Kate joins a number of other members of the royal family who’ve already been granted the honor, among them Princess Anne, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. She will now wear a blue sash at some formal royal engagements.
Queen Elizabeth II has just bestowed a very special honor on her granddaughter-in-law Kate Middleton. The queen appointed Kate a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on April 29, which was also the duchess’s wedding anniversary, marking eight years since she married Prince William and became a royal.
This rare and prestigious award is given to Commonwealth residents in recognition of their personal services to the Sovereign, so in this case, it is the queen’s way of recognizing how Kate has supported her reign through her work as a senior royal.
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood, and dame is the highest female rank, equivalent to the male knight. The order was established in 1896 by Queen Victoria, as a way of publicly thanking those who had provided a personal service to her. Though any Commonwealth resident is eligible for the honor, it is most often awarded to members of the royal family, diplomats, and senior members of the royal household (such as the Dowager Duchess of Grafton, who has the wonderful title of “Mistress of the Robes”).
There are currently fewer than 50 living recipients of the honor, not counting honorary members (those from countries outside of the Commonwealth). Prince Philip, consort to the queen, had to wait a lot longer than Kate to join the order: the queen awarded it to him on their 70th wedding anniversary in 2017!
Princess Eugenie Loves This Dress So Much, She Brings It Out Every Season
Princess Eugenie had an important job to do on Thursday, as she accompanied Queen Elizabeth II to the Royal Maundy Service, one of a number of traditional royal events that take place around the Easter holidays. The princess was in familiar territory, as this year the service took place at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, where Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank tied the knot back in October 2018. But it wasn’t just the venue that was giving us flashbacks, either, as Eugenie decided to make this royal appearance in a very familiar dress.
Eugenie was wearing her Erdem Bernette dress, a chic floral design she debuted back in June of last year, when she wore it for another important family outing: Royal Ascot. Back then, she teamed it with a Sally-Ann Provan hat and black pumps with tiny studs. A month later, Eugenie kept the shoes but ditched the hat, to give the dress its second outing, at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York.
Almost a year on, this classic floral design still looks fresh with the addition of a navy hat with a braided trim, and a pair of every royal’s go-to shoe, the navy blue pump. Keep reading to take a closer look at Eugenie’s latest outing in a dress that’s so chic, it just won’t quit.
