Royally Told Off! The Queen's Face-off With Harry

Their reunion had the prince quaking in his boots.

Just one look at old photographs of Prince Harry with his beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, is enough to see the achingly poignant bond that once existed between the two.

The adoring looks caught on camera over the years between the monarch and her fourth-born grandchild reveal an almost conspiratorial humour: Harry’s wild ginger mop and cheeky grin putting a smile on the Queen’s face no matter where they were – polo match or official occasion.

But as the renegade prince arrived back in England recently for his last round of official engagements, before decamping semi-permanently to North America with his wife the Duchess of Sussex and their nine-month-old son Archie, there was little of the old happy-go-lucky party prince on display.

In fact, the Duke of Sussex, 35, looked seriously grim as he arrived on a commercial jet from his new digs in Canada and, according to a palace insider, much of his bad mood was to do with a dreaded meeting with his once-adoring grandmother.

Both the British public and the palace were floored last week when it appeared Harry and Meghan had taken a churlish swipe at the Queen on their Sussex Royal website.

In a carefully worded “update”, responding to the palace’s ruling that they would not be permitted to use the word “royal” in their branding after March 31, the couple reminded the world that Harry still “remains sixth in line to the throne” and that the Queen has no jurisdiction over the word “royal” overseas.

The ill-advised statement betrayed their irritation that their carefully planned “Sussex Royal” brand was now redundant. But instead of finding public sympathy, the backlash was immediate, with one outraged royal commentator declaring, “If you mess with HM, you mess with us all!”