Kate Williams
Everybody knows the phrase “an heir and a spare” – but what about the “royal third”? Set to be fifth in the line of succession, the third child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is very unlikely to ever come to the throne – and when George and Charlotte themselves have children, he will be pushed even further down the tree.
So what does history tell us about the role of the royal third? And what might the new prince be able to learn from those who have been before him?
Traditionally, the third has tended to be the charm. Among the third children in our nation’s past are Henry VIII, Edward VI, James II and William IV.
Back then, life expectancy not being what it is today, the third had a better chance of inheriting. Indeed, three was deemed a riskily small royal family. Thus Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, gave birth to 15 children. Queen Victoria had nine, and might have given birth to more had Prince Albert not died. Charles I and Henrietta Maria also produced nine. Added to this were various illegitimate offspring – Charles II had so many that taxpayers complained at having to support them.
The golden era of the royal third was the Tudor period. Henry VIII was a solid number three: not cherished by his parents and some distance from the throne. But this stood him in good stead when – after his elder brother Arthur died – he leapfrogged his middle sister Margaret, according to the laws of primogeniture, and ascended to the throne.
While his brother had been schooled in the art of government, the child
Henry had been sent to
Eltham Palace, outside London. It meant that, by the time he became monarch, however, he knew how to fight for what he wanted, took nothing for granted and was constantly on guard. He set about breaking from Rome and taking wives – including Catherine of Aragon, Arthur’s widow.
But it was William IV, the third son of George III, who was perhaps the most influential royal third in British history; widely credited with paving the way for the modern British monarchy as we know it today.
With little pressure to prepare for the throne, William joined the Royal Navy and served in the American War of Independence. Charming and affable, with no need to produce an heir, he was known for his partying and vocal interest in politics.
But, in 1830, aged 64 – having outlived his two older brothers George IV and Prince Frederick, Duke of York – he became king; the oldest monarch to come to the throne (so far). He provided another lesson for aspirational royal number threes: stay alive the longest and you might reap the rewards. This is not just a numbers game, though. The royal number three has, traditionally, had to find a way of making him or herself individual, even eccentric, to stand out. Take Queen Victoria’s third child, Princess Alice. She took a keen interest in medical issues and alarmed her mother with her fascination with gynaecology – the Queen told her younger daughter, Princess Louise to be “very silent and cautious about your interior” around her sister. She eventually married Prince Louis of Hesse and is the Duke of Edinburgh’s great-grandmother.
And so to the most recent royal third, Prince Andrew. His mother, the Queen, has always been devoted to him but, as his older brothers have neither caught tuberculosis, been killed in battle nor imprisoned in the Tower, he has only the tiniest likelihood of ever coming to the throne. This has made life less pressured growing up. Today, a royal third can more easily hide behind their siblings. Yet, following Andrew’s birth in 1960, it had seemed like the days of the royal third might be over. Since then, all the other royals have had just two children apiece – the Cambridges are the first to have three for 59 years. The Duchess herself is, of course, the eldest of three and we know how close she is to her sister and brother. They are her support system, and no doubt she hopes for the same dynamic among her own children.
A friend once told me that she wouldn’t consider having a third because, “with three, there’s always an odd one out; a bit of a funny one.” Has that been true for the royals? Undeniably, there have been all sorts of odd ones out over the centuries, but for many more reasons than birth order. In fact, more often than not, number three has tended to end up on top. And, as a royal third in a very modern monarchy, it’s not hard to imagine that the new little prince might just do something very surprising indeed.
♦kate Williams’s new series, The Stuarts: A Bloody Reign, starts on Yesterday on April 26.