No, no, after you . Princess Anne is not going to break royal protocol, not even for Queen Camilla . King Charles III 's sister and wife made a joint appearance at the University of London Nov.
20, where Anne, the school's Chancellor, presented her sister-in-law with an honorary doctorate of literature. At one point during their visit, the Queen invited Anne to enter a room before her, but the Princess Royal declined, according to multiple reports . During formal engagements, the royal family follows an order of precedence, or a sequential hierarchy that takes into account the ranking of a person's royal or other official position, within the context of the setting.
Since the Queen outranks the princess, she would traditionally be expected to walk ahead of her. The 77-year-old was one of five people who was honored by the University of London on its annual Foundation Day, which celebrates the granting of the school's first charter by King William IV in 1836. Since Charles ascended to the throne in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II 's death in 2022, Anne has shown her support for Camilla as she's taken on the role of queen consort.
"I've known her a long time, off and on. Her understanding of her role and how much difference it makes to the King has been absolutely outstanding," the princess said about Camilla—who met Charles in 1970—in a rare interview for the 2023 BBC documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year . "This role is not something that she would have been a natur.
