Lady Louise Windsor will start her undergraduate course at St Andrews in September
(Picture: Jacob King/PA)The Queen’s granddaughter, Lady Louise Windsor, will attend St Andrews University to study English, after receiving her A-level results, Buckingham Palace said.
Lady Louise – the 18-year-old daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex – will begin her degree course in September, following in the footsteps of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who also met at the university, while Kate was studying history of art and William geography.
The palace has not yet revealed Louise’s results, but St Andrews is one of the UK’s top universities, with standard entry grades at AAA, and minimum entry grades at ABB for the English MA.
Here’s everything you need to know about the royal.
Who is Lady Louise Spencer?
Lady Louise Alice Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor is the eldest daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex. She is the Queen’s granddaughter and 16th in line to the throne.
She was born on November 8, 2003, and has a 13-year-old brother, James, Viscount Severn.
When she turned 18 in November 2021, she was given a choice to adopt the title of Her Royal Highness, as when she was born, her parents chose to give her the title of Lady.
Speaking to the Times, her mother Sophie said: “We try to bring them up with the understanding they are very likely to have to work for a living.”
She added: “Hence, we made the decision not to use HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but I think it’s highly unlikely,” Grazia reports.
In November, Lady Louise gave her first public interview in a BBC documentary about her grandfather, Prince Philip, who she is said to have had a close and loving relationship with.
When she was born, her mother had an emergency cesarean, and Louise was born with an eye condition called esotropia.
While growing up, she had problems with her vision and underwent an eye operation at just 8 months old.
Elsewhere, while growing up, Louise wasn’t always aware that her grandmother was the Queen of England.
“For Louise … it was much more of a shock to the system,” her mother told the BBC.
“It was only when she was coming home from school and saying: ‘Mummy, people keep on telling me that grandma is the queen.’ And I asked her, ‘Yes, how does that make you feel?’ And she said, ‘I don’t understand...’ I don’t think she had grasped perhaps there was only one Queen.”
Lady Louise is also a skilled carriage driver. “I trail in her wake, frankly,” her mother said in a 2020 interview about Lady Louise’s skills. “No, she is naturally so good at it, she really is. It’s something that she has taken to very well.”
The Lady is also a popular member of the royal family, having served a central role in two of her cousin’s bridal parties.
Back in 2011, she was a bridesmaid in Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding, while, more recently, she was given an important role in another royal wedding.
In October 2018, she and her brother James were special attendants at Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank.
