Royal Family Member Drives Land Rover Against British Law

Many Land Rover owners are guilty of letting their underage children drive their vehicles. Maybe they sat on your lap steering while you manipulated the pedals of your Range Rover, or maybe you let them take the Discovery for a solo run up and down the driveway. The more daring among us may have even let their kids drive on a remote public road, or on an off-road trail.

Though these offenses rarely cause any public harm, certain people in the public eye are a little more susceptible to criticism for allowing their children to skirt the law so brazenly.

This is even truer when your family technically makes the laws in the first place, as young British Royal Family member James, Viscount Severn has found out.

The Queen’s son Prince Edward flipped the 10-year-old the keys to the family Discovery 4 (LR4 in North America) after Easter services at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and let him have a few spins around the private Castle grounds in the Loire Blue vehicle. Of course, the paparazzi had already been out en masse for the Easter services, which were attended by most of the major Royals (though notably not including soon-to-be-newlyweds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle), so their telephoto lenses were quickly trained on the young James, intently focused straight ahead behind the wheel, sitting on the lap of an adult.

Some onlookers showed concern, as James was driving “reasonably fast” around the private family property. However, there were no legal infractions; according to British law, a license is not needed to drive on private land – though an insurance company probably wouldn’t pay out if your unlicensed 10-year-old crashed your £40,000-plus car. (These issues wouldn’t apply if his grandmother was driving, as The Queen is the only person in the United Kingdom who does not need a driver’s license or license plates.)

James had been “visibly upset” during the Easter services, so perhaps Prince Edward thought that there was no better way to cheer him up than giving him his first spin behind the wheel of a Land Rover, likely the first of many he will have over the years considering Land Rover’s long history with the Royal Family.