The mystery over Queen Elizabeth’s recent illness goes to show how much the future of the shaky edifice of the House of Windsor still rests on the shoulders of the queen alone.

Now that it has been revealed—24 hours after the event—that Queen Elizabeth II has spent a night in hospital and was not, as the palace press corps were informed, “resting” at Windsor Castle, there are complaints that, once again, the messaging is bad and making the situation worse.

So it’s important to realize how much the future of the whole shaky edifice of the House of Windsor still rests on the shoulders of the queen alone.

Just a month after Prince Philip died, the queen was driven from Windsor Castle to Parliament to deliver the speech that opens a new session.

Prince Charles and Camilla, socially distanced to her left, did.

A year earlier, before there was any hint that Philip was frail, many royal pundits were confidently predicting that when the queen reached her ninety-fifth birthday on April 21 this year she would finally step down.

And Prince William and Kate are increasingly performing two essential tasks—taking on more public duties and, with their vitality and approachability, proving to be refreshingly relevant to this century rather than the last.

In fact, Charles was so keen to assert his own leadership role on this issue that he granted an exclusive interview to the BBC’s environmental correspondent to visit him at the Balmoral estate in Scotland where he boasted that his vintage Aston Martin, given to him by the queen on his 21st birthday (presumably to allow him to feel he was sharing wheels with James Bond), had been converted to run on an organic fuel derived from white wine and cheese whey.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, are seated for the state opening of parliament, Dec.

Also, she cannot be amused by the fact that some palace insiders have made clear that Charles intends, on becoming king, to make Camilla his queen, rather than princess consort, as his mother prefers.