London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 29, 2025

The royal we: subtle transition as ageing Queen devolves more duties

The royal we: subtle transition as ageing Queen devolves more duties

Other royals are stepping up, including at Cop26, as a monarch who doesn’t like to say no has to reduce her workload

While Prince Charles steps up to welcome world leaders to the Cop26 climate summit next week, the Queen will appear in a recorded video from Windsor to address delegates in Glasgow. It could well be a defining moment.

With the Queen’s advanced years, there has been a gradual devolving of some of the more arduous public engagements to younger members of the royal family. The Duke of Edinburgh’s death in April at 99 and the Queen’s recent cancellation of public engagements to rest on medical advice after undisclosed tests, which necessitated an overnight hospital stay, have focused attention on the inevitable transition – and what it entails.

Buckingham Palace announced on Friday that she had been advised by doctors to rest for at least the next two weeks and refrain from undertaking any official visits. She will be restricted to light duties only, including some virtual audiences.

Fewer engagements and more time spent at Windsor Castle seem likely in the future. She prefers it there, and it’s where she keeps budgerigars.

“Obviously, as the Queen gets older, more duties will be devolved upon other members of the royal family,” said Prof Vernon Bogdanor, an author, political scientist and expert on the British constitution. “The other royals can do anything except the constitutional functions, such as audiences with the prime minister and signing acts of parliament.”

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall talk with Poppy Appeal collectors at Clarence House, London, last week.


Should the Queen, 95, be temporarily indisposed, such as through illness, or be out of the country, the counsellors of state can step in. By law, the counsellors comprise the sovereign’s spouse and the next four people in the line of succession who are over the age of 21.

Today these are Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Duke of York, according to the royal family’s official website. This is despite Harry having stepped down as a working royal and decamped to the US to become financially independent, and Andrew having been forced out of performing royal duties after controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

The mechanism means the counsellors of state – and only two are required – are authorised to carry out most of the official duties of the sovereign, for example attending privy council meetings, signing routine documents and receiving credentials of new ambassadors to the UK.

However, there are a number of core constitutional functions that may not be delegated: Commonwealth matters, the dissolving of parliament, the creation of peers and appointing a prime minister.

“The counsellors of state are a rubber stamp. They have no decision-making powers,” said Bogdanor. “If you look at the duties that only the Queen can perform, they are few.”

State opening of parliament, for example, is something Charles could undertake, Bogdanor said. It is not strictly necessary for the monarch to be present. Indeed, the Queen has missed it on two occasions, in 1959 and in 1963 when she was pregnant with Andrew and then Edward.

“Queen Victoria often wasn’t there towards the end of her reign,” Bogdanor noted. This was partly due to her long period of seclusion after Prince Albert’s death and her dislike of the Liberal prime minister William Gladstone. “So she didn’t want to give the Queen’s speech in person.”

Other key occasions in the royal calendar, such as trooping the colour and Remembrance Sunday, “part of the magic of monarchy, in that they are part of the way the monarchy presents itself, could all be done by others”, said Bogdanor, “They are not part of the basic constitutional function, and they could be presented by the Prince of Wales. But, as I understand it, the Queen takes the view that she needs to be seen, and therefore she needs to be at activities.”

The Queen attending the launch of the Baton Relay for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in London a few weeks ago.


Observers have commented on the Queen looking tired – “pinched”, as one put it – on her return from Scotland in September. She was last seen riding at Balmoral, and she has reportedly not been seen walking her dogs of late. In the absence of any details from Buckingham Palace on the tests she has undergone, which remain private, and its insistence that she is in “good spirits”, it can be assumed she is, naturally, slowing down but otherwise well.

Meanwhile, Charles, Camilla, William and Kate will be out in force in Glasgow, including attending a reception for world leaders. “The other members of the family are all stepping into the breach, and have been doing so for some time,” said the royal historian and author Hugo Vickers.

Charles already lays the wreath on his mother’s behalf at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sundays, and has done since 2017. Persistent commentary over whether he should succeed her as the head of the Commonwealth was in effect silenced when the Queen declared it her “sincere wish”, and two days later Commonwealth leaders declared it their wish too.

Her decision to hand these responsibilities to Charles is illustrative of how Buckingham Palace and Clarence House see the heir gradually taking over more of his mother’s duties.

Since she no longer undertakes long-haul travel, Charles already represents her on official visits overseas, including at the biennial Commonwealth heads of government meeting. He and the Duchess of Cornwall have been at the Queen’s side at the state opening of parliament since Philip retired from public life in August 2017.

Investitures, once described by the Queen as one of the duties she regards as most important, are regularly conducted by Charles, William, and on occasion Princess Anne.

William and Kate, who live at Kensington Palace and have a second home near Sandringham, Norfolk, are rumoured to be considering a move to Windsor, nearer to the Queen.

“If the transition works well, it should just all be very, very subtle. I barely noticed when the Queen stopped doing most of the investitures,” said Vickers. “We all know it’s changing under the surface.”

The word “abdication” may not be in the Queen’s lexicon, but there is nothing to stop a “co-head” arrangement as a practical solution to the challenges of an ageing sovereign.

The Queen appears via video from Windsor Castle, during a virtual audience at Buckingham Palace.


The platinum jubilee next year, celebrating her 70 years on the throne, will “inevitably be more demanding and tiring” for her, said Vickers. He said the Queen’s private office “ought to be thinking very carefully about not overdoing it for her, because she is reluctant to say no and doesn’t like to disappoint people.”

In his role organising the Jubilee Walkways and the Commonwealth Walkways, Vickers said he strove for “maximum exposure of the Queen and minimum time spent by her. I have always taken great pride in getting my engagements down to as short a time as possible. In other words, if she is coming past a particular point, she pops out of the car, unveils something and pops back into the car again.”

The Covid pandemic has forced the Queen to turn to virtual engagements, which are less tiring, “and she has taken to Zoom like a prawn into aspic,” Vickers said. “But Charles and William will have to do a bit more. I can see in a perfectly arranged system it would happen seamlessly.”

During the pandemic she has spent more time at Windsor. “It’s easier than Buckingham Palace. She can operate from there perfectly well and she has got space to get some fresh air,” Vickers said.

“And she has got her budgerigars there. I haven’t seen them, but I have heard them. There’s even a budgerigar keeper. And I think she really enjoys spending some time with them.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
×