Lady Louise Windsor

The Lady Louise Windsor (Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor) (born November 8th, 2003), is a member of the British Royal Family. She is the daughter of HRH The Earl of Wessex, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

As a grandchild of the Queen, she would normally be styled Her Royal Highness Princess Louise of Wessex. However her parents have instead opted to use form of style for their daughter that is standard for daughters of peers (that of Lady) given that her father is an earl, rather than the standard title of Princess with the style Her Royal Highness used traditionally by daughters of princes.

Lady Louise is eighth in line to the British throne.

Birth

Lady Louise was born on November 8, 2003 at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey. Her father is HRH The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Her mother is HRH The Countess of Wessex (née Sophie Rhys-Jones). She was born by emergency Caesarian section, necessitated by a placental abruption causing severe blood loss to both child and mother, before her due date in December.

The Countess of Wessex had earlier had an ectopic pregnancy.

Style and Title

Under letters patent issued in 1917, all children of the monarch receive a style and are referred to as Prince or Princess, and all children of the male children of monarch, as well as eldest son of a Prince of Wales. In the 1990s, to remove some public criticism about the size of the Royal Family (where minor royals such as Prince Michael of Kent, the grandson of King George V, have received continuous media attention and criticism) one option considered by the Way Ahead committee on which among others the Duke of Edinburgh sat, was to restrict such titles and styles to only the most senior figures, namely the monarch's children and the children of the heir to the throne. It was suggested that other children should be treated not as descendants of a monarch but as the children of a peer, given that princes traditionally receive peerages when they marry.

However, up to the date, the decree of 1917 has not been nullified nor amended regarding this, so Lady Louise legally is Princess Louise of Wessex, HRH Princess of the UK, whatever her family has agreed upon.