Princess Beatrice Likely Has an Important New Role in King Charles III’s Monarchy

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published 11 September 2022

Princess Beatrice, the niece of King Charles III and the daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, is set to receive an important role in her uncle’s monarchy, PEOPLE reports.

Beatrice is set to become one of Charles’ four Counsellors of State, allowing her to stand in for the king at Privy Council meetings, sign routine documents, and receive the credentials of new ambassadors to the U.K., according to the outlet.

The Telegraph reports that Beatrice—married to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi since 2020 and the mother of daughter Sienna, who turns one on September 18—will likely become a Counsellor of State based off the 1937 Regency Act. The act states the monarch’s spouse (so, in Charles’ case, Camilla) and the next four adults in the line of succession over the age of 21 can carry out business on behalf of the monarch. Though Beatrice is currently ninth in the line of succession, she is the fourth adult over the age of 21, following cousins Prince William and Prince Harry and her father, Prince Andrew. (William’s children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, as well as Harry’s children Archie and Lilibet, are all nine years old or younger.)

“There are a number of ‘core constitutional functions’ that cannot be delegated to Counsellors of State, however—including Commonwealth matters, the dissolving of Parliament (unless expressly instructed to do so by the King), the creation of peers, and appointing a new Prime Minister,” PEOPLE reports.

Under Queen Elizabeth II, the Counsellors of State were her husband, Prince Philip (until his death in April 2021), as well as Charles, William, Harry, and Andrew. Though events of recent years put pressure on the Queen to replace Harry and Andrew with other working royals, the Queen never changed the lineup.

In addition to being a princess of the United Kingdom and now, likely a Counsellor of State, through her marriage to Mapelli Mozzi, Beatrice is also an Italian Contessa and Nobile Donna. Her husband Edo shared a personal tribute to Her Majesty on Instagram, writing “incredibly hard to process the last 24 hours. What an incredible woman and extraordinary mark she’s left on the entire world. She was the rock on which modern Britain was built.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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