Princess Anne flies high, while Harry struggles to get traction

The compare-contrast of a royal aunt and her nephew were on full display this week

Princess Anne, Commodore-in-Chief of Canadian Fleet Pacific, lays a wreath during the national Battle of the Atlantic ceremony in Victoria, B.C. (Photo: MARPAC IS / Royal Canadian Navy)

PRINCESS ANNE FLIES HIGH

Princess Anne and her husband, Tim Laurence, were in British Columbia for three days in the beginning of May for a whirlwind of a visit. In that long weekend, Princess Anne undertook 15 official engagements, including attending the commissioning ceremony of Canada’s new Arctic patrol vessel, HMCS Max Bernays, in Vancouver; visiting the the Maritime Museum of British Columbia Archive; and taking the salute at the annual Battle of the Atlantic parade in front of the provincial Legislative Assembly in her role as Commodore-in-Chief of the Canadian Fleet Pacific.

She regularly undertakes more than 550 engagements a year, often claiming the title of the busiest working royal, but now her profile is higher than it’s been in years. And that’s because of the upheaval in the royal work calendar caused by the illnesses of her brother, King Charles III, and her nephew’s wife, Kate, Princess of Wales.

I carefully track who does what, where, and when on behalf of the monarchy. For the first time, one royal is absolutely dominating the official record of royal engagements, the Court Circular: Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.

Princess Anne alone has done 31.4% of all engagements by working royals in the first third of 2024. That’s such an extraordinary statistic that both the Telegraph and the Daily Mail in Britain used my data in stories this week. “How Anne is propping up slimmed down monarchy” was the Mail headline while the Telegraph went with “Princess Anne carries out a third of royal engagements so far this year.”

The 73-year-old princess is ubiquitous in my royal data files not because she’s doing so many more engagements than usual — her 172 engagements to the end of April are up only two percent from 2023 — but because eight of the 10 other working royals are doing fewer engagements (Kate has done none this year due to her medical issues). Along with Anne, only the dukes of Gloucester and Kent have increased their workloads, but they start from a much lower base.

“Her work the definition of ‘unsung,’” wrote Hannah Furness of the Telegraph. “Most of the time, that is how she likes it. She has eschewed the ‘rota’ system of journalists, photographers and broadcasters who cover her family’s outings. ‘I don’t go for their benefit,’ she once said of the press. ‘I go for the people who ask me.’” Furness got permission to follow her during a week in April — which ended with 800 miles (1,300 km) of travel, 650 royal interactions with people of all walks of life, and one exhausted journalist.

Beyond appreciating the princess’s packed schedule and her excellent memory, what shines in the article is the professionalism of Anne’s small team and the precision of their planning. As Furness explains:

The Princess’s diary is set months in advance. Twice a year, her office sends an invitation to 300-plus organisations she is affiliated with, asking for their requests for her time. Typically she’ll receive 1,000 to 1,200 requests a year – some suggest a visit, others ask her to write forewords to books, or ask for meetings. All are compiled into a database, arranged by date and region, and printed neatly in a book for the Princess to study. ‘[She] goes through everything required and decides what she’s going to do and when,’ says a member of the team. A planning meetings follows – and ‘once [the programme is] set, she sticks to it’.