I was surprised by the interest in yesterday’s story about Princess Anne – my tweet about Anne blew up. In June, Anne was injured in some kind of incident at her estate and we have not seen her since. She was hospitalized for five days and she has what sounds like very significant head injuries and a severe concussion. Buckingham Palace has downplayed Anne’s injuries from the start, and in recent days, they’ve quietly deleted some of Anne’s scheduled events, although she is still due to travel to Scotland next week. Well, the Daily Beast has an exclusive update and it definitely sounds like Anne is still suffering from a concussion. It also sounds like Anne’s schedule is going to be largely curtailed for months. Prince William catches a stray in this piece too.

Anne’s schedule next week: Anne’s first post-accident engagement is due to take place next week, when she is scheduled to visit a remote Scottish location as part of her patronage of a lighthouse conservation organization. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the visit, which is in the princess’ official diary, saying that updates would be issued in due course.

Anne has no memory of the accident: The friend said: “It was a freak accident and she still has no memory of exactly what happened. Her family of course were deeply shaken by it at the time, but when you own horses these things happen, and it seems it is a case of all’s well that ends well.”

Anne has been resting: Asked about her family’s attitude to Anne’s mooted return to work next week, the fellow horse-owner said: “She has been resting which won’t suit her. Anyone who knows her knows she will be itching to get back in the saddle, literally and figuratively. Her family know how much her work means to her. Nobody would bother telling her to slow down as she would probably tell them to ‘Naff off!’”

Zara’s concerns: Her daughter, Zara, who is married to former rugby player Mike Tindall, is said to have seen the accident as “a huge wake-up call” for the family. “This is exactly what Zara’s been worried about happening for years now, but her mom hasn’t had a chance to slow down with everyone else falling apart,” a source told OK! magazine, referring to the catalog of chaos that has hit the royals in recent months, with both King Charles and the Princess of Wales struck with cancer less than a year after Charles’ coronation.

The palace doesn’t order Anne around: However a former royal staffer who worked with all the principal royals including Anne during their tenure at the palace said: “That’s not entirely accurate. Anne does an incredible job but she does it because she wants to. Nobody is putting pressure on her to fly thousands of miles in a helicopter every week. William has made it very clear that is not how he is going to do things. He knows the future of the royal family is fewer, high impact, highly visible events. Anne is 73, so you don’t need a crystal ball to see she will have to start doing less at some point. That plan is in place. In some ways the past few weeks have been an unanticipated dry run for the future. The monarchy didn’t grind to a halt without her.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“The monarchy didn’t grind to a halt without her” – while this is accurate, the palace is also grateful that this happened at the tailend of their “busy season” and that there are fewer expectations to see the Windsors in July and August. I’ll be honest – while Anne is always out and about in normal times, her visits rarely get any coverage in the UK or internationally. So the perception was that Anne was always off somewhere, working without much attention. Now the perception is: Anne is recuperating so no one is doing those bread-and-butter appearances.

As for this: “William has made it very clear that is not how he is going to do things. He knows the future of the royal family is fewer, high impact, highly visible events.” More like: Prince William has made it very clear that he’s not going to do things. They’re phasing in the “expect to see less of us” monarchy.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.