Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II: The important role of the most discreet princess of the Royal Family

There is one great final duty that many children feel towards their parents: that of seeing them in peace at their final rest.

Almost everyone who performs this emotionally charged task is beyond the reach of the public. But this is certainly not the case for Princess Anne, daughter of Elizabeth II.

In recent days, it has emerged that the Queen wanted her only female child to take the lead role in escorting her coffin — an echo of the role the Queen herself had played in her father King George Sixth’s final voyage in 1952.

The Queen’s wish reflects Anne’s image of hard work and responsibility, as well as the practical challenges facing King Charles in the early days of his reign.

Within 24 hours, the new king’s life had turned into a whirlwind, requiring him to balance personal pain with his state duties.

Her 72-year-old sister — 21 months her junior — was in Balmoral, Scotland, preparing to escort the queen’s coffin from a private family space into the public domain. The first stage was to accompany the coffin on its six-hour journey to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The trip must have required a dose of stoicism. The moment she bowed as the coffin was carried into Edinburgh Palace, the princess’s emotion was evident to everyone.

On Monday (12), her role in the ceremonial continued. This time, she walked behind the men carrying the coffin to St Giles’ Cathedral. Later, in the 24-hour period that the coffin was in Edinburgh, the princess became the first woman in the royal family to participate in the traditional vigil.

The symbolism and message of Anne, standing solemnly in her honorary Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, was clear: a princess raised in the modern age, just like her brothers.

On Tuesday night, she accompanied the coffin, as he left Scotland, escorting him to Buckingham Palace, where the full protocol and formalities of a state funeral would begin.

Not surprisingly, Princess Anne’s prominent role is not surprising. She hardly has any hesitations in the time of duty and service.

For years, she and Charles have been rated by watchers of the annual title for the hardest working royal. In 2021, she made 387 official engagements — two more than the then Prince of Wales — a number that had been growing for both of them in the final years of her mother’s reign.

She has completed nearly 500 visits abroad — 49 to Germany alone — and is a patron of 300 charities. Her association with Save The Children dates back to 1970.

Even during the pandemic, she continued with her duties, visiting and promoting a mobile Covid testing center.

As her public presence developed over the decades, it became clear that she had inherited her late father’s reputation for being feisty and, at times, blunt-spoken.

This persistent refusal to accept the role of a docile fairy-tale princess played a role during a failed attempt to kidnap her in 1974.

She reminded TV show host Michael Parkinson of her refusal to follow up with the kidnapper amid the shooting that left her bodyguard and two others injured. “We had an argument about where—or not—we were going to go,” she recalled. “I was careful to be polite, because I thought it would be a bad idea to be too rude at this point.”

An official government report available in the national archives indicates that his words to the criminal were: “Not bloody likely”.

Her formal title of Princess Royal is an honor that dates back to the 17th century. Despite this tradition, the title bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 has been considered a symbol of how her work was so valued within her parents — and her grandfather King. George 6th — called “The Firm”.

That hard work has been balanced with an independence of mind often difficult to achieve as a member of the royal family.

In 1971, the then 21-year-old won the gold medal in European riding championships – and was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Five years later, she joined the British team at the Montreal Olympics.

“I certainly saw it as a way of proving that you had something that didn’t depend on your family,” she said later. “It was up to you to prove yourself whether you could win or fail.”

Clearly, this was her mindset when she passed the test to drive heavy vehicles, allowing her to drive a horse-carrying truck without the help of a royal entourage.

As participation in riding events declined with age, another job that brought him personal satisfaction was overseeing his Gloucestershire farm.

When she was guest editor of Country Life magazine for her 70th birthday, she criticized problems in some rural areas. She called for more to be done to provide housing for local people who are “off the market”. “They can all make a difference,” she wrote.

When Charles, as Prince of Wales, spoke his mind openly, his interventions often caused constitutional buzz.

For observers, Anne was more focused on practical solutions. She’d spent her life wanting to work things out—so focused on solving her own affairs that she’d raised her children without royal titles, in the hope that they could have relatively normal lives.

This “if it can be done, it will do” attitude will continue to be observed in the coming days — an attitude first seen in September 1969.

At that time, aged just 18, she made her first official engagement with Queen Elizabeth, when she opened a training center for driving double-decker buses near the city of Shrewsbury.

The Birmingham Post reported that she was “basically a young modern woman” behind the wheel of an Albion Viking bus. Laughing, she said that driving the bus was easier than driving a Balmoral Land Rover.

This was the first of thousands of engagements on behalf of Queen Elizabeth. She is now fulfilling her last duties for her late mother.

The princess herself says it was an “honor and a privilege” to accompany her mother on her last trips.

There’s no doubt that a new chapter in her public life is about to begin in her role as the king’s adviser — and she’ll keep rolling up her sleeves and moving forward.