This week, the Daily Mail devoted yet another story – and a lengthy one at that – to the fact that the Windsors have run out of “working royals.” When King Charles kicks the royal bucket, William and Kate will preside over a monarchy which isn’t exactly filled to the brim with charismatic young royals eager to do the bread-and-butter events that make up most of “royal work.” William and Kate will have Prince Edward and Sophie, Princess Anne (who just turned 75), the Gloucesters (81 and 79) and that’s about it, unless they still plan to send out the poor Duke of Kent. We all know this. We’ve known it for years. So why churn out another piece about it? Unless it’s to point out that William is glum and work-shy? Hm.
No wonder Prince William is looking so glum these days. He’s running out of royals. The return of Prince Edward and wife Sophie from their hugely successful State Visit to Japan serves as a reminder to the future king that when his time comes, there’s almost nobody left to send abroad on these vital goodwill missions.
Once, there was a raft of royals who filled out the 25-yard wide Buckingham Palace balcony. Slowly one by one, they’ve drifted away. And it’s created a crisis for the times ahead. The golden years are all but gone – for the time being. In 2011, there were twelve major royals and their families sharing public-facing duties. Between them they covered 3,874 engagements, flying the flag both at home and abroad. But by 2024, the last figures available, the personnel had dropped by two down to ten – but the overall attendance figures had shrunk by almost half to 2,168.
The problem for William is that things can only get worse before they get better. The oldest royals – the Duke of Kent, 89, and Princess Alexandra, 88 – though maintaining links with their various charities and organisations, have effectively disappeared from view. Pictures of the Duke grieving at the funeral of his wife earlier this month were a reminder of his long length of service, but also graphically illustrated he can no longer play a part in the essential royal rituals of tree-planting, plaque-unveiling and ribbon cutting.
Prince Andrew retired in disgrace in November 2019. Harry, together with Meghan, fled the coop in 2020. The troops have left the battlefield, leaving their future commanding officer Prince William in despair. All that’ll be left when he steps up to the throne will be him and Catherine, Edward and Sophie, and Princess Anne.
Public demand for the attendance of a royal to mark major and minor events up and down the country remains as high as ever. And though King Charles has responded well to his cancer treatment and is working away as industriously as ever, William knows – as every heir to every throne knows – that kingship is always just a heartbeat away.
It’s clear from the various statements coming from Kensington Palace that William has formulated his plans for the future. But what do they include? And – just as important from the public’s point of view – what do they exclude? The answer, inevitably, is less contact with the public. And no amount of social media coverage can replace the lifetime’s memory generated by a real-life meeting with a royal.
The future king-but-one, Prince George, won’t be 18 for another six years. Add another three years for university, and that means he won’t step up onto the public stage until 2034. Like it or not, he’s born to serve – but there’s no guarantee his sister Charlotte, 10, will become part of the royal circus – or kid brother Louis, now just seven. William and Catherine have been rightly protective of their children and one suspects they may leave the choice up to them when they arrive at adulthood.
The future king could call upon his cousin Zara Phillips – by far the most popular of the ‘non-royal royals’ – but she has a successful business to run. And as King Charles pointed out in relation to Prince Harry last week, you can’t be half-in and half-out of the royal cadre – making money on the one hand and snipping ribbons on the other. And anyway, would Zara really want to give up the freedom of her glamorous freewheeling life she so clearly enjoys with adoring husband Mike Tindall?
I honestly love these quarterly reports of how deeply f–ked the monarchy will be in the coming years. It’s especially crazy because the answer is SO OBVIOUS to everyone, and yet none of the king’s horses and none of the king’s men can put this egg-shaped monster back together again. The answer: allow for people to be half-in and half-out. Stop allowing jealousy, rage and cruelty to be the defining characteristics of British leadership. Beg William’s cousins and his brother to come back and work part-time for the monarchy by any means necessary for the survival of the institution. These people are going to gatekeep their way into extinction. Also: Sophie and Ed’s Japan trip got absolutely zero attention.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
