Hugo Vickers

When he was Prince of Wales, the King began to advocate the need for a slimmed-down monarchy. The perception was that there were too many royals, an image confirmed in the eyes of the media and the public when they all appeared together on the balcony following the Trooping the Colour. The ill-informed man in the street would go away thinking the taxpayer was supporting all these disparate family members. This was a misconception, but it lingered. At the time of the Diamond Jubilee, the Queen’s advisers were delighted when only a handful of royals appeared on the balcony after the service at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2012 – the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry (the Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital at the time).

No one was more irritated than I was when the royal engagement was announced on 16 November. Not, I hasten to say, because I did not welcome the news, but selfishly, because I realised I would miss a rare lunch at the Historic Houses AGM — and many further lunches over subsequent weeks. Since then, as when the Princess of Wales was killed, I have been a prisoner of the media. The engagement took everyone by surprise — and the calm discretion with which the whole process has been handled since must be a delight, and even possibly a surprise, to Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. Nothing leaks. I also detect a gentler approach from the media. They seem glad for any titbits that we veterans can provide, since a new, uninformed generation of journalists has sprung up.