Princess Anne is a no-nonsense throwback – the royal brand has never needed her more

The Princess Royal is under observation, just precautionary we’re assured, for a bit of light concussion. Details are scant, but apparently Anne had a run-in with a horse on her Gatcombe Park estate a couple of days ago. She was walking at the time, not riding. Buckingham Palace remains upbeat – the Princess Royal “is expected to make a full and swift recovery”.

Meanwhile, Anne is stuck in a hospital bed, no doubt tutting at the prospect of a disrupted schedule. In her own words, when it comes to work she likes to pack it in. Today she will miss the royal welcome and state banquet for the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Later in the week there was to be a trip to Canada. No more.

These are temporary blips. Like her parents, Anne is made of tough stuff. But the convalescence of Britain’s hardest-working royal highlights both the fragility of our current royal family and the Princess’ recent prominence within team Windsor.

Just before the coronation, in a rare interview, Anne dismissed notions of a slimmed-down monarchy: “It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I am standing, I have to say, I am not quite sure what else we can do.” And that was before the family was hit with two cancer diagnoses. When it comes to Anne, who will celebrate her 74th birthday this summer, there really isn’t much more she can do.

The Princess Royal was hard to miss during the King’s recent official birthday parade. Beyond the cool mastery of her agitated horse there was the Princess’s embellished costume as colonel of the blues and royals. In one hand she held the reins, in another the gold stick, signifying her role as the original close protection officer to the sovereign, while the golden aiguillettes that crested her uniform confirmed Anne as the personal aide-de-camp to the King. Yes, she was playing a ceremonial part, but the messaging was unequivocal – Charles needs his sister. And more broadly, the royal brand needs Anne.

A no-nonsense throwback to her late father, Anne undertook her first royal engagement aged 18 and has never looked back. At once discreet and yet constantly in the public eye, the late Queen’s only daughter has avoided many of the curveballs that unseated her brothers.

Divorce and remarriage came and went, there was a driving ban and a police conviction under the Dangerous Dogs Act (until Harry’s legal escapades, Anne was the only member of the royal family to give evidence in court for over a century). She breezed through it all unscathed. When it comes to Anne, the public likes what it sees.

Her slow-burn popularity speaks to old-fashioned, immutable ideas of Britishness. That stiff upper lip, nowadays much maligned as unfeeling and anachronistic, has proved Anne’s unique selling point. Her response to a failed kidnap attempt in 1974 typifies her forthrightness – “not bloody likely” was her retort when gunman Ian Ball insisted she went with him “for a day or two”.

Meanwhile the Princess’s prowess in the equine arena gave her Olympic status (she competed at the 1976 Montreal Games) and Sports Personality of the Year. Sunday’s accident is a salient reminder that horses are not for the fainthearted: for those of us brought up on livestock farms longing to ride, the message was always the same: “to be avoided, lethal at both ends, horses bite and kick”. Like so many royals, Anne never got that memo. Hers are high-risk characteristics inherited from revered royal stock – the late Queen famously didn’t wear a riding hat, Prince Philip was still being reprimanded for driving without a seat belt in 2019. The stalwart princess ties us back to that feted “great generation”.

In an era when everything and everyone looks Instagram-ready, Anne resists, and her decision not to embrace the modern age is something for which she is revered and admired.

But Anne does care desperately about the institution of royalty. That much was clear in her rare pre-coronation interview: when asked about royalty’s declining relevance she pushed back, underlining “that the monarchy provides… a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by any other way”. Ideas of national duty and service, and an unswerving belief that the royal family is best placed to deliver those attributes, run through Anne like a stick of rock.

In these turbulent times when callow politicians inveigle and cheat their way into (and out of) public life, Anne’s old-school convictions shine with a rare sincerity. Yes, she is entitled, haughty even, born of a hereditary system that places her above us, and her older brother yet higher still. But she has stepped up to that calling, delivering consistently throughout her life, and continues to do so in old age.

While the late Queen and irascible Duke are much missed, nowadays we take consolation in their daughter, royalty’s reassuring continuity player who personifies no-frills stoicism and unshowy public service. She will be champing at the bit to get back on the horse and support her ailing brother. The royal family needs the Princess Royal.

Inevitably there will be questions about her schedule; and her age, long disguised by her far older parents. But the fewer platitudes about wellness and recovery times, the better. Like her mother and father before her, Anne knows the drill.

Tessa Dunlop is the author of Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy, Headline Press, 2022