There’s a lot to be said for monarchy — but just think what we ask from the royals

However what about them? In Robert Hardman’s new biography, Charles III: New King. New Courtroom. The Inside Story, he quotes the Princess Royal on the demise of her mom. She felt, she mentioned, “fairly weirdly… a way of aid — that by some means it’s completed”. That’s an odd factor to say concerning the demise of a queen, I assumed: until you actually know what you might be speaking about. I by no means thought of Elizabeth II till I watched the foolish Diamond Jubilee flotilla in 2012 when the late Queen, then 86, stood for hours within the rain. Her husband, who stood along with her, was later hospitalised. Till then she had been a picture to me: a coin, a stamp.