Prince Louis & Princess Charlotte's Birthday + Cambridges 10th Wedding Anniversary (2021)

I received this reply last month from the UK. I had written to the Cambridges back in April for Louis & Princess Charlotte's Birthday and the Cambridges' 10th Anniversary.

The front of the envelope is the usual from the British Royals, featuring the postmark from the Court Post office at Buckingham Palace.

The back of the envelope is the usual from the Cambridges, featuring Kensington Palace under the coronet of the child on the heir apparent.  

Inside are three photo cards, one for each event. 

The first card is for Prince Louis's birthday. It features a photo of him taken by Duchess Kate on his first day of nursery school. This photo was released to mark his birthday.  

The back of the card features a typed message. 

The card says: 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are most grateful for the very kind message you sent to Prince Louis occasion of his third birthday.  

This was greatly appreciated by Their Royal Highnesses who send you their best wishes. 

It looks like there was a little mistake in the card.  The first sentence doesn't quite make sense grammatically, it should be something like "[...] Prince Louis on the occasion of his third birthday. " 

The 2nd card is for Princess Charlotte's Birthday. It also features a photo by Duchess Kate that was released on Charlotte's birthday. 

The back of the card features a typed message. The message is similar, but slightly different than Prince Louis's birthday message. I think it is nice to switch the message up. I also really like it when cards mention the person's age, as it allows you easily tell which birthday the reply is for when looking back at your collection. 

The card says: 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appreciated your kind thought in writing to Princess Charlotte as you did on the occasion of her sixth birthday.  

It really was most thoughtful of you and greatly appreciated by Their Royal Highnesses who send you their best wishes. 

The 3rd card is for the couple's 10th wedding anniversary. And features a photo taken by Chris Floyd at Kensington Palace to mark the occasion.  

The back of the card features a typed message. 

The card says:  

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were touched by your kind message on the occasion of their 10th wedding anniversary. 

This was most thoughtful of you and greatly appreciated by Their Royal Highnesses who send you their warmest thanks and best wishes. 

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Condolence Replies for Prince Philip

Following Prince Philip's death in April, I wrote to a number of members of the British Royal Family to express my condolences. I received replies back from everyone, except for the Sussexes. You can find a detailed blog post about each reply via the link below. 

• The Queen
• Prince Charles & Duchess Camilla
• The Cambridges
• The Yorks
• The Wessexes
• Princess Anne

1 reply used black edging on the envelope (Wessex).

2 replies make no direct mention of Prince Philip: Charles's & Anne.

3 replies used special mourning envelopes: The Queen, Charles & The Wessexes

4 of the replies feature a photo of Prince Philip. Prince Charles's reply used the oldest photo, from 1958. And the other photos were from 2011 (The Queen), 2012 (Cambridges) & unable to identify date (Wessex). 

5 Replies used black edging. Prince Andrew's was the only one not to. 

The replies and envelopes featured 

• 4 different Badges (Philip, Charles 2x, Andrew)
• 3 different Monograms (William, Kate, Anne)
• 2 Different Coat of Arms (Queen, Wessex Combined)
• 1 Cypher (Queen)

Prince Philp is referred to as: 

• "His Royal Highness Prince Philp, Duke of Edinburgh" (Queen & Wessex)
• "His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh" (Andrew)
• "The Duke of Edinburgh" (Cambridges)

3 cards mention the royal's relationship to Prince Philip

• "My Husband" - Queen
• "My Father" - Andrew
• "Their much loved Grandfather & great-grandfather" - Cambridges

Condolence Reply for Prince Philip from The Queen (2021)

This reply arrived a while ago from the UK. I had written to The Queen to send her my deepest condolences following the death of her husband, Prince Philip. 

The front of the envelope is usual from the British Royals. 

While the back of the envelopes may look like the usual from the Queen, this is actually a special mourning envelope, with her coat of arms in black instead of red. 

Inside is a folded card. The card is simlar to Queen's 90th Birthday, and Queen & Prince Philip's 70th Wedding Anniversary replies. 

The front of the card is identical to The Wessexes condolence card and feature's Prince Philip's badge. The center of the badge is Edinburgh Castle, chosen as a nod to Prince Philip's title, The Duke of Edinburgh. The belt surrounding that is the Order of Garter Belt, with the Orders' motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense (Middle French for Shame on him who thinks evil of it). The badge is topped with the coronet of the child of the sovereign. (Philip started using this coronet when he married Elizabeth and was the son-in-law of the Sovereign. As there is no special coronet for the spouse of a Queen, he kept this.) All of these elements are also features on Prince Philip's Coat of Arms. 

The front of the card says, 

"In memory of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1921-2021"

Inside is a photo of Prince Philip along with a typed message. The photo was taken by Julian Calder at Buckingham Palace in early 2011. The photo is part of a special set of official photographs by Royal Images. Royal Images is an organization that manages the set of official photos that are available for Royal's charities, government organizations, etc. for official use.

The Palace used another photo from this set for The Queen & Prince Philip's 70th Wedding Anniversary Reply back in 2017. 

The message says: 

Buckingham Palace 

I send you my sincere thanks for your kind words of sympathy on the death of my husband.  

Elizabeth R

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Condolence Reply for Prince Philip from York Family (2021)

This reply arrived a few months ago from the UK. I had written to the York Family to extend my deepest condolences for the death of Prince Philip.

The front of the envelope is the usual from the British Royals. From the postmark, we can tell this envelope was processed through the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace. Despite stepping down as a working royal in November 2019, it appears Prince Andrew still keeps an office at Buckingham Palace. And the Sovereign Grant is still coving the cost of postage, as the envelope uses the Grant’s PPI number W4047.

The back of the envelope is the same Prince Andrew has been using for years, featuring his badge in blue. Andrew's badge is the York Rose, surrounded by the Order of Garter belt and topped with the coronet of the son of the sovereign. 

Inside is a letter from Libby Horsley, an "Assistant Private Secretary" in Prince Andrew's office. Libby previously worked for Pitch@Palace, but started working for Andrew's office after Pitch@Palace temporarily shut down "to reassess its future direction."

The stationary is the same as we have always seen from Prince Andrew. Although I had addressed my letter to the York Family, the letter is just on behalf of Andrew. This is likely because it's just a form letter, that was sent out to everyone who sent a letter to Andrew's office to express their condolences. 

The letter says, 

Buckingham Palace

25th May, 2021

Dear Ms Dale,  

The Duke of York had asked me to thank you for your kind message of condolence on the death of his father, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal highness is touched that you had thought to write to him and has asked me to send you his best wishes. 

Yours sincerely, 

Libby Horsley 

Assistant Private Secretary

Household of HRH The Duke of York

They did misspell my last name on both the letter and envelope.

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