Princess Anne’s bold parenting move that shook the Palace

Princess Anne opted against granting royal titles to her two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, a decision that has shaped the British royal family ever since and  a move that one upset Queen Elizabeth II.

The 74-year-old's wishes were controversial at the time, chiefly for how they strayed from royal protocol.

 The Queen, for her part, was anxious about how this deviation would impact the family’s reputation and the children’s prospects. Regardless, it seems Anne was determined, feeling her children would benefit from the absence of royal duties and public life rigors.

The outcome has certainly been favourable, as both Peter and Zara have lived largely out of the royal spotlight. In particular, Zara has flourished as an Olympic-level equestrian with a degree of freedom that is rarely extolled to royal bearers of titles.

Time has validated Princess Anne’s decisions as bold, now considered more reasoning around the positive outcomes of less title-centric modern royalty.

There’s every possibility her contemporaneous stances may have driven other younger royals to rethink the balance between monarchy and personal freedom.