Several days ago, we learned of an interesting development for longtime royal watchers: Princess Eugenie is making plans to move into Ivy Cottage, a nice little “cottage” within Kensington Palace. Eugenie’s move is a big deal because she’s setting down some roots in London with her fancy art-gallery job, and she’s no longer going to be living in the same apartment as her sister Beatrice. Eugenie will also be living closer to Prince Harry (Harry’s cottage is right next door) and William and Kate, who revamped (at exorbitant cost) Apartment 1 at KP. So what’s going on Kensington Palace? Is KP the “new power base” for the royals? Eh. The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes thinks so.

What Eugenie’s move means. “Eugenie’s forthcoming move to Kensington Palace—she is taking over Ivy Cottage, a substantial three bedroom home adjacent to Harry’s house, Nottingham Cottage—is a dramatic statement of intent by William, Kate and Harry telegraphing the fact that they intend the compound to be a significant power base over the next decades; for the duration, effectively, of King Charles’s rule.”

The KP Court: “They play it down and just call it ‘our London base’ and it doesn’t feel like a ‘court’ as such, but it definitely is the center of operations for them,” says a source. In contrast to the formality that Charles loves so much, at KP, “It’s all very self-consciously relaxed,” says the source, “First names are insisted on. Harry sticks on a baseball hat and pops out to Starbucks on Kensington Gore to get lattes for the staff and nips down to Tesco on the High Street to get milk. He never gets spotted—it’s weird.”

Eugenie is back in favor with the Cambridges. Sykes notes: “it now seems like the Cambridges are contemplating bringing Eugenie in from the cold (her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank is universally loved by the family, unlike Bea’s ex, Dave Clark).”

Eugenie’s move might mean bigger things: There are many who feel Charles’s ‘slimming down’ of the monarchy has gone rather too far. Yes, Andrew was a liability and had to be cut off, but in freezing out the inoffensive Edward and Sophie, Charles may, critics suggest, have cut off his nose to spite his face. Charitable organizations, who rely on a royal connection, however tenuous, are increasingly nervous about what a royal family of five—Charles, Camilla, Will, Kate and Harry—means for them. Those anxious fundraisers may have Will and Kate on their side. The Cambridges have made it pretty clear they do not intend to do 400-plus engagements a year like their parents and grandparents have done…. Rather than slimming the family down, William appears to be contemplating fattening it back up. They may conclude, as many monarchs have done before them, that a set of rooms for a compliant cousin at Kensington Palace is a small price to pay for a loyal, stand-in ribbon cutter.”

Charles doesn’t even want to live at Buckingham Palace: Sykes says that Charles loves Clarence House, the best of the London royal properties, and that the younger royals could end up living at KP for much of their lives too.

Separate royal courts: “What is clear is that Charles’ long-cherished master plan—to control all three royal courts (his mother’s, his own and KP)—is dead in the water. William won’t stand for it, and nor will Duchess Kate. Charles likes being in control. He thinks, as king, it should be his right to organize the affairs of the monarchy top to bottom. His son, it appears, has other ideas, and developing KP as the fulcrum on which a dynamic young royal team can leverage its power is an important step in William’s path to making the monarchy his own one day.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I do think that Eugenie’s move to KP is probably William and Kate “warming up” to the idea that they can’t completely alienate the York princesses, although I think it’s too early to say that Eugenie will be embraced as kind of major royal figure, but who knows? I do think that William and Kate are very interested in having their own royal court, especially because William fancies himself a public relations genius (he is not) who can manipulate the press to his will (he cannot). I also think that Eugenie is “over” the royal fault lines, you know? She’s the one who wants to make peace. I don’t think Beatrice is there yet.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.