No doubt one senior royal official is opposed to Prince William's proposed vision for the future of the monarchy.

King Charles has long expressed his desire for a so-called "slimmed-down monarchy"-a more streamlined core of active royalty without the packed Buckingham Palace balconies of the Elizabeth II era. Prince Charles' brother, Prince Andrew, was forced to resign from the royal family due to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his own sexual assault allegations, and Prince Charles' second son, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle, have voluntarily stepped down from royal duties and moved to the United States

After the death of his father Prince Philip in 2021 and his mother Queen Elizabeth 17 months later, Prince Charles was joined by Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh (then Countess of Wessex), Duke of Kent, Duke of Gloucester The Duke and Duchess of Kent, Princess Alexandra, and other senior royals ascended to the throne. But in 2024: Prince Charles and Princess Kate are diagnosed with cancer, William is increasingly responsible for his wife and three young children, and to top it all off, Anne's horse accident late last month. (According to The Daily Beast, which spoke to a friend of Princess Royal's, Anne still has no memory of the accident, which left her with a concussion and hospitalized for five days.)

Anne's family (including her husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Lawrence, and children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall) were "deeply shaken" by her accident but support her return to royal duties scheduled for next week, and Anne's friends, long the hardest working members of the royal family, have been trying to get her to slow down. She added that "no one cares" if they try to urge her to slow down.

"It was an unforeseen accident and she still doesn't remember exactly what happened," the friend said.

"Her family, of course, was deeply disturbed at the time, but it seems that when you have horses, things like this happen, and all's well that ends well."

As for Anne's plans to return to work, "She's resting up. Anyone who knows her knows that she is itching to get back in the saddle, literally and figuratively. Her family knows how important work is to her. No one bothers to tell her to slow down because she'll probably say 'nuff said'"

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Anne's injury, however, brought to light her brother's only public criticism of the king: his insistence on streamlining the monarchy. Loyal princesses do not seem to speak out against the family unless they feel strongly about something, like Prince Charles' idea of a slimmed-down and frankly skeletal monarchy. Interestingly, Anne's own absence from duty has made her point even stronger: in an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News around the time of Charles' coronation in May 2023, Anne admitted, "Well, I think 'slim down' was said in a time when there were a few more people." (from the Mirror). 'From where I'm standing, I don't think it's a good idea. I don't know what else I could do."

Regarding her brother, Anne, always a straight shooter, added, "Well, he's had a little practice, so you know what you're getting into, and I don't think he'll change." He's committed to his own level of service and that's not going to change."

Although she has not spoken publicly, one can assume that Anne would also not agree with William's decision to continue the idea of a streamlined monarchy into the future, as heir to the throne.

"They know that the future of the royal family will be less high-impact, high-profile events," one source who spoke to The Daily Beast said of William. Anne is 73, so even without a crystal ball, she will have to cut back on her work at some point." We have a plan for that. In a way, these last few weeks have been an unexpected trial run for the future. The monarchy did not stop without her."

William's idea of continuing his father's slimmed-down plan worries longtime royal commentator Richard Eden of the Daily Mail. Eden writes that William wants to model the British royal family after processes already in place in other European monarchies such as Sweden and Denmark. Eden quotes a source as saying, "When the older royals retire, His Highness (William) will not invite anyone to join the active royal family" - in other words, he will forget about Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. He continued, rather shockingly, "We still don't even know if His Highness would want the two younger children (Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis) to become working royalty."

Meanwhile, former BBC royal correspondent Jenny Bond is in favor of a smaller monarchy. 'I still hold the view that a slimmed-down royal family is the right model for the future. 'It is in line with most European monarchies and sensitive to the constant criticism that the royal family is too much of a burden on taxpayers.'

She continues, "Adding new working royals to the payroll will only exacerbate that criticism. I think the model William experimented with is the answer. This would make such occasions more special and allow the cousins to live their lives as they wish without being bound by the rigors of the royal diary. So I think the King and William were quite right in deciding to keep the core of a working royal family as a small, close-knit organization that would be accountable to the public purse."

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Everyone has an opinion on this issue, but as ever, the King is right.

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