Second anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death marked by health struggles and a slimmer royal family

Throughout the highway from Balmoral Citadel is the little church that meant a lot to Queen Elizabeth.

It’s small in dimension and there are only a dozen or so pews, however Crathie Kirk has had many monarchs sit on the very entrance for household weddings and common Sunday morning prayers.

Right now, King Charles did what his late mom would do each Sunday morning throughout her summer time keep at Balmoral Citadel, he’ll drive over the River Dee and cross the A93 and attend the Sunday service.

However September 8 is, for him, what February 6 was for the late Queen: Accession Day.

Not a day to rejoice in changing into monarch.

However a day to mirror on the passing of a beloved guardian.

Queen Elizabeth all the time spent Accession Day at Sandringham, the Norfolk property the place her father died in 1952.

And for the previous two years, King Charles has adopted that custom and stayed at Balmoral Citadel, the place the place his mom’s exceptional 96-year life, and 70-year reign, led to 2022.

We’re informed the King, with Queen Camilla at his facet, will spend the day in “quiet reflection”, little question considering of Queen Elizabeth’s place within the historical past of this nation, but in addition of his expensive mom to whom he was devoted.

On the primary anniversary of her demise, the King might need appeared again on a yr by which the monarchy was seamlessly handed from mom to son, and an historical ceremony of Coronation proclaimed him King Charles III in entrance of the nation and the world.

He would have additionally remembered the delight he felt when his spouse was topped Queen Camilla, cementing her position as his biggest supporter, or consort, in his new position.

However any reflection on the second yr of King Charles’ reign will generate some very totally different feelings.

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A yr by which he was pressured to step again from public duties to deal with his well being, following his prostate after which his most cancers prognosis.

Royal sources would communicate of the King “chewing the carpet” in frustration and never with the ability to perform his duties in public.

And whereas Charles in now again within the public area, assembly individuals (which is what he loves most of all) he’s not allowed to do it in a means he might need been planning this time final yr.

Every go to is now signed off by medical doctors. His working days are shorter – which, for a workaholic monarch, is not any straightforward job.

International journey, aside from a brief journey to Normandy for D-Day, has been curtailed.

The standard “Spring Tour” by no means occurred.

And his daughter-in-law has additionally been struggling together with her personal most cancers prognosis.

The Princess of Wales has been away from her work since Christmas, capable of make simply a few public appearances whereas she undergoes chemotherapy.

It is also impacted each her work and that of Prince William.

And whereas the King’s second yr hasn’t been rocked in fairly the identical means by Prince Harry, these strained household points are by no means actually out of the media narrative.

The King did not need to cope with a Netflix or a best-selling memoir from his second son, however there was a high-profile go to to London by the Duke of Sussex, throughout which a gathering between father and son conspicuously did not occur.

Trying forward, there’s a large – if scaled-back – abroad tour to Australia, the King’s first to a Commonwealth Realm the place he stays the top of state.

And King Charles will tackle a giant Commonwealth summit for the primary time as the top of the organisation (on the final Commonwealth Heads of Authorities Assembly, he was nonetheless Prince Charles and was representing his mom).

He’s decided to maintain main the nation as head of the nation, as he did not too long ago in visiting the neighborhood in Southport and assembly the households of these younger women who had misplaced their lives.

Regardless of the well being challenges, Palace officers continually try to indicate it is “business-as-usual”, however, in comparison with this time final yr, the Royal Household can generally appears very slim.

There have been moments this yr when Queen Camilla was singlehandedly conserving the royal present on the highway and no-one would have dared to foretell that within the Nineties.

That is the Royal Rota – our weekly podcast in regards to the royal household, with ITV Information Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson