Yesterday, Jersey was the place to be if you were a football fan with a headache after the European Championship final.
Unlike the rest of the country, where calls for a day off were ignored by our spoilsports, the entire population had been given the day off – for a visit from King Charles and Queen Camilla.
And so, despite a typically British downpour, there was a large turnout as the royals arrived at Royal Square in St Helier. It was the first visit by a monarch since the late Queen and Prince Philip in 2005.
As they walked, umbrellas in hand, there were broad smiles all around, as if two old friends had stopped by for a chat after a long absence. And in a way, that was exactly what happened.
The late Queen always said that she had to be ‘seen to be believed’. We’ve had reason to remember those words in recent weeks and months, as both the King and Princess of Wales have withdrawn from public life to receive treatment for cancer.
When the Princess of Wales took her place in the royal box on Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Sunday, 15,000 people stood to celebrate her return.
Kate had withdrawn from public life after her cancer diagnosis
When you see the waiting crowds when members of the royal family reappear on the streets and from the screens after months of absence, you can’t help but be impressed by the reactions.
Because of course it’s not just the king and queen.
When the Princess of Wales took her seat in the royal box on Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Sunday, 15,000 people stood to celebrate her return.
It was a similar story when Prince William appeared at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Sunday evening to watch the European Championship final, and when Princess Anne, after recovering from a kick from one of her horses, visited the Riding for the Disabled Association near her home in Gloucestershire.
The royals have a quality that no other category of people can offer. These feelings are not just sentimental. What we have been missing is something that is absolutely central to who and what we are as a nation.
As the King and Queen complete the second leg of their Channel Islands tour in Guernsey today, staff at the Palace of Westminster are preparing for the grand opening of Parliament House tomorrow.
The Princess of Wales presents the trophy to Wimbledon men’s winner Carlos Alcaraz
The King and Queen on the first leg of their trip to the Channel Islands yesterday in Jersey
The esoteric choreography of such ceremonies is being rehearsed as you read these words. Heralds and others with bizarre-sounding titles – such as ‘Maltravers Herald Extraordinary’ and ‘Rouge Dragon Pursuivant’ – will rehearse their roles alongside eccentric figures, including the Black Rod, to ensure the ceremony proceeds without chaos.
But behind all the ceremonies, the beautiful costumes and the truly bizarre names and titles of the participants, there is something profound, precious and embodied every time the King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales or Princess Anne perform their public duties.
And we have missed it while so many of the main players in the royal drama have been out of the picture. We value Charles not because we hero-worship him, much less because we want him to have absolute power, but because the power he holds in trust for us is purely symbolic.
That is why the Speech from the Throne – of course written by the elected government – is the Speech from the Throne and not the Speech from the Throne by Sir Keir or Rishi Sunak.
If you want to know the difference between our system of parliamentary power – which is in the hands of a king – and that of a dictator, ask a Russian currently living under Putin.
Just ask anyone in China or North Korea, or even a Channel Islander whose grandparents lived there during the Nazi occupation.
The royal family is a common thread in history that connects us to the past and reminds us of reasons to be grateful.