Kate Middleton will step up into a role Duchess of Sussex failed to take up. Photo / Getty Images
COMMENT:
Under the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain's reach stretched so far around the globe it was said the sun never set on the Empire.
It was a vast dominion that by the turn of the 20th century covered 25 per cent of the Earth's land mass.
That global superpower status would only last for a few more decades, and the first few decades of the current Queen's time on the throne was defined by a near-constant attrition of territory as parts of the Empire hived themselves off and reclaimed their independence.
Less than half a century after Victoria's era of exporting gin and racist subjugation around the globe, the Empire was relegated to the history books and today the territory the house of Windsor presides over barely extends beyond the soggy island they call home.
But is all that about to change?
No, I don't mean that Prince Charles is currently peering over a world map covered in strategically placed childhood toy soldiers in a palace drawing room, plotting some sort of continental military invasion.
Rather, events in recent times point to something much more intriguing (and realistic), with clues suggesting something that only a couple of years ago would have been laughable. Yes, the royal family may very well be plotting a global push the likes of which we have never seen before.
Bear with me here.
Technically the only people the Queen and her dwindling band of official representatives have to keep sweet and in favour of the monarchy are the residents of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a clutch of Pacific and Caribbean countries.
(We are the only countries in the world with the dubious honour of having a head of state who happens to not be an elected representative but a 95-year-old racehorse enthusiast.)
While Buckingham Palace has long shunted its working representatives off around the world on charm offensives (Waving! Smiling! Posy-accepting) it has always officially been at the request of the British Foreign Office.
That is, the Windsors are basically amateur, untrained diplomats whose capabilities range from exemplary (the multilingual Princess Anne) to eye-wateringly cringe-worthy.
(In 2010, part of the tranche of WikiLeaks documents claimed that Prince Andrew had left the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan deeply shocked after he allegedly verbally attacked the UK's serious fraud office, the French and journalists during an official visit to the country's capital of Bishkek in 2008.)
The royal family's job when abroad has always been to make nice, make the case for all things British and then make it back on the plane without causing any sort of international incident. (Hear that Andrew?)
Which is to say, their global remit has never extended beyond keeping the Commonwealth suitably sated with semi-regular doses of regal pomp and doing the Foreign Office's bidding.
Until now that is.
The royal family looks increasingly like they just might be in the midst of a stealthy campaign to set themselves as global power players.
This week marked Chinese New Year and saw Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall visit London's Chinatown for the celebrations.
Not only were we treated to watching the couple "awakening" the dancing lions but it was also revealed that the couple's official lunar new year statement wasn't just posted on their official Twitter and Instagram accounts but also on Weibo, the predominant Chinese social network, in both English and Mandarin.
With nearly 250 million daily users, the platform is one of the go-to means for foreign corporations and brands from outside the mainland to try to enter the Chinese market.
This is the latest move in a Sino charm offensive after he took part in a video roundtable with Chinese business leaders at the personal invitation of President Xi Jinping in October last year.
Then we get to Prince William and his Earthshot Prize. First announced in late 2019, the campaign will see nearly $95 million handed out over a decade to projects from around the world which are trying to find solutions to the climate crisis.
The global ambition and reach of the project is far, far beyond anything we have ever seen from any sort of palace initiative and sets it wholly apart from all other royal good works which have come before.
While the debut ceremony was held in London in October, the 2022 awards night is set to be held in North America, after which, in the years to come, the event will travel around the globe for the following eight years.
(It has also been widely speculated that William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, will combine attending this year's ceremony with a North American tour, having last visited in 2012.)
The associated TV series, fronted by the royal, The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet, aired on screens globally.
(Charles has also made a foray into the international TV game, launching his own Amazon Prime channel dedicated to shows about climate change.)
In January, the 39-year-old William reinforced his goal of this being a truly international outing by saying: "In 2022, we are determined to go further by seeking even more nominations from every corner of the world."
He added that he wanted to play a part in helping to "protect our world". (Kensington Palace right now seems intent on finding out how many times they can shove the word "world" into one statement.)
Meanwhile, given that the final months of last year were dominated by the Queen's mysterious health woes and Andrew's deepening legal quagmire, you could be forgiven for having missed that all the while the rest of Team Windsor were out and about doing some serious international gladhanding.
In June, the Queen, Charles, Camilla, Kate and William were all present at various engagements surrounding the G7 meeting in Cornwall, rubbing shoulders with US President Joe Biden, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Then in November, when the Cop26 climate conference kicked off in Glasgow, drawing a who's who of the international statesperson and private jet-flying sets, there they were again, right in the thick of things.
With William's international Earthshot aspirations and Charles making overtures to China, it is looking increasingly like Buckingham Palace has designs on exporting the monarchy's revamped image as proactive, engaged and as a dynamic force for change to the world.
The irony here is that this is exactly the role that everyone, myself included, assumed that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would assume when they skipped out of royal life and traded a life of royalty for royalties.
The prevailing view was that they would set themselves up as sort of roving international figures, Davos one day, Google headquarters the next, earning the mantle as the go-getting leaders for the 21st century.
Instead, we have seen them rarely leave their Californian compound as they sign a bevy of highly lucrative deals with corporate behemoths in a flurry of publicity only for things to then fall curiously silent.
(In just under 18 months since their first content partnership was announced, they have managed to only put out one 32-minute podcast. No one is ever going to accuse them of moving too fast on this front.)
In the meantime, while the Sussexes have been putting out statements full of words like "impactful", the royal family, the ostensibly fusty lot Harry and Meghan left behind in the UK, have been seemingly fashioning themselves as increasingly active players on the international stage.
How's that for a reversal of fortune?
Whoever thought the title of self-appointed (but highly regarded) international leaders would fall to the royal family and not Harry and Meghan?
Barely a month into this year and 2022 is already shaping up to be a fascinating chapter in palace history. The British Empire might be gone, but today, the sun never sets on Amazon Prime or Weibo.
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
The average age of patients in the study was just 38, highlighting risks for younger adults.