King Charles news: New slimmed down monarchy on display during royal family easter 2026

The performance of the British Royal Family at the traditional Easter Sunday The church service in Windsor last weekend was just as newsworthy for whom wasn’t thereas much as who was.

While it was common knowledge that there would be some notable absences in the run-up to the big day, King CharlesThe long-standing desire for a ‘downsized monarchy’ appears to have finally become a reality.

But while many were against this measure at the time, recent events beyond his control mean that Charles has seemingly gotten his wish, without having to be the villain.

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King Chares first praised the idea of ​​a slimmed-down monarchy in 2021, when he was still Prince of Wales and a year away from his accession to the throne.

This was said by royal biographer Robert Hardman Marie Claire in 2025, while “it was clear he saw the monarchy moving forward as 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 Charles, knowing that his time was approaching to become monarch, wanted to avoid the kind of scenes that marked his mother’s first years on the throne.

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“What people basically suspected, and was never denied, was that he looked at the monarchy when the Queen came to the throne in the 1950s, and there were a lot of cousins ​​and uncles and aunts and people hanging around, and you had a three-generation unit,” he said.

Hardman said Charles “recognized that that was not sustainable going forward in the 21st century”, but he did not necessarily want to be seen as a “downsizing” of the monarchy.

“Downsizing means taking what you have and shrinking it,” he said, adding that Charles focused on making sure the family did not appear to be expanding “the way 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 closer quartet of working royals, including 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 shared thisMarie Claire that her mother believes the royal family is moving towards a “hard-working foursome.”

A look at the Easter service on Sunday shows that this is getting closer, with the emphasis of the day being on this foursome.

Both the King and Queen attended the service, which was held at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. For the first time since 2023, Prince William, Catherine and their three children were also present.

Also there were 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.

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Princess Margaret’s daughter, Lady Sarah Chatto, was also seen leaving the service.

Notably absent were last year’s attendees, the king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

Their two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenietheir spouses and children, also did not show up, as expected.

The Duchess of Edinburgh reportedly skipped the service because she was feeling unwell while her daughter, Lady Louise, stayed in Scotland, where she is attending university.

Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall, her husband Mike and their children Mia, Lena and Lucas also skipped the service this year for the third year in a row.

So while it appears that King Charles got his wish, he didn’t even have 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 thanks to their ties to Jeffrey Epstein also roiling their daughters, King Charles had only to sit back and watch the monarchy downsize itself.

One person who is in favor of further changes to the monarchy is Prince William, who has spoken of his desire to one day put his own stamp on the royal family.

At the top of the list is reportedly a further reduction in the number of working royals and a shift from those who are not the monarch or their direct heirs to the titles of prince and princess.

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