Robert Lacey: ‘The Queen remains totally in control of her faculties’

According to the Daily Mail, Queen Elizabeth stayed in her private quarters in Windsor Castle to watch Prince Charles perform her speech at the State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday. Her courtiers only canceled her appearance at Parliament the evening before, although I think it’s pretty clear that the courtiers have a chronic case of wishful thinking. The Queen is being described in some quarters as “increasingly frail,” and not only dealing with mobility issues, but also a bad back. How they expect to get her to make any appearances for her Jubbly, I’ll never understand. In any case, historian Robert Lacey chatted with People Magazine about what’s really going on and he emphasized that QEII is mentally fit, but her body is simply failing. Lacey must have been sent out with “no regency needed” talking points.

The sight of the two immediate heirs to the Queen sitting together at the Houses of Parliament is more about showing the line of succession rather than indicating Charles is set to take on more of his mother’s constitutional powers. Royal historian and biographer Robert Lacey calls Tuesday’s ceremony, which also saw Charles’ wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, seated beside him, an “enormously significant moment.”

“She’s clearly thinking of the future and this can be seen alongside the moment she said it was her wish that Camilla be known as Queen Consort, which was another important development this year,” Lacey tells PEOPLE. “Asking her son Charles and William to attend is clearly about succession, about emphasizing a partnership and teamwork,” he says.

But it stops short of a regency, in which the powers of the Sovereign are formally transferred to the heir because of incapacity.

“Regency involves a surrender of constitutional authority, which is very much not happening in this case,” Lacey says. Charles — like his mother — doesn’t write the speech. That’s a role of the U.K. government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as it outlines the administration’s upcoming legislation. “Charles is deputizing for the Queen, as he has done before — and as William and Kate have also started to do in some of the duties they’ve been doing,” Lacey adds.

The only time a regency has been instituted was for George III who was deemed mentally incapable of carrying out the duties of state.

“The sense I get from everyone I speak to is that the Queen remains totally in control of her faculties and of everything at the palace,” he adds. “The problem is physical mobility — and that is not a constitutional or regency issue. She is in charge.” The paradox she faces is that while she can walk, it’s very likely that she’s worried she might stumble, “and the symbolism of her doing that is so enormous that she would not want to put herself in that situation,” Lacey adds.

[From People]

Sure, there’s nothing suspicious about a royal historian with an inside track to multiple palaces running to People Magazine to pledge that the Queen’s mind is still as sharp as ever. I mean, we can see that’s not true. No one is saying it out loud, no one is making it into a larger issue and there’s no constituency for somehow forcing a formal Charles Regency upon the Queen. But we know that what’s happening here is more than just “mobility issues” or what have you. I tend to believe that was what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex saw when they stopped by Windsor Castle for tea. I believe that’s why Charles rushed over there when he heard about their visit too. The family knows that there are bigger issues. Which is why Harry said what he said about making sure she’s got the right people around her too. Harry has got to be concerned about people manipulating the Queen. Charles has got to be concerned too, right?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.