Princess Alexandra of Kent Turns 88: She Is Now the Third Most Senior Member of the British Royal Family, After Her Elder Brother, the 89-Year-Old Duke of Kent, and His 91-Year-Old Wife Katharine

Princess Alexandra of Kent, the most Russian member of the British royal family and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, is the granddaughter of Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna and the great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II.

Princess Alexandra of Kent is the last member of the English royal family at whose birth a special official of the royal administration was present, to certify the fact of the birth of an infant of royal blood and to confirm the legitimacy of a person standing in the line of succession. The rule went back to the great scandal of the reign of King James II, when the opponents of the Catholic monarch accused Queen Mary of Modena of passing off a changeling in order to conceal a stillbirth. After 1936, no such officials attended royal confinements. At the moment of her birth, Princess Alexandra was sixth in line to the English crown; today she stands 57th, after her brothers Prince Michael of Kent and his descendants (places 52 to 56) and Edward, Duke of Kent and his descendants (places 41 to 51).