The King and the Queen on the balcomy at Buckingham Palace (Image: Getty)
King Charles’s slimmed-down Royal Family undertook seven percent fewer engagements in the first half of this year than last year.
The Firm, now reduced to 11 people carrying out official duties, is doing significantly less – down 31 percent – than when there were 15 working royals in 2019.
That may make it more difficult for charities to win financial support and recognition for their work and change the public’s view of the monarchy, according to seasoned royal watchers.
Patricia Treble, a Canadian journalist and royal specialist commissioned by the Daily Express to analyse official engagements, said: “King Charles III has his slimmed down Royal Family. Now, they have to figure out how to live up to the late Queen’s maxim, ‘I have to be seen to be believed.’”
The Prince of Wales and his family (Image: Getty)
Her analysis of official duties recorded in the Court Circular shows that the Big Four – The King, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate – have collectively reduced their number of engagements by 11 percent compared to the first half of last year and 16 percent on the same period in 2019, the last entirely Covid-free year.
In total, those four combined undertook 514 engagements in the first six months of 2023, compared to 578 in the same period last year and 611 in 2019.
The big difference is the lack of overseas tours undertaken by the four most senior members of the Royal Family in 2023. Aides have blamed the change of reign and the build-up to the Coronation in May for the lack of foreign visits, which are usually undertaken at the request of the Government.
“The aftermath of The Queen’s death and then the Coronation are certainly big factors,” one source said.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (Image: Getty)
The King and Queen and other senior royals are expected to undertake visits to some of the 14 overseas realms where Charles is also head of state and other Commonwealth countries in the near future.
Buckingham Palace has not discussed details but a spokeswoman said yesterday: “All official overseas visits by members of the Royal Family are undertaken at the request of government. The cost of official royal travel varies from year to year, depending on the number and nature of overseas visits.”
The Queen’s death last September meant that The King and Queen had to postpone a big overseas visit. It also put plans on ice for William and Kate, whose senior advisers launched a review of how they conduct Commonwealth tours after a Platinum Jubilee trip to the Caribbean in March 2022 was marred by controversy and protests over racism, slavery, and colonialism.
The new Prince and Princess of Wales are now waiting for the King and Queen to decide on where to go on their first big Commonwealth trip of the new reign before deciding on their overseas visits in the second half of 2023, according to royal sources.
Before that, a state visit by The King and Queen to France is expected to take place in the autumn after being postponed at the last minute in March because of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. There has also been talk of a Commonwealth trip for The King and Queen to include Kenya, as well as a visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa in October which might also take in visits to other Commonwealth nations in the region.
Looking at all 11 working royals, Charles III and his family are missing the late Queen, who still undertook 100 duties in the first half of last year while ill and helped take the 2022 half-year total to 1,373 engagements, compared to 1,277 in the same period this year.
If the late Queen is taken out of the equation, the current 11 working royals are doing about as much as the same 11 did last year, helped by the Princess Royal, who has increased her workload to become the busiest royal of the first half of 2023 with 254 engagements – compared to 237 at the same stage last year.
The King, Edward, Sophie, Camilla, and then William, and the Duke of Gloucester followed by Kate are the next busiest with Anne, 72, who spent more days – 104 – working on official engagements than any other family member. King Charles was next with 82 days.
William and Kate, the youngest royals at 41, were only out on official duties for 65 and 55 days respectively.
They tend to focus on more intense campaigning work, such as on homelessness, improving children’s early years, and helping Britain come to terms with an epidemic of anxiety and depression affecting a generation of young people.
Miss Treble said: “They are the only working royals under the age of 50, yet, on the overall list for the first half of the year, William is No 6 while Kate is No 8. Indeed, the five working royals from the previous generation (Charles to Sophie) have all undertaken more engagements, according to the Court Circular.
“There’s no getting around the fact that their combined
workload has gone down 23 percent in 2023, compared to 2022. If they’d done a spring overseas tour like last year, their numbers would be roughly the same as 2022.”
She said their campaigning work was also a factor. “Their style of focusing on a smaller number of organisations, often with long-term projects – means that they don’t have the same number of engagements in public.
“Whether you agree or disagree with their decision, the basic data shows that they are seen less in public than other senior working royals.”
She doubted that the Royal Family, shorn of Prince Philip, then Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan and then Elizabeth II, would ever return to the large number of engagements in earlier years.
“Are we ever going to get back to the high levels seen in the previous decade? Unlikely, especially as there are only two working royals under the age of 50 and the Waleses’ workloads has actually gone down this year,” she added.
Analysis by Richard Palmer
There is some debate in the charity world about whether royal patrons and visitors actually increase income but they are certainly the gold standard for public recognition.
The publicity they attract is normally a welcome seal of approval and any royal visit is a pat on the back from the head of state’s family for any organisation.
It is a big deal for many people when a member of the Royal Family turns up in their neighbourhood. Similarly, British politicians have long insisted that royal visits overseas are an important diplomatic tool to bring two nations closer.
So it may be a cause for concern that a downsized Royal Family is doing less and seeing fewer people than a few years ago when there were more working royals.
Will charities and other organisations suffer? It remains to be seen. But what we are also seeing is senior members of the Royal Family trying to reflect the King’s desire to make the monarchy a campaigning force for positive change.
If they can help focus world attention on combatting global warming, heal divisions, help end homelessness, give children a better start in life, and assist a generation of young people hit by anxiety and depression, Britain will be better for it.
But royals are still needed to turn out around the country, opening schools and hospitals and recognising community heroes. They would do well to remember the late Queen’s belief that she had to be seen to be believed.
