When Elizabeth II is alone, does she, like France’s Louis XV, reflect, “Après moi, le déluge”? No doubt — as Shakespeare marked with the bit about how uneasy is the head that wears the crown — that royal responsibility can be onerous, whether the monarchy be absolute, as in the Bard’s time, or constitutional, as in ours.

Reports from the Palace relay that Her Majesty is confined to light duties, due to ailing health. She canceled a visit to Ireland and skipped the climate conference opening at Glasgow. Now, we learn, a sprained back forced her at the weekend to rescind her role at Remembrance Sunday ceremonies, no doubt a personal blow, given her wartime service.

Does Elizabeth enjoy the rare privilege of semi-retirement? Methinks spare time must wear heavy upon her, no less so than the weight of regal responsibility. As inevitable mortality looms before her, what must the Queen be thinking?

Royal watchers attest she is driven by her responsibility. She famously voiced a dedication to duty when she succeeded her father to the throne. At her elevation, Elizabeth vowed to dedicate her life, whether long or short, to the people of her vast realm.

Only the churlish would criticize her 69 years on the throne. Yet what comes after? Confidants disclose that she has never forgotten the existential threat to the monarchy when her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated so as to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.

Louis XV had cause for concern. He would leave his young heir and grandson a country burdened by debt and inept administration. Louis XVI paid with his life for the extravagances of his grandfather. That’s when the regime of absolute monarchy in France became Ancien.

Elizabeth need not reproach herself on these grounds. She has ruled over her dominions with wisdom and a light touch. But she cannot be blind to the foibles of the generation to follow. Prince Charles embraces the current fads of climate change with a passion that is apparently shared by his own son, William.

The heir apparent carries the banner against anthropocentric climate change while acknowledging that, as King, the tradition of apolitical monarchy must be the rule. How faithful will Charles be to this tradition? Will he stake the climate against the crown?

Tom Paine, in “Common Sense,” perceived this weakness of hereditary monarchy more than two centuries ago. The minds of monarchs-in-waiting “are early poisoned by importance,” he wrote. “The world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

Elizabeth avoided that fate by acceding to the throne at a young age and by being drilled in the virtue of “doing nothing.” Would that she had tutored her son and grandson on this head. For humanity’s role in the climate change controversy remains unclear. The consequences of steps to stem the use of fossil fuels are already apparent.

Feature the current oil and energy crisis in America, fueled by the Biden administration and its war against the petroleum industry. The Labor shortages due to Covid fallout add to the difficulty of getting gasoline to market. Inflationary creep also has a hand in making scarce supplies even more expensive to average Americans.

What happens when governments around the globe enact measures to combat climate change in earnest? The cost will be born by those forgotten men and women who form the backbone of support for the House of Windsor. Princes Charles and William may court celebrity acclaim with their protestations on behalf of the climate, but left-liberal progressives don’t love the monarchy. These royal endorsements are but a means to an end.

So think of Middle England. How will it respond when it realizes that members of the Royal Family have had a hand in raising the costs of heating and transportation? These “woke” Royals ignore the “true interests” of the “world at large” at their peril. We can but wonder whether Elizabeth entertains such thoughts while she recuperates at Windsor. Could the coming climate change after her be the deluge?

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