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The garden party that offered a small glimpse of what that world might look like
Hannah Furness
By Hannah Furness
Royal Editor
There was something quite striking about the Prince of Wales stepping out of a very soggy Buckingham Palace on Tuesday afternoon. On his own, as the Princess recovers from illness at home, he could have cut quite a lonely figure.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester took their places slightly behind him for the national anthem, and it is anyone's guess what was running through Prince William's mind as he heard the familiar strains of God Save the King.
The 8,000 guests sheltered under umbrellas, watching the tall, top-hatted Prince get ready to circulate without his wife by his side.
And then, waiting in the wings, came the reinforcements: Team W, if you will.
Prince William's cousins Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, with a bonus order of cousin-in-law Mike Tindall, put on their best frocks and morning dress, ready to mingle with the crowds.
The younger royal generation were invited personally by Prince William – his idea, although his father and the King's household are said to have been aware of the plan.
They were there as cousins, not as working royals, and they were not named in the official record of the Court Circular. But they did put in a shift. The Princesses cheerfully posed for photographs with countless guests, while Zara and Mike made their way along the lines of people behind William, making small talk. The topic of the weather came up a lot.
With an age range of 34 to 46, the very grown-up cousins have moved on from their era as the party princes and princesses but have retained the energy and fun.
The cousins are close and it showed – the Phillips-Tindall-York contingent lifted the atmosphere. As one onlooker noted: "You could see the warmth."
It is no criticism of the Prince of Wales to point out the obvious, that princes and future Kings have always needed their wives by their sides. The absence of the Princess of Wales, essential though it is for her to be given peace and quiet at home, is very noticeable at these events in particular, where the excitement level at seeing a "real life Princess" would normally be palpable.
That William has cousins he can rely on will be a comfort to him, to her and to the King, who has his own major health challenges and is all too aware of his elder son's future.
His younger son, as ever, may be on his mind as well.
Yesterday, my colleague Victoria Ward reported that Prince Harry turned down the King's invitation to stay at a palace while he was in Britain for security reasons. Staying somewhere so visible, it is said, would make him more vulnerable when he entered and exited if he did not have his own armed guards to then travel with him through London. The flaws in the Sussex logic are almost too obvious to state (palaces tend to be rather well protected places, to start with) but the thought process is interesting nonetheless.
The security issue, for Harry, is all-encompassing. There is no real hope it will change, and Harry is yet to reconcile himself to bringing his wife and two children to Britain while their protection is not agreed to his satisfaction.
What, then, does that mean for the future? In the short term, an Invictus Games that may well go to Birmingham in 2027. In the long term, a brother on the throne.
The garden party is, I think, a small glimpse of what that world might look like.
In a future reign of King William, if his children are not yet old enough to take on public duties of their own, he will need a reliable cast of popular characters around him to lighten the load. If not officially, just on a human level – companionship in a unique role and people who have known him all his life to tease him about how he looks in a crown.
That he has sidekicks who will say yes to helping out without hesitation speaks volumes. The garden party heard God Save the King. Before long, there may be mutters of God Save Team W as well.
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