Aides say Her Majesty is ‘resilient and devoted’ and will step up to do whatever is asked of her to fill gaps in the royal diary

The Queen is “proud” to shoulder a greater burden of official duties in the absence of the King and the Princess of Wales as she prepares for a packed schedule of royal events this week.

The Princess’s cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment means she is likely to be out of action for several more months, and there is no date set for the King to return to full public duties either.

Royal aides say Her Majesty is “resilient” and will step up to do whatever is asked of her, with the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also filling in gaps in the royal diary.

In the past week the Queen, 76, has already carried out one of her most significant solo visits, flying to Belfast to fulfil a series of engagements on a high-profile trip planned before the King received his cancer diagnosis.

This week she will become the first consort to distribute Maundy money on behalf of a monarch when she attends the annual Royal Maundy service as the King’s representative.

The Queen at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast where she marked the start of her official visit to Northern Ireland Credit: SplashNews.com

A royal source said: “She is proud, resilient and devoted and if it serves the King and the nation to step up and serve the nation she will do it.

“She does have incredible energy, she does ballet classes once a week, she’s very fit and healthy.

“Of course, she’s juggling. She wants to spend as much time as possible with the King to support him however she can.”

Both Charles and Camilla have increasingly spent more time with the Prince and Princess in recent months, bound by shared experience.

The Queen’s relationship with William has become closer but so too has her relationship with Catherine.

“Sometimes there are certain things that you just want to speak to someone of the same sex about,” one insider observed.

The Royal family has never needed Camilla more than it does now, and her trip to Belfast last Thursday showed just how much trust is placed in her.

Northern Ireland is one of the most sensitive places in the world for Royal family members to visit, and on previous visits, the King has of course been front and centre during diplomatically tricky engagements as the Queen played a supporting role.

As she toured the Lisburn Road in south Belfast, her easy manner went down well with locals, who gathered in numbers to see her and pass on get well cards for the King.

The Royal family has never needed Camilla more than it does now Credit: Chris Jackson – Pool/Getty Images

She had visited the Isle of Man the previous day, and stayed alone at Hillsborough Castle, the official royal residence in Northern Ireland, on Wednesday night before touring Belfast.

Day-long royal visits usually combine joint engagements attended by the King and Queen with portions of the day when they split up and do some engagements on their own. It was significant that the Queen decided to press on with her own engagements rather than the King’s programme, suggesting she was very much in charge.

She always, however, makes sure she emphasises how much her husband would like to have been able to attend in person, telling people how disappointed he is to be missing out on a visit, and how much he was looking forward to it.

Royal staff would have been pleased to see her back after the visit: she alluded to the fact that the King is a difficult patient when a member of the public suggested men were less easy to look after than women and she replied: “I try to keep him in order.”

On Tuesday, Her Majesty will host a reception at Clarence House with authors and neuroscientists to celebrate the results of The Queen’s Reading Room study into the link between reading fiction and well-being, which has proven a clear link between reading fiction and increased mental health, brain health and social connectedness.

Then on Wednesday, she will visit Shrewsbury in Shropshire, where she will visit the local farmers’ market and the recently restored Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the world’s first iron-framed building, which is used as a hub for volunteer groups.

King Charles and Queen Camilla at last year’s Royal Maundy service in York – this year she will be alone to distribute Maundy money on behalf of the King at

Worcester cathedral Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage
Thursday will see the Queen visiting Worcester, where she will distribute Maundy money on behalf of the King at the annual Royal Maundy Service in the city’s cathedral.

It will mark one of the most significant royal events from which Charles, 75, will be absent and will also mark the first time that a consort has stood in to perform the duty on behalf of the monarch. On the rare occasions that Queen Elizabeth II could not attend Maundy services, she was represented by the then Prince of Wales, her mother Queen Elizabeth and her aunt Princess Mary, but never by Prince Philip.

The Queen will not be alone as she takes on a bigger share of royal duties not just in the absence of the King and the Princess, but in addition to the permanent absence of the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Princess Royal, already regarded as the hardest-working member of the family, will carry out nine engagements this week, starting with a visit to Lockerbie on Monday where she will visit the memorial to the 270 victims of the terrorist attack on a Pan Am jet in 1988. During the week she will also visit Glasgow, Inverness and County Durham.

The Duke of Edinburgh will also be in Scotland, visiting Aberdeenshire on Monday.

After Easter, the Prince of Wales, who is currently spending the Easter break supporting his wife and children, will return to public duties, though he will be anxious to spend as much time as possible with the Princess as she continues her chemotherapy treatment.