It’s a big summer for Prince George. The heir to the British throne turns 12 on July 22, and all kinds of big decisions are being made about his future. With any tween, the in-between years of childhood and adulthood are a time of immense change, and George is no different as he navigates leaving his primary school years behind and becoming a young man.
First, it’s said that his parents, William and Catherine, have decided on sending him to Eton for secondary school, the same school his dad and uncle Harry attended. Plus, as he grows up, George is taking on more solo responsibilities, including recently hosting a VE Day tea party for veterans.
But unlike most—heck, pretty much all—other kids, Prince George has a unique and daunting destiny in front of him, knowing he will one day be king. And as he turns 12, that destiny is getting slightly nearer. His birthday means more responsibility and rules coming his way, including one particularly morbid one, which might surprise you. Read on to discover what it is.
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What royal rule kicks in on George’s 12th birthday?
It’s a little bit of a morbid rule, to be honest, but according to royal insiders, when Prince George turns 12, he can no longer travel on the same airplane as his father, Prince William, because they are both direct heirs to the throne.
This royal “rule” is not a rule as such, as in it’s not written down anywhere, but rather a royal protocol that has been in place since the start of air travel. It’s there to protect against the unpleasant possibility that both heirs could die in the same plane crash, which would seriously impact the line of succession.
King Charles’s former pilot, Graham Laurie, revealed the rule on A Right Royal Podcast, recollecting what happened when Prince William turned 12. “Interestingly, we flew all four: the Prince [Charles], the Princess [Diana], Prince William and Prince Harry, up until Prince William was 12 years old,” The Mirror reported. “After that, he had to have a separate aircraft and we could only fly all four together when they were young with the written permission of Her Majesty. When William became 12, he would fly normally in a 125 from Northolt and we would fly the 146 out with the other three on.”
This rule doesn’t apply to all travel, but sadly, for the Windsors, several royal family members have lost their lives in plane crashes, rather poignantly, including a previous Prince William and Prince George.
Can George travel with his mother and siblings?
Yes, hopefully, poor George won’t have to be sent into travel isolation—the family can still travel together—it’s just not advised that George travel in the same plane as his father. However they split the party, the aim is for William and George to be apart. His siblings, meanwhile, don’t need to worry when they turn 12, and Charlotte and Louis can enjoy much more relaxed travel because they’re not second in line to the throne.
Currently, the line of succession to the British throne is Prince William first, followed by Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Until George has his own family, Prince Harry still sits fifth, with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet sixth and seventh and Prince Andrew eighth—the last four, most royal pundits agree, not being optimal options, even in the event of a disaster.
Wait, does that mean George can’t vacation with his family at all?
No, of course not, that would be mean! George can still take all the family vacations he likes, including this summer. But if the royal family travels by plane, they’ll theoretically have to take two separate flights. It’s not known whether William and Kate will strictly adhere to the protocol even once George is 12, as they do have a penchant for bending the rules.
For example, they have previously clashed with Charles and the late queen, according to royal author Robert Jobson, over William’s habit of piloting his family to Anmer Hall, their Norfolk home, in a helicopter. “One recent source of disagreement is William’s stubborn refusal to take his father’s advice on safeguarding the succession,” he wrote in Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen. “… the King had raised concerns with his son about the wisdom of William using his helicopter to fly his entire family around the country.”
What prompted this rule?
While it might seem a bit of a severe diktat, it’s understandable, because the royal family is no stranger to plane crashes, especially as two involved a previous Prince William and Prince George.
During World War II, dashingly handsome Prince George, Duke of Kent, 39, was killed in an air crash. George, uncle to the late queen, was the younger brother of Edward VIII, Albert (later known as George VI) and Henry.
It was Aug. 25, 1942, and George, who was an officer in the RAF, was en route to Iceland when the plane crashed in Caithness, Scotland. Some 14 people died, including the prince, with only one survivor. He left behind his widow, Princess Marina and three children, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael of Kent.
As if that wasn’t eerie enough, a second plane crash would take another Prince William, who, like the current one, was also a handsome pilot. This William was cousin to Queen Elizabeth and the son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. A renowned daredevil, William studied at Cambridge and Stanford and indulged his passion for flying, even piloting himself to Japan. But on Aug. 28, 1972, William’s plane crashed during an air show in England, killing him at age 30.
The late queen attended his funeral in Windsor, and he was buried in Frogmore, near the castle. It deeply affected the family and came five years after another tragic air crash, close to home, when the queen’s flight captain, John Blount, died in a helicopter accident, along with three passengers. This legacy meant that Queen Elizabeth was particularly fearful of her family taking helicopters.
Prince Philip, the late queen’s husband, was also no stranger to air crashes. At 16, he suffered the loss of his sister Princess Cecilie, when she perished, along with her husband, two young sons and mother-in-law, in a plane crash on Nov. 16, 1937, in Belgium, en route to a family wedding in London. Tragically, it emerged that Cecilie, who was eight months pregnant, had given birth to a son on the flight.
Is this an official royal rule?
Like many of the royal protocols often quoted, the rule began as a sensible precaution once plane travel became standard. Even before that, however, monarchs did not travel with their direct heirs, often leaving them for months at a time.
The late queen, for example, regularly left her children at home when she went on tour via ship, including in November 1953, when she and Prince Philip undertook a six-month tour of the Commonwealth, including Australia, leaving Charles, 5 years old, and Anne, 3 years old, with the queen mother.
When was this rule broken?
This rule was broken by Princess Diana, who brought 9-month-old Prince William with her when she and Charles took their first overseas trip to Australia, in 1983. He was the first royal baby to go on tour with his parents. Thirty-one years later, in 2014, William and Catherine toured Australia with Prince George, also 9 months old.
By then, it seemed perfectly normal, so it’s not out of the question that William and Kate may once again break the rule by keeping George by their side, at least for the time being.
What other royal travel rules are there?
There’s another morbid travel rule the royals usually abide by, which is to always pack a black outfit with them in the event they need to quickly change if a family member passes away.
This happened to the late queen when her father, King George VI, unexpectedly died on Feb. 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya. Her wardrobe—including a mourning outfit—had gone ahead to the ship she was about to board for her Commonwealth tour, so she had to fly back in her summer clothes and wait on the plane while her black outfit was fetched for her.
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Sources:
- The Mirror: “Prince George will soon be hit by strict royal ban that also applied to Prince William”
- A Right Royal Podcast
- Catherine, Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen by Robert Jobson
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