In a week filled with royal tidbits and a dash of playground nostalgia, Prince Louis, the youngest child of Prince William and Princess Kate, found himself at the center of a charming story that has captured the public’s imagination. On October 16, 2025, it was widely reported that seven-year-old Prince Louis was offered his very first official royal role—not for his lineage, but for his endearing love of conkers, those shiny brown seeds of the horse chestnut tree that have entertained generations of British children.
The offer came from the World Conker Championships, an organization with a rich history and a charitable mission. After learning from Princess Kate that her son is an avid conker collector—so much so that “we keep finding conkers in cupboards, in his bed – conkers everywhere!” as she put it during a recent engagement—the Championships reached out to the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their proposal? To name young Louis as their honorary patron, a delightful nod to his woodland hobby.
Princess Kate’s revelation came last month, during the UK state visit of US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. The First Lady joined Princess Kate at Frogmore Gardens in Windsor, where they hosted a group of Squirrel Scouts. In conversation with Chief Scout Dwayne Fields, Kate shared the extent of Louis’s fascination with conkers, even mentioning that he likes to put them in his toy vehicles and play with them. According to The Telegraph, this little detail about the prince’s daily life was enough to charm the organizers of the World Conker Championships.
St John Burkett, spokesman for the Championships, explained the motivation behind the offer: “We were so heartened to hear that Prince Louis is such a conkers fan and he would be the perfect honorary patron for our organization. We would be delighted were his parents to accept our offer.” As he pointed out, the Championships have charitable aims and have raised nearly £450,000 to help people living with sight loss since their inception in 1965. The annual competition, held every second Sunday of October in Northamptonshire, crowns the Conker King and Queen in a spirited contest that draws participants from across the country. Many of the conkers used in the event are even donated by the royal estate at Windsor Castle, making the royal family’s connection to the tradition more than just symbolic.
Yet, despite the warm gesture, Kensington Palace politely declined the invitation. Their reasoning was as pragmatic as it was playful. A spokesperson told The Telegraph: “We really appreciate the invite but currently Prince Louis is ‘conker-trating’ on his studies.” The palace’s lighthearted response underscored a central theme in the Wales family’s approach to royal life: childhood and education come first. Prince William and Princess Kate have consistently emphasized that their children’s schooling is the top priority. During a visit to Cape Town in November 2024, Prince William remarked, “Family-wise, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer because obviously they’re at school and I think that takes priority over everything else.”
This focus on education is not limited to Prince Louis. His siblings, Prince George (12) and Princess Charlotte (10), also attend Lambrook Preparatory School in Berkshire. George is set to move schools at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, with Eton College and Marlborough College—alma maters of his parents—tipped as likely contenders. The Wales children have, nonetheless, taken part in several high-profile royal events, from Trooping the Colour to the VE Day 80 commemorations and the annual Christmas Day walkabout. Louis himself carried out his first official engagement in 2023, volunteering with the Scouts in Slough alongside his family.
While the story of Prince Louis’s would-be patronage captured headlines, it also highlighted a broader transformation within the royal family—one that affects not just Louis, but also his sister, Princess Charlotte. As reported by Marie Claire and the Daily Mail, Charlotte holds a unique and historic position in the royal line of succession. Thanks to a law change enacted before Prince George’s birth in 2013, the age-old practice of male primogeniture was abolished. For the first time in British history, the so-called “spare” is a princess who outranks her younger brother, Louis, in the line of succession. As historian Dr. Nige Fletcher explained in a recent Channel 5 documentary, “Princess Charlotte is in line after George, after a change in the law, and she now outranks her brother, Louis.”
This legal shift means that Charlotte maintains her place in the succession order even if more brothers are born—a marked difference from past generations. Historian and author Tom Quinn observed that this change will “make things a lot easier because there won’t be two males like two deer clashing antlers anymore.” The new rules, in effect, have modernized the royal succession and, as Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson noted, will allow George, Charlotte, and Louis “greater freedom and choice than their father had.”
That freedom is already evident in the way Prince William and Princess Kate are raising their children. Both Charlotte and Louis enjoy a relatively normal upbringing, with hobbies ranging from ballet and netball to arts and crafts. The royal couple is determined to let their children enjoy childhood before the responsibilities of royal life come calling. This may even extend into adulthood; various royal sources have hinted that Charlotte and Louis might not take on full-time royal roles in the future, reflecting a conscious effort to adapt the monarchy to the times.
Meanwhile, the World Conker Championships remain hopeful that Prince Louis’s passion for conkers will endure. As St John Burkett put it, “The Princess of Wales herself is such a wonderful champion of childhood and nature, and playing conkers connects both children and adults to nature.” Perhaps, one day, when Louis is older and his studies are behind him, he might accept such an honorary role—if his love for conkers persists.
For now, the young prince’s story is a reminder that even within the walls of Windsor, childhood joys and the simple pleasure of collecting conkers still matter. The royal children’s lives may be watched by millions, but for Louis, Charlotte, and George, the priorities remain refreshingly down to earth—school, family, and a bit of fun along the way.
