Prince Louis was forced to decline a chance to take up his first official role as a working royal – as a patron of the World Conker Championships.
The offer was made to the seven-year-old prince after organisers heard about his habit of stashing conkers around Kensington Palace.
While Palace staff were amused at the invitation, Louis’ parents declined the offer as the young Prince is still some years away from starting work.
A palace spokesperson said: ‘We really appreciate the invite but currently Prince Louis is “conker-trating” on his studies.’
The Prince’s love of conkers was revealed by Princess Kate during an outing with US First Lady Melania Trump, when the pair spent time with a group of Scouts at Frogmore Gardens during US President Donald Trump‘s official visit to the UK.
Kate, who is joint president of the Scouts, told Chief Scout Dwayne Fields about Louis’s current obsession.
‘We keep finding conkers in cupboards, in his bed – conkers everywhere!’
The Royal also revealed that Louis is so enamoured by the autumnal staple that he even puts the conkers in his toy trucks and plays with them.
Prince Louis may only be seven years old, but he was already offered his first job as a working royal
St John Burkett, spokesperson for the World Conker Championships told The Telegraph earlier this week that they had invited Prince Louis to the event as a patron and were ‘excitedly awaiting a response’.
He said: ‘Like the many other organisations for which members of the Royal Family are patrons, we have charitable aims and have raised approaching £450,000 to help people living with sight loss.
‘We were so heartened to hear that Prince Louis is such a conkers fan and he would be the perfect honorary patron for our organisation. We would be delighted were his parents to accept our offer.’
He added that Prince Louis would be welcome to attend an event in the future.
The quirky event has strong links to royalty, after it was revealed that King Charles stepped in to help secure the future of the event.
The competition had been in doubt due to a dry summer, which meant larger horse chesnut tree seeds had become scarce.
Windsor Castle then sent a delivery of more than 300 conkers to be used for the event.
