A soft regency? The House of Windsor reckons with shortage of working royals

Cover for an incapacitated King Charles is looking rather thin, especially with William facing his own problems

One principle of hereditary monarchy is that it is the institution, not the individual, that prevails; the Firm" over the figure on the throne.

Following King Charles's cancer diagnosis, Buckingham Palace and the government can point to laws as evidence the well-oiled machinery of monarchy will continue to whirr efficiently in the background as the king retreats for treatment.