Nicholl also observed that the attendance of Kate and William’s two eldest children, Prince George, 9, and Princess Charlotte, 7, was a deliberate choice on the couple’s part. (Too young to quite understand the significance of what was happening, Kate later said, 4-year-old Prince Louis remained at home.)
It sent out “such a powerful message about dynasty, about succession, about the security of the succession,” Nicholl said, “and I don’t believe that William and Kate for a moment would have made that decision lightly. Anyone with young children knows that, to take them to a funeral, is a big decision. But particularly to a funeral that the world, quite literally, is watching.”
Though to one degree or another, the same could be said every time Kate leaves the palace gates.
While she and William were greeting well-wishers outside Cardiff Castle last June, a woman told the then-Duchess of Cambridge that she’ll be “a brilliant Princess of Wales” one day, the exchange captured on video by an onlooker. Kate graciously thanked her, adding, as she gestured toward William, “I’m in good hands.”