One of the wildest things about King Charles’s reign is that he insists on all of this simultaneously: a slimmed-down and very old monarchy; significantly fewer patronages, charities and royal events; and most importantly, the same amount of money, if not more money, from the Sovereign Grant. QEII used to support a large coterie of working royals and extended family from the Sovereign Grant. Nowadays, it’s just Princess Anne, the Edinburghs and the Kents. When Charles became king, people begged him to start passing out QEII and Prince Philip’s hundreds of royal patronages to the remaining slimmed-down royals. He refused for the most part, taking nine months to even make a handful of changes to the military patronages. That being said, I didn’t know it was this bad:

Eighteen months after the death of the Queen, most of her 600-plus charities are still without a patron. They include the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the British Veterinary Association, the Royal College of Physicians, London Zoo, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the RSPCA, RSPB, MCC, RADA, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Smaller outfits like the Jersey Cattle Society and the Queen Victoria Clergy Fund aren’t losing any sleep but the failure to renew royal patronages has irked the big beasts.

[From The Daily Mail]

Again, I’m sure Charles would say: this is what I meant by slimmed-down monarchy. Fewer royals doing fewer events with fewer patronages, but we still get the same taxpayer funding! And don’t forget all of the castles, palaces, mansions and forts! Anyway, even before Charles was diagnosed with cancer, it was bonkers that Buckingham Palace was content to do nothing or slow-walk the transfer of some of these major patronages. What’s even funnier is that in the “sliding doors” version where Prince Harry & Meghan were still in the UK, the story would be “the Sussexes are not important enough to take on these patronages, we want them for ourselves!”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.