RICHARD KAY: Princess Anne’s absence offers the most compelling warning of the dangers of a slimmed-down monarchy

Fortunately, the blow she suffered was not life-threatening and the wounds to her head were described as ‘minor’.

But even as Princess Anne makes a characteristically quick recovery from the concussion that has kept her under close observation at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, the unfortunate incident is a dramatic reminder of how important she is to the monarchy.

Without the ever-present Anne, it is impossible to imagine the company continuing its program of public engagement on any scale. In recent times, when both the King and Princess of Wales have been treated for cancer, she has almost single-handedly supported the Royal Family.

In the first three months of the year, she took on more than 30 percent of all royal appearances.

But the reliance on Anne is not just limited to the past six months; her workload, which puts the achievements of younger royals to shame, has been consistently high for years, even decades. But above all, her absence – however long it may last – provides the most compelling warning of the dangers of a downsized monarchy.

Who could ever intervene for hours with that same extraordinary concentration and sheer endurance? Who could demonstrate that ability to absorb the details of everything from trade to pollution, theology, art and distemper, as she might on any given day?

Over the years, Anne has often been compared to her no-nonsense late father Prince Philip, not only in personality but also in outlook. For Philip, his only daughter was courageous, pragmatic and courageous – the embodiment of the kind of son he wanted.

But in terms of her zealous devotion to duty, her uncomplaining demeanor and “let’s just get on with it” approach, she is actually much more like her mother.

At times she can appear imperious and distant. Remember how, as a young rider, she would routinely yell at photographers to have fun? – the embodiment of the haughty princess.

But Anne can also be surprisingly vulnerable. Years before her brother spoke out about his miserable marriage to Princess Diana, she confided that she wasn’t “everyone’s idea of ​​a fairytale princess.”

It was an ambiguous comment, open to different interpretations. Aware that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, perhaps? Or that it was not her happiness to live happily ever after in marriage?

Although the ever-practical Anne remains on good terms with her first husband, fellow equestrian Captain Mark Phillips, the father of her two children, the nearly 32 years of her marriage to second husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, suggests that a happy life after it worked for her anyway.

In a rare moment of candor, she admitted to presenter Terry Wogan that she wasn’t really ‘into children’.

Remember, this is the same woman who has been the spectacularly hard-working and successful chair of the Save the Children charity for 55 years.

She is also the same loving grandmother to the five children of her daughter Zara and son Peter. She will turn 74 in August, well past the retirement age for most modern women. But that’s part of Princess Anne’s paradox.

Between her horses and running her beloved Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire – where she suffered her injury on Sunday evening – there would be plenty to do. But would it be enough?

For her, true satisfaction has always come from her official life.

As a princess, she has always been an enigma, maintaining an old-fashioned sense of regality in public while being the royal family’s most willing modernizer.

Where other royal women might gush, she is always restrained; For example, while Princess Diana lovingly held a sickly child in her arms, Anne usually follows the traditional royal manner of standing unyieldingly, rarely showing her hands beneath her white gloves.

Nothing defined her more than her imaginative decision not to encumber her children with royal titles, insisting that this would give them more freedom. “My children are not royal,” she would say, “it’s just that the Queen is their grandmother.”

How striking it is to contrast Anne’s position with that of her cousin Prince Harry and Meghan, who clamored for titles for their California-based children who are unlikely to live a royal life.

Long before she had children, Anne’s daughter Zara paid a warm and meaningful tribute to the princess. “If I was going to be a mother, that’s how I want to be,” she said. “I would like to be as good a mother as she has been to us.”

Not only her relaxed attitude to titles is important, but also Anne’s non-judgmental approach to Zara and Peter’s domestic problems.

When Peter Phillips separated first from his wife and then from a long-term girlfriend, the princess did not intervene. She was of the same opinion when Zara was involved in a public altercation with her then boyfriend, jockey Richard Johnson, before her marriage to ex-rugby star Mike Tindall.

Of course, this may be partly due to her own issues with marital problems and gossip about her private life.

Before they broke up, she and Mark Phillips were not really happy for several years. While he was flying around the world – fathering an illegitimate child in New Zealand – talk was made of Anne’s close relationship with her former protection officer Detective Sergeant Peter Cross, a married man from Mitcham, south-west London.

Cross was later relieved of his duties and put back into uniform. He sold his story to a Sunday tabloid. For her part, Anne never acknowledged, let alone commented on, his claims.

Her relationship with Tim Laurence, the late Queen’s former equerry, came to light after several intimate letters he had written to her were stolen and offered for sale to a national newspaper.

Just months after divorcing Mark, she and Laurence married in the local church of Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

None of this has affected the hold it has over a grateful nation. Because of her updo – unchanged in half a century – and recycling of outfits regardless of fashion, Anne is seen as the most talked-about royal woman. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t a little in awe of her; that is true.

What she possesses is nobility and usefulness – and that applies to all classes.

Just last week, left-wing firebrand George Galloway said he would vote for Anne as president if Britain abolished the monarchy. She is, he declared, “an excellent woman.”

It’s hard to disagree and that’s why she will be sorely missed on the royal stage.