Over the weekend, there was an interesting update on Prince Edward and Sophie’s son James, the Earl of Wessex. James became the Earl of Wessex when his father was given the Edinburgh ducal title – before then, James was known as Viscount Severn (a title I’ve always adored). Anyway, James is now 18 years old, and he graduated from Radley College earlier this year. This past weekend, we heard that he was spending his summer working as a farmhand on the Sandringham estate. I believed that it was typical posh behavior – most titled aristocrats spent a summer or a gap year doing some random “working class” job early in their lives, before they inherit property or a trust fund. The news about James’s summer job also served as some hype in advance of the announcement about his future educational plans. Well, today, James received his A-level results and Buckingham Palace quickly announced James’ university plans. The plans are atypical for royalty.
Thousands of pupils across the UK have collected their A-level results on Thursday morning – and a member of the royal family is amongst them. James, Earl of Wessex, has collected his exam grades after completing his Sixth Form studies at Radley College in Oxfordshire earlier this year.
Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie’s son will be heading to the Royal Agricultural University to study Rural Land & Property Management , Buckingham Palace has now revealed.
In a statement, they said: “Having achieved the grades he needed, The Earl of Wessex will be going to the Royal Agricultural University to study Rural Land & Property Management. He will head straight there without taking a year out.”
James’s exact grades remain unknown, but his parents will be very proud regardless due to the tough nature of the exams.
The 18-year-old is following in the footsteps of his older sister, Lady Louise Windsor, who also went straight to university after receiving her own grades in 2022. Lady Louise, 22, has now chosen to take a gap year after her studies – as was revealed when she graduated from the University of St Andrews in Scotland last month – so James may choose to one day do the same.
A synopsis for James’ course reads: “This course offers proven routes to rewarding careers within rural business, estate management, consultancy and property in the countryside. Strutt and Parker, Dalcour Maclaren, Savills and Fisher German are some of the nationally recognised businesses our graduates have gone on to work for – and so could you,”
James is the first member of the British royal family to study at the Royal Agricultural University, although Princess Anne’s first husband, Captain Mark Phillips, studied there. The institution has some royal alumni, including Prince Gundakar of Liechtenstein and Ernst August von Hannover, who is now the husband of Monaco’s Princess Caroline.
I didn’t even know that any of this existed in Britain’s higher education. But it makes sense – I bet the lectures on duchy land management are mind-numbing and extremely confusing. It also sounds like James, much like his big sister, really does not care about “becoming a working royal.” Edward and Sophie really tried to position Louise and James as potential “secret weapons” for the Firm. But I guarantee that Louise is probably going to serve in the military or something military-adjacent. And it looks like James is already making plans to work for the Firm in a completely different way – by helping to manage some of the royal estates.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Easter Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel Featuring: James Earl of Wessex Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 20 Apr 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- Sophie, Countess of Wessex, James, Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor at the Platinum Party at Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations.,Image: 697027984, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey / Avalon
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- (L-R) – Prince Edward – The Duke of Edinburgh, son James – Earl of Wessex, Sophie – The Duchess of Edinburgh arrives for an Easter Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, London, England, UK on Sunday 20 April, 2025.,Image: 990307705, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no , Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- (L-R) – Prince Edward – The Duke of Edinburgh, son James – Earl of Wessex, Sophie – The Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Eugenie arrives for an Easter Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, London, England, UK on Sunday 20 April, 2025.,Image: 990307721, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no , Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- James, Earl of Wessex arrive for the Royal wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church on June 06, 2026 in Kemble, England. Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne, Princess Royal and eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, will marry NHS Nurse and writer Harriet Sperling during a ceremony at All Saints’ Church in Kemble today,Image: 1108401109, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Jules Annan/Avalon
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- Ceremonial Procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard with the Imperial State Crown placed on top, is carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, during the ceremonial procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday Featuring: James, Viscount Severn and Lady Louise Windsor Where: London, Britain, United Kingdom When: 14 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Easter Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel Featuring: James Earl of Wessex Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 20 Apr 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- Members of the British Royal Family attend a Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk Featuring: James, Earl of Wessex, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Lady Louise Where: Sandringham, Norfolk, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2025 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
I think that’s…pretty smart? Seems like something Wills would have liked better than his art history background
Scooter could not have been bothered to complete the duchy course he was enrolled in. Scooter found art history difficult and then changed his major to geography.
