Will the slimmed-down monarchy cope without Kate and the King?

The reaction to the Princess of Wales’s courageous and affecting video, in which she discussed her cancer diagnosis, was largely as might be imagined. Most people, including those who had previously exhibited confusion or scepticism about the various failings in the royal family’s communication strategy, found it both shocking and deeply moving, and commended Kate for her candour. However, there remains a small but vocal minority who seized upon the statement to lambast her further.

We do not need to give the deluded and vicious the oxygen of publicity, but nonetheless, once the initial burst of sympathy and surprise has died away, the revelation of the Princess’s illness has led to existential questions being asked about what happens when not one, but two senior members of the royal family are simultaneously suffering from cancer. The last time this happened to a monarch was in the early Fifties, when George VI’s diagnosis of lung cancer meant that he took on considerably fewer royal duties, and increased responsibility passed to his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth; she used the time to prepare for her accession to the throne, which inevitably came in 1952.