The British royal family’s appearance at the traditional Easter Sunday church service at Windsor was as newsworthy for who wasn’t there, as much as who was.
While it was common knowledge there would be some conspicuous absences leading up to the big day, King Charles’ long-time desire for a ‘slimmed-down monarchy’ finally seems to have come to fruition.
But while many railed against the move at the time, recent events outside his control means Charles seemingly got his wish, without having to appear to be the bad guy.
Watch the video above.
King Charles has been touting a slim-down monarchy for some time and appears to have got his wish. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
King Chares first touted the idea of a slimmed-down monarchy back in 2021, when he was still the Prince of Wales and a year away from acceding to the throne.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman told Marie Claire in 2025 while “it was understood that he saw the monarchy moving forward as being a smaller working unit”, there was “never a specific plan” about how this would unfold.
The author of Making of a King: King Charles III and The Modern Monarchy said that knowing his time was coming to become monarch, Charles wanted to avoid the kind of scenes that marked his mother’s first years on the throne.
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King Charles and Queen Camilla after their Coronation. (Getty)
“Basically, what people surmised, and was never denied, was that he looked at the monarchy when the Queen came to the throne in the ’50s, and there were lots of cousins and uncles and aunts and people hanging around, and you had a trigenerational unit,” he said.
Hardman said Charles “could see that, going forward, that wasn’t sustainable in the 21st century”, however, he didn’t necessarily want to be seen as “slimming down” the monarchy.
“Slimming down implies that you take what you’ve got and reduce it,” he said, adding that Charles focused on ensuring the family did not appear to be expanding “in the way that it used to expand”.
Hardman believes King Charles sees a new working group of royals consisting mainly of himself and Queen Camilla, his son and heir Prince William, his wife and their children, as well as two of the King’s siblings, Princess Anne, known as the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward, now the Duke of Edinburgh, along with their spouses, Sir Timothy Laurence and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh.
Another who believes King Charles wants to focus on an even tighter foursome of working royals, which includes himself, the Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales is Queen Elizabeth’s former lady-in-waiting Lady Pamela Hicks.
Her daughter, India Hicks, previously told Marie Claire that her mother believes the royal family is heading towards a “core hardworking foursome”.
A look at Sunday’s Easter service shows model this is getting closer, with much of the focus of the day on this foursome.
Both the King and Queen attended the service, which was held at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Also present for the first time since 2023 was Prince William, Catherine and their three children.
The Prince and Princess of Wales and their children attend Easter Mass. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Also there was Princess Anne and her husband, her son Peter Phillips and his fiancée Harriet Sperling and their children, and The Duke of Edinburgh and his son James, Earl of Wessex.
Princess Margaret’s daughter Lady Sarah Chatto was also seen leaving the service.
Markedly absent was last year’s attendees, the King’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Their two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, their husbands and children, were also no-shows, as was expected.
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A much larger royal procession heads to church in 2023. (In Pictures via Getty Images)
The Duchess of Edinburgh reportedly skipped the service because she was unwell while her daughter, Lady Louise, stayed in Scotland, where she attends university.
Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall, her husband Mike, and their children Mia, Lena, and Lucas, also skipped this year’s service for the third year in a row.
So while it appears King Charles may have got his wish, he didn’t even need to do too much to achieve his goal.
With his youngest son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, living in the US, and Andrew and Sarah’s spectacular fall from grace coming courtesy of their links with Jeffrey Epstein, which also entangled their daughters, King Charles’ only really needed to sit back and watch as the monarchy slim-lined itself.
Someone who is in favour of further changes to the monarchy is Prince William, who has spoken about his desire to put his own stamp on the royal family one day.
Top of the list is reportedly a further reduction in working royals and a move away from those who are not the monarch or their direct heirs having the titles of prince and princess.
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