The Palace never would have let him go there because its reputation is as a “finishing school for toffs.”
I was thinking the same. I know he took a crash course ahead of taking over the Duchy of Cornwall, but it seems a proper education in land management would have served him well.
Good for him. It sounds like it will be an interesting and difficult course of study* and he of course will be well positioned to “find a job” when he’s done (I mean he’ll probably have his pick of royal estates to manage lol.)
*I think this is the kind of thing that people think sounds easy as a major but actually isn’t.
I think that is smart of both James and Louise. James can make himself useful to KCIII and eventually to William without becoming a working royal.
I seriously doubt the earl would want to work for the royals. However, I see him, like many experts in this domain, works for charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help achieve food security.
Honestly that sounds amazing. Now I want to go there. You know what AI and the apocalypse can’t take from you? The ability to work the land. I’ve been a city girl my whole life. But more and more I think farming is the only natural state for humans. We should all know how to live off the land. You go kid I’d never heard of a week ago.
I wonder what side of agriculture/land management he’ll go into. British farming was already in a bad way and now climate change is making very real threats to livelihoods and overall food security. If he has a mindset anything like his uncle Charles he could do some really interesting work. If he’s just interested in monetising grouse moors or whatever it’ll be a shame.
Either way good for him for pursuing something he’s apparently interested in that can be a career outside of the royal nonsense.
It’s a posho factory that Guy Pelly also attended. It’s known as the poshest university in the UK, a haven for the well to do that aren’t so bright and don’t want to do much.
Aww why you gotta burst my bubble like that?
Lololol I know, I am sorry!! My general rule of thumb is these people never do more when they can do less
Sorry, this is funny. We’re all like well done and then we get hit with a different perspective from boots on the ground.
This seems pretty smart. It sounds like a good job for someone in the aristocracy that doesn’t want to go the show pony route. Also, it may afford him the ability to live on estates like the one he grew up on , without worrying about the upkeep coming from his own pockets.
And I never got the vibe that him or his sister wanted to be a working royal, that seemed like their mom’s dream. His sister seems slightly more willing to do the family appearance stuff, but he has always looked like he would rather be anywhere else for those walkabouts.
That sounds extremely sensible and likely something he has a real interest in. Also, he has the family connections that can get him into places and probably the personal knowledge about the estates that he might work at. He’s going to easily be able to pick a place that suits him when the time comes for him to get a job.
I won’t have to worry about getting a job when he graduates. No doubt he will be given a job on the Windsor or Sandringham estates.
Tripped across that place in some of my reading. It’s very posh. A place for aristocrats who don’t want to do the Oxbridge route and want to stay rural rather than London based. Although there are probably normal people who are very annoyed by the reputation.
Good on him for doing realistic career planning. Also makes the case for him getting a home on one of the royal estates, or even keeping the lease wherever they are now.
The writing is on the wall about William being an awful boss and bully. Edward and Sophie have to kowtow and more to keep in with Charles and William but their children should be encouraged not to become working royals. No sensible parent would want their offspring to be at the mercy of Will: workhorse and scapegoat!?
Louise and James must be following the messy news of their family, seen how Harry (higher ranked but unprotected) was treated, seen how dependent their parents are, seen or heard how toxic William (and Kate) are, and decided to “nope” out of royal hangersonism. They’re still Gen Z, with all the side-eye of how previous generations did things that comes with that. If they keep their heads straight, and down, they can have nice lives outside the spotlight but still within privilege (they’re love lives will likely be public fodder, especially if the partners are goodlooking and interesting).
This particular school has a reputation for being extremely posh – the sons of aristos and wealthy landowners go there. (Ordinary students as well though). And of course he shouldn’t be looking to be a working royal – he’s way down the succession (17th or something?).
But then how’s he going to be the secret weapon???
By the way, in the UK, “graduated” is reserved for university education, not sixth form college etc.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/toff-finishing-school-booming-popularity-110000188.html
An amusing and enlightening story about this college, which the writer describes as having “traditionally attracted the sons of dukes set to inherit half of Dorset who need to know the difference between a field of barley and a field of wheat.”
She also notes: “I felt quite jealous, actually, of the ruddy-cheeked bonhomie that existed across campus. Perhaps if I’d gone there earlier, I might have found myself a husband with a large house, since there’s an old joke that female students go there to find a titled husband with a castle to marry.”
Beware the Jeremy Clarkson references therein.