Princess Charlotte approaches her second birthday

Princess Charlotte approaches her second birthday



As pretty as the May blossom that blooms on her birthday, Princess Charlotte turns two on Tuesday.

To her parents, she’s been ‘a joy of heaven’, to her fans worldwide, she’s the Royal Family’s show-stealing star turn.

From the moment she appeared in her mother’s arms hours after her birth, Charlotte has given a command performance of enraptured smiles, wobbly first steps and pudgy-fisted Buckingham Palace balcony waves.



Mostly, she’s been cloistered in rural North Norfolk at the Cambridges’ family home, Anmer Hall. It’s ensured two peaceful early years, a life lived in private, not in public, more cosy kitchen table than palace nursery wing.

Charlotte might be a princess, but she’s also shown herself to be an ordinary little girl who loves dogs, horses and blowing bubbles and isn’t bothered about wearing her big brother George’s hand-me-down blue woollen cardigan. She’s shown in it here as she plays under the arch of balloons she encountered at a garden party in Canada last year, prompting some of her first words: ‘Pop, pop!’

Yet on the eve of her second birthday, she’s already well versed in the pomp and ceremony of her future role. She’s a veteran of Trooping the Colour, as well as a Royal Tour to Canada, where her first formal duty was hosting a playdate for military children.

Charlotte’s birth at 8.34am on May 2, 2015, was a moment of national celebration which also broke Britain’s constitutional mould. This daughter of the Windsor dynasty became fourth in line to the throne, the ‘spare’ to George, who will one day be heir. She’ll stay that way until he has children of his own, a true 21st Century princess, confident and contemporary, as well as completely enchanting.

My, hasn't she grown!