A whole cascade of change will follow the King’s cancer blow

ONE of the many paradoxes on which a modern monarchy rests is the pomp and reverence accorded to a royal head of state-matched by insatiable nosiness about their personal lives.

The news that the King has an undisclosed form of cancer, serious enough to require immediate treatment, is a vivid example of that contradiction. The King has only recently confirmed treatment for an enlarged prostate (which was, thankfully, benign) when the sobering discovery of another acute ailment was revealed from a scan.

Anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis in person or to a close friend or relative will understand the jolting feeling - a mixture of hope, fear and "do they mean me?" incomprehension and an over-arching question about what it means for lifespan and future wellbeing. The King is very fortunate, in terms of his access to care and support. But standing aside from his public duties for "a series of treatments" underlines the gravity of this situation, albeit with the "wholly positive" message he has sent out to calm national nerves allied to reassuring messages from Buckingham Palace about his prognosis.

Shocks to the royal system always bring about change. The first impact of this one will be to remind us that the best laid plans of mice, men and monarchs can be abruptly altered by happenstance. At 75, the King is a robust presence with a vast appetite, as his biographer Robert Hardman puts in, to "get on with it" by shaping the role in his own way after his mother's long reign.

These challenges naturally cascade into the next generation - and that means that the Prince of Wales's function and focus will also be materially affected by the news from of his father's condition. This is truly a matter of sorrows coming "not as single spies, but as battalions", as Shakespeare, who knew a bit about palace vicissitudes, penned it.

The Waleses are already coping with the princess's abdominal surgery and the testing task of performing public duties and acting as the modernising faces of the family, while giving their children as grounded an upbringing as possible.