Kensington Palace release new pictures to celebrate Princess Charlotte's fifth birthday

Today marks the fifth birthday of Princess Charlotte, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton.

To mark the birthday of the young Princess - who is fourth in the line of succession to the British throne - new portraits have been shared with the public, along with photographs of her helping to pack and deliver food packages for isolating pensioners.

[[imagecaption|| The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the newborn Princess of Cambridge as they leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London. Credit: PA Images]]

To make the images even more heartwarming, they were all taken by Princess Charlotte's mom, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Writing to their 11.7 million followers on the official Kensington Palace Instagram page, the beautiful images were accompanied with the caption:

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share four new photographs of Princess Charlotte ahead of her fifth birthday tomorrow.

"The images were taken by The Duchess as the family helped to pack up and deliver food packages for isolated pensioners in the local area."

And amid the comments of people wishing Princess Charlotte a happy birthday, there were also those that couldn't believe how much she looked like a young Queen Elizabeth II - her great-grandmother.

One Instagram user with the handle 'pattidirr' commented: "Oh my she looks so much like her great grandmother, HRH (Her Royal Highness)".

 

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A second commenter agreed, writing: "She looks SO much like the Queen." While a third added: "she totally looks like the queen here".

And it is hard to argue with them. The photograph below shows a five-year-old Queen Elizabeth II arriving at the 16th-century church at Balcombe, Sussex, for the wedding of Lady May Cambridge and Captain Henry Abel Smith in 1931.

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In a follow-up post, fans of the Royals were treated to another picture of Princess Charlotte, as Will and Kate thanked everyone for the birthday messages, writing:

"Thank you for all your lovely messages on Princess Charlotte’s fifth birthday! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a new photograph of Princess Charlotte, taken by The Duchess this April."

There are clearly strong genes in the Royal Family. Happy birthday, Princess Charlotte!