Lord Frederick Windsor, Sophie Winkleman, Lady Gabriella Kingston and Thomas Kingston. Photo / Getty Images
Lord Frederick Windsor, Sophie Winkleman, Lady Gabriella Kingston and Thomas Kingston. Photo / Getty Images
Ask any top flight football manager and they'll tell you: at the end of the day, it all comes down to squad depth. The season is long and players need competition to stay hungry, so regular rotation is beneficial. To achieve that you need options.
On the surface, there isn't much the royal family can learn from Premier League gaffers, but squad depth is one area the Prince of Wales should consider. When he takes over running the Firm, it has been reported, the working monarchy will be "slimmed down" to a crème de la crème of just seven: a formation of two up top (Charles and Camilla), two in behind (the Cambridges), and a steady back three (Anne and the Wessexes).
It's a formidable starting team, but also precarious. Every year, the royal family carries out more than 2000 official engagements and has links to 3000 organisations. The Queen alone has over 600. The most mobile royal, Princess Anne (topping the league table at 387 engagements last year), is now 71. Charles is already 73. The Cambridges have a young family to look after.
Those promising youth players – George, Charlotte, Louis – will be in full-time education for at least the next decade, ruling them out for royal work. Two former stars, the Sussexes, have had their heads turned by a controversial, big money move overseas. Prince Andrew has effectively earned himself a banning order, and besides, he's lost the fans.
It all leaves a gap. Is the Firm's middle generation of hardworking players on hand to assume a volume of engagements and patronages that would overwhelm a slimmed-down monarchy? Watching the Queen's Platinum Jubilee coverage, it was clear the talent is right there in the royal box, it's just sitting quietly in the second (or third, or fourth) row, waiting to be called upon.
Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips
Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips. Photo / Getty Images
Indeed, all Jubilee weekend, the Princess Royal's children, Peter and Zara, were the most prominent background players. Zara was beside her husband, former England rugby captain Mike Tindall, and Peter, who divorced Autumn Kelly last year, was accompanied by his new girlfriend, Lindsay Wallace.
Princess Anne and her first husband, Mark Phillips, decided against giving either of their children a royal title. Zara, now 41 and a mother-of-three, has always seemed pleased about that.
"As soon as you've got a title, it's very difficult to shed it," she once said. Asked if she considered herself royal, she replied: "Probably not. But, then, they're my family, so obviously I kind of am."
Not exactly raring to open a new leisure centre in Uttoxeter. But she could be an asset: few members of the family are quite so normal-seeming, and Mike Tindall is the kind of affable Yorkshireman the Windors need. He supposedly drank "close to 50" cans of beer on the flight home from the Sydney 2003 rugby world cup final, so he can handle a patronage or six.
Peter, 44, may be keener to make hay from his blue blood. An "entrepreneur" who has worked in events, corporate hospitality and finance, in 2020 he appeared in a controversial Jersey Cattle milk advert in China. Accepting a glass of milk from a butler, he drank deeply, as the strapline read: "British royal family member, Peter Phillips." Some members of the Firm could probably think of a title or two for him after seeing that.
Yet Peter appears to be gaining prominence. Could he step into Prince Andrew's shoes, as a globetrotting business ambassador teetering on national embarrassment? Don't bet against it.
Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice (R) and Princess Eugenie. Photo / Getty Images
Speaking of the Yorks, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice are now married to interchangeable brunette men in suits, and neither sister appears to have inherited their parents' eccentricities. Alongside their day jobs (Beatrice at a software company, Eugenie at a gallery), they do stellar charity work and have a fine hat game, which means they're primed for responsibility. Whenever a Cambridge can't make it, send a York. They also seemingly get on with everyone in the family, which is verging on saintly.
Lady Louise Windsor and Viscount Severn
Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn. Photo / Getty Images
Their cousins, Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn – the children of Edward, the Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex – might still be teenagers but they're also ripening for public life. From carriage driving (which she learned from her grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh) to media appearances, Louise, 18, is getting increasingly stuck in. At 14, James is probably more concerned with TikTok, but if they're anything like their mother, by all accounts one of the most reliable and charming royals, they'll be key assets.
Sam and Arthur Chatto
Samuel and Arthur Chatto. Photo / Getty Images
Muscle and tender hands more your thing? Look no further than the Chatto brothers, Sam and Arthur. Princess Margaret's grandsons are 25 and 23, and an artist and Royal Marine, respectively. Sam, who describes himself as a "Maker" on Instagram, sells his pottery online. Arthur, meanwhile, is a prince straight from central casting, as well as a former personal trainer. Get them on the balcony, stat.
Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Kingston
Lord Frederick Windsor, Sophie Winkleman, Lady Gabriella Kingston and Thomas Kingston. Photo / Getty Images
The Windsor family suburbs also contain options. Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, works in finance and has charity connections. He's 43, married to Sophie Winkleman – the actress sister of Claudia – and has two children. One of the godparents is Jamie Oliver.
Freddie's sister, Lady Gabriella Kingston, is another potential ribbon-cutter. Multilingual, degrees from Brown and Oxford, close to the Queen, a former journalist and one-time singer-songwriter - "Ella", 41, seems wasted on the bench. Send her off to the Commonwealth.
Best of the rest
And what of the Duke of Kent's grandchildren, Edward, Marina and Amelia? Eddy, Lord Downpatrick, is 33, runs a travel company, and says things like, "Rarefied light ... brooding gloom ... there's a lot of the sensorial to be taken from that" about the Scottish Highlands.
Marina is 29 and keeps a low profile, but seems passionate about green issues on Instagram. Amelia is 26 and a successful model. Then there are their cousins, the Taylors, the Ogilvys, and we haven't even reached the generation below ...
It may be that Charles doesn't need to go quite that far down the family tree for help. A solid starting seven, plus a few reserves, might be enough. But if the Jubilee showed us one thing – besides Timmy Mallett on a bus with Tony Hadley – it's that the makeup of the modern royal family has shifted. A second row is assembling; the squad is showing its depth. And the Firm could be all the stronger for it.
