A young royal’s first appearance on an official foreign tour is headline news all over the world. There is always huge speculation as to what they will get up to during their time abroad. Will they meet important dignitaries with their parents? Will they go to many engagements? Will there be something new we learn about them?
Everyone from Prince William to Prince George and Princess Charlotte went on royal tours at a very young age – but Prince Louis is still yet to do so. Even his younger cousin, Prince Archie, joined Prince Harry and Meghan on their tour of South Africa before they stepped back from their roles as senior royals.
The pandemic made it challenging for many royal duties such as foreign tours to take place. While each member of the Royal Family was impacted by the change to their duties, for Prince Louis it’s meant he hasn’t had a chance to show off his cheeky behaviour and brilliant facial expressions overseas.
Despite being significantly over the average age when a royal child would typically accompany their parents, six-year-old Prince Louis is yet to follow the tradition set by many young royals over the decades.
His elder brother Prince George was only 10 months old when he travelled to New Zealand and Australia in 2014. When his elder sister Princess Charlotte was born in 2015, she and George both travelled to Canada (2016) and to Poland and Germany (2017) with their parents and took part in official duties.
Prince William’s first official tour was to Australia in 1983 at the tender age of ten months old. Prince Harry’s first tour was even earlier as he was just eight months old when he joined his parents and brother on a short trip to Venice, Italy.
Even Prince Louis’s younger cousin, Prince Archie, has been on his first official tour. He joined his parents in South Africa in 2019 before they stepped back from their senior royal duties and relocated to the United States.
As for the King and the rest of the Royal Family’s approach to royal tours, a source previously told The Mirror: “The King and his family are keen to hit the ground running in these crucial first years of his reign. He certainly wants to carry on the long-held mantra from his late mother of being seen to be believed, and is very keen to get out and meet as many people as possible.”
While The King has already carried out an important visit to Australia and Samoa, he is understood to have raised the importance of visiting the 14 other nations where he is King. Throughout his long tenure as Prince of Wales, Charles visited 45 of 56 Commonwealth countries, many of them on several occasions.
Royal sources have revealed The King is “acutely aware” that his accession to the throne comes at a time of particular unrest across a number of realms, especially in the Caribbean, as they assess whether or they wish to become republics.
