Robert Jobson: Team Windsor’s key moment as young royals step up to the plate

Elizabeth II’s reign, the longest in our monarchy’s long history, has covered a period in which British power slumped to middling proportions and British society underwent profound changes.

Her great achievement, however, has been to maintain her own stability and poise and therefore the dignity of her office through a time of social and ethical flux.

But — make no mistake — we are in the twilight of the second great Elizabethan age. Our monarchy is in transition and this moment is crucial.

It is a monarchy where the various royal households — Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace — and the people at the top and those who work there are all jockeying for position as the Queen prepares to gradually but definitely hand over the reins of power.

Buckingham Palace has been at pains to stress after the announcement of the retirement of Prince Philip that the Queen would carry on regardless with the support of “Team Windsor”.

For this to happen Prince William and Prince Harry — until now with the Queen’s recent blessing determined to carry on with independent jobs as well as carrying out royal duties — must step up to the plate.

But Prince William’s decision yesterday to walk away from the job he clearly loves as an air ambulance pilot covering East Anglia (where he has his country home, Anmer Hall) is a watershed moment.

It was no accident that it coincides with the Duke of Edinburgh’s “final” engagement next Wednesday, when he marks the finale of the Royal Marines’ 1664 Global Challenge in his role of captain general of the Royal Marines.

It will not be his last official appearance — he will pick and choose going forward — but he is clear that he has done “his bit” and feels it is time for the younger generation to do theirs.

There is no doubt that if William could have continued his role with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, he would have.

Harry too, as we exclusively revealed in the Evening Standard, reluctantly had to give up his successful career in the Army, where he too flew helicopters (an Apache attack chopper on the front line in Afghanistan). He once confided to me he would go “nuts” if he was forced only to carry out royal duties and relished the daily challenge and camaraderie of a regular job.

Back then he didn’t really know what direction he was going to take — but his inspirational and heart-felt work serving injured former Commonwealth and Allied service personnel with the Invictus Games has made him one of the most popular royals.

He has also established, over more than a decade, his own charity — Sentebale — which supports orphans and vulnerable children, many of whom are affected by the HIV/Aids epidemic. Through education, psychosocial support and care it gives them the tools they need to lead healthy lives.

But now is crunch time for the royals. The Queen will keep calm and carry on, but there is nothing to stop her following her husband into a form of retirement.

I understand she has hinted that she would consider a Prince Charles Regency at 95. There is nothing to stop her doing this.

I agree that Her Majesty, a consecrated monarch, will never abdicate. The devout sovereign has after all sworn the Coronation Oath to remain in position until death.

Curiously, until 1937 our constitutional law had no permanent provision for a regent to cover the situation of a monarch being incapable of performing his or her duties. It was the debilitating illness of the Queen’s grandfather George V — who suffered from chronic bronchitis throughout 1935 until his death the following January — that led to the Regency Act.

Since then no statutory regency has been created. One would be if the person inheriting the throne were under 18, or if the monarch is “ by reason of infirmity of mind or body” incapable of performing the royal functions.

But there is an intriguing additional ground within the drafting of Section 2 of the Act. This says that a regency arises if “the Sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions”. It is not clear what situations this covers.

Perhaps it is vague enough to allow the monarch simply to pass the baton to her heir and effectively retire — thus effecting the smoothest of successions with the minimum of fuss.

The Queen has been working hard in private, too, to ensure the Prince of Wales succeeds her as head of the Commonwealth.

It is a responsibility she says she has cherished — but it is not a responsibility that her son and heir will inherit automatically.

While Prince Charles is destined to be head of state of 16 countries, he is reliant on Commonwealth leaders wanting him to replace his mother, and when the time comes, other candidates could emerge as potential challengers.

It was announced today that Charles, not the popular Prince William accompanied by Kate, will official open the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia next year.

Charles, said to be bruised by his lack of a mention in the recent official documentary about their late mother Diana by his sons, is determined to play his role to the full.

But by the time of his 70th birthday next November it will be he who is calling the shots as his mother, Her Majesty, prepares to follow her husband’s lead.

William, now a full-time royal, will have to wait in line.