The King has patiently waited his entire life for the top job, and now, it seems, fate has dealt him the cruellest of hands by forcing him to step back due to ill health. His cancer diagnosis, and subsequent treatment, means that he effectively has to withdraw from public life – no state occasions, engagements, speeches and foreign tours – whilst still ‘reigning from his desk’ as he completes government papers in his daily red boxes.

The lockdown blueprint of remote working and video calls means he can still hold his weekly audience with the PM Rishi Sunak and host Privy Council meetings. Yet despite keeping a hand on the constitutional tiller, the nation once again has an ailing monarch. Just 17 months into his reign, Charles could be forgiven for being rather fed up but aides say he is ‘upbeat’ and both he and the Queen are ‘coping magnificently’.

One added; ‘If you didn’t know what was the matter, you wouldn’t have any idea that he had any condition at all.’ He will continue his organic diet, his Canadian Air Force daily exercises (including press ups and sit-ups) and daily walks. Yet there will still be a gaping hole in the Royal family’s usual schedule.

The King did more than 500 engagements in 2023, travelling the length and breadth of the country in a model set by his parents. Those will fall by the wayside for now. As he is forced to step back from public duties, senior royals are thin on the ground with the Princess of Wales also out of action until Easter after major abdominal surgery and Prince William clearing much of his own diary to look after her and their children.

Camilla has been continually by the side of the King, 75, since he was told last month that he needed a routine operation for a benign enlarged prostate. Buckingham Palace said during that procedure a ‘separate concern was raised’ with subsequent tests revealing it to be cancerous. While the specific type of cancer has not been revealed, aides said it was not prostate cancer and it’s understood it was detected at an early stage. In just a matter of days, both the personal and public world of the Royal family had shifted on its axis.

The Queen, along with the Princess Royal, 73, has become the public face of the Royal family in recent days, stoically ploughing on with official duties despite her deeply personal concern for the King. She battled through the wind and rain during a four-hour car journey to attend an engagement at Salisbury cathedral on Thursday evening as, said a royal source, ‘she did not want to let down the King, having assured him that she would continue with her schedule of official engagements.’

She, along with Prince William at a fund-raising dinner for the London Air Ambulance, have been able to thank the public for their best wishes and provide an update on the King. ‘He is doing extremely well under the circumstances’ the Queen told one well-wisher. ‘He is very touched by all of the letters and messages the public have been sending from everywhere. That’s very cheering.’ She has a full schedule of events for the coming weeks, ably assisted by Princess Anne who last week attended more than 10 engagements, involving criss-crossing the country and an investiture at Windsor Castle. 

Certainly Charles will be heartened by his family stepping up with the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Edward and Sophie, also increasing their work. Yet there is uncertainty over the future with planned tours to Commonwealth realms like Canada and Australia (where Charles is also head of state) now hanging in the balance. At a time when countries like Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize are considering becoming republics, the monarch’s reassuring presence was considered crucial to shore up support.

There had been much talk of Charles’s plans for a ‘slimmed down monarchy’ but as Princess Anne prophetically said last year when asked about the idea: ‘Well, I think the ‘slimmed down’ was said in a day when there were a few more people around. It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing, I would say. I’m not quite sure what else we can do.’

With the loss of the late Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew, alongside Harry, Meghan and now temporarily the Princess of Wales and the King, there have been calls for perhaps the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to return to royal duties. Buckingham Palace revealed that Charles personally called his two sons and siblings to tell them of his diagnosis, with his younger son immediately flying 5,500 miles across the Atlantic to see his father.

Whilst the estranged pair had a ‘warm’ meeting in London, having not seen each other properly since the late Queen’s funeral in September 2022, it was not perhaps the full reconciliation that some were hoping for. Meghan and Harry have a new life now in California, and have made it clear they do not want to return to the strictures and hierarchy that royal life entails. There is also the matter of trust or, rather, the lack of it. The Prince finds himself in the unenviable position that even those who are closest to him will be on their guard. Inevitably so after, as his family see it, everything said between father and son, particularly in the painful later years, has been divulged – first in Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary and then in his memoir Spare. 

Prince William made it clear he had ‘no plans’ to see his brother during his whistle-stop 24-hour visit to London before he visits Canada next week for the first winter Invictus Games. Perhaps with hope and perseverance that fractured fraternal bond can be mended, but seemingly no time soon. Instead William, 41, is concentrating on his wife and children. In a speech last week he thanked the nation for its ‘kind messages of support’ for his wife and father, and after returning to public duties this week will not be back until after next week, spending the half-term holiday at home with the Princess of Wales, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and five-year-old Prince Louis. It is understood that he has his father’s ‘100 per cent’ backing to return at his own pace and that the Prince’s priority ‘is to support his wife and family for the time being – and he did not put a timescale on that.’

A royal source said: ‘The King adores Catherine and thinks she is doing a wonderful job. He understands that family comes first.’ Charles was tired after his first round of treatment and, whilst he will return to London for regular medical care, intends to rest and recuperate at Sandringham in Norfolk. As his eldest son and heir, William is on hand to help but is not needed to deputise for the top job just yet.