“Enough is enough.” So estimates Elizabeth II, according to the London Sun, in answer to continuing provocations from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Word that Prince Harry is writing a memoir of growing up royal apparently woke up “The Firm” to this existential threat to the monarchy. What Harry will do or say next, must be of constant concern to Buckingham Palace.

“There is a limit to how much will be accepted and the Queen and Royal Family can only be pushed so far,” a source tells the London Sun, warning that senior royals “are getting lawyered up. Harry and Meghan will be made aware and know repeated attacks will not be tolerated.”

Reports of royal reaction are coming from the Palace days after broadcaster ITV ran the headline: “Rift over Racism Claims Reignited between Harry and Meghan and the Queen.” This disclosure might be, your correspondent conjectures, what lit the fire under the Palace to take action.

The Sussexes are not happy that Her Majesty has not taken responsibility for allegations of racism run rampant amongst the Royals. After Harry and Meghan raised this slur in their March interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Palace broke its standard protocol of silence to issue a statement. Of the racism claim, it replied on behalf of Her Majesty, that “recollections may vary.”

At the time, the Sussexes said that neither Queen Elizabeth nor her husband, Prince Philip, now gone and greatly missed, had raised such questions leading up to the birth of their first child, Archie. Now, however, the couple voice “disappointment” that the Queen has not taken “ownership” over their criticism of the Royal Family.

In updating their book “Finding Freedom,” authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write that “The Queen’s ‘recollections may vary’ comment ‘did not go unnoticed’ by the couple, who a close source said were ‘not surprised’ that full ownership was not taken.”

The Sussexes protest any collaboration with their chroniclers. This hasn’t prevented their friends from fueling the controversy, however. “Months later and little accountability has been taken,” the book quotes a Meghan confidant, who gratuitously adds, “How can you move forward with that?”

Speaking with People magazine, which is publishing excerpts of “Finding Freedom,” Mr. Scobie offers that the Sussexes want to keep “some of the toxicity” at bay, as they enter an “era of visibility.” Yet it stretches credulity to think Harry and Meghan are not rather thriving on the controversy they and their coterie are stirring up.

Sidelined by “real” news out of Afghanistan, they might feel compelled to garner attention where they can. Especially with pressure to generate buzz for impending book deals and Netflix contracts. And who has better coattails for garnering self-publicity than disabusing the Queen herself? Yet the Sussex drama is the stuff of a slow news day.

In days of old, they would have been no match for the monarchy. The House of Windsor, though, no longer enjoys the wide (or deep) popular appeal that sustained it for much of the 20th century. For though the Queen Elizabeth is a spry 95 years old, the fate of the Crown after she is gone cannot be far from her mind.

Walter Bagehot wrote famously of the monarchy, to “not let in daylight upon magic.” Yet in the 24/7 news cycle and constant social media scrutiny, such is a quaint, and futile, ideal. With the day ever-approaching when the Crown will pass from Elizabeth to her putative heir, Prince Charles, the future monarchy can no longer enjoy the luxury of resting on its oars, secure in history, custom, and tradition.

And now this contretemps. The London Sun’s sources admit that “there are concerns that the American public are falling for what Harry and Meghan say.” American credulity should be the least of Queen Elizabeth’s worries. Her predecessors’ one hope was to bequeath to their heirs a monarchy as strong as the one they inherited. But Elizabeth must wonder, in fear: How long will the British monarchy survive, after I am gone?

Far be it for me to end on a pessimistic note. This may be nothing more than rough water for the monarchy. Royalists need only remember the republican sentiment that arose during Victoria’s self-imposed “exile” when Prince Albert died. Or the crisis occasioned when Edward VIII abdicated. Prince William, happily, has demonstrated his steel with respect to his brother and sister-in-law’s slights against the Crown.

Then again, too, there is Prince George — whose self-assurance has caught the eye of, among others, the Sun’s editor, who, I understand, has told his camarilla: “Young George might be but eight years old, but he already seems to be able to set his jaw in a kingly way.” It might just be that Britons will need to brace themselves and wait a bit longer for the right king.

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BrexitDiarist@gmail.com Image: Detail of photograph of a future king, Prince George of Cambridge, receiving a pair of distinguished visitors. White House photograph, via Wikipedia.