This is how Princess Anne’s family life brought the royals into the 21st century

Many royal women receive credit for breathing new life into the institution of monarchy, each one of them, so often described as ‘dragging it kicking and screaming’ into modern times, helping to change it slightly from the way they experienced it growing up, and Princess Anne is no exception.

Princess Anne was the first of her siblings to get married. On 14 November 1973, she married her first husband, equestrian Mark Phillips, at Westminster Abbey. At the time, he declined a title from his future mother-in-law, which meant that any children born after their marriage would not receive courtesy titles or styles.

Peter Mark Andrew Phillips, their only son, was born on 15 November 1977, making him the first royal commoner to be born within the Royal Family since Cecily of York, daughter of King Edward IV gave birth to her children in the late 1400s. A sister, Zara Elizabeth Anne Phillips, followed, on 15 May 1981.

In a 2020 interview for Vanity Fair, Princess Anne spoke at length about her decision not to give her children titles, saying that “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.”

Zara has spoken about the freedom of not having a title, telling The Times in 2015: “I’m very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do.”

Peter and Zara are the only grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth II to not have received titles from birth, as their cousins all descend from male-line members of the Royal Family. However, their uncle Edward and aunt Sophie, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, decided at the time of their marriage not to use the styles any future children were entitled to receive.

Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor was born in 2003 with the full entitlement to be known as Princess Louise; her younger brother, James, born in 2007, was styled Viscount Severn from birth, the courtesy title of his father, who was known as Earl of Wessex at the time.

In their generation, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie follow in their aunt’s footsteps. Both of their husbands did not receive titles at the time of their weddings—in 2018 for Princess Eugenie and 2020 for Princess Beatrice—and their children have likewise not received titles.

Anne also made another form of history. In 1992, she became the first of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s children to marry for a second time. She wed Sir Tim Laurence at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral. The Church of Scotland allowed marriage of divorced people with a living spouse and so Anne was able to wed there.

Sir Tim is now stepfather to Peter and Zara and has a happy role in the lives of Anne’s five grandchildren.