, Anne was second, Andrew was second, and Harry was third, behind his father and older brother, William).
What’s noticeable is that Anne has fallen faster down the line of succession than Andrew and Harry, in part because she has three brothers, each of which have children, with two having grandchildren. Still, their paths echo that of the Princess Royal and offer a harbinger of what is to come as younger royals ahead of them in the order of succession eventually have children.
On her 20th birthday in 1970, Princess Anne became the president of Save the Children UK. In 2017, she became its patron. Now, 55 years later, her connection to the charity remains one of the strongest of the 300+ organizations that she works with.
For her 70th birthday, a Princess Anne fan account on Twitter/X called PrincessAnneHRH (I’ve added upper casing for clarity) created a rather phenomenal thread illustrating a part of her life as a working royal that many today know little about — that she spent decades travelling to some of the most dangerous places on Earth to see the work of Save the Children and draw attention to crises in which their staff were working (I’m truly not exaggerating the dangers, as you’ll see when reading the thread).
As the charity noted:
The Princess Royal has supported us for 55 years and continues to champion the lifesaving support we provide for children around the world. During her time, Princess Anne has visited over 30 countries to see our work and met with over 27,000 supporters.
When it comes to official portraits, Princess Anne likes one photographer above all others: John Swannell.
He started at Vogue Studios and with David Bailey before striking out on his own. Some of the most iconic images of the royal family in recent years have been taken by John Swannell, including famous studio images of Diana with her sons in 1994, as well as Elizabeth II’s official portraits for her Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
The latest portrait of the Princess Royal was taken last week at her private estate of Gatcombe Park.
1990: 40th birthday
2000: 50th birthday
2010: 60th birthday
2020: 70th birthday (and more)
2025: 75th birthday
“Not bloody likely,” was her response when kidnapper Ian Ball demanded she leave her car during a violent kidnapping attempt in 1974 that left her driver, police bodyguard, and journalist passerby shot.
“It’s not just about, Can I get a tick in the box for doing this? No, it’s about serving…. It comes from an example from both my parents’ way of working and where they saw their role being. I mean, my father served. It was a more direct form of service, I suppose you could argue. And the queen’s has been a lifelong service in a slightly different way, but they both have that perspective of service which is about working with people.”
“Being pregnant is a very boring six months. I am not particularly maternal. It’s an occupational hazard of being a wife.”
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles. So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”— on not allowing her children, Peter and Zara, to have titles
“I’m quite mean. I still try and buy materials and have them made up because I just think that’s more fun. It also helps to support those who still manufacture in this country. We mustn’t forget we’ve got those skills, and there are still places that do a fantastic job.” – on why she wears the same outfits for decades.
“When I appear in public people expect me to neigh, grind my teeth, paw the ground and swish my tail – none of which is easy”
“Naff off” — she made famous the aristocratic version of the F word that she’s directed at the media
“I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it’s often true, isn’t it? You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?’ Or, ‘You went there?’ Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh let’s do it a new way.’ And I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.’ ”
“Golf seems to be an arduous way to go for a walk. I prefer to take the dogs out.”
“I find it very difficult to understand why anybody gets sucked into screens and devices. Life’s too short, frankly. There’s more entertaining things to be done. I suppose that puts me in the real dinosaur range.”
“Actually, I read an article the other day about the – I don’t watch Netflix and The Crown… but the actress was talking about how long it took them to do their hair like I did. And I’m thinking, ‘How could you possibly take that long?’ I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes.”
“She may walk behind more senior royals on formal occasions, but she wields both influence and power, thanks to decades of service. Anne epitomizes the old-fashioned values of service and hard work, a stark contrast to today’s self-absorbed generation, which is obsessed with Instagram perfect appearances and constant reinvention.”
My latest Royal Roundup for Global TV’s The Morning Show (August 11, 2025)
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source writeroyalty.substack.com ’
