ROBERT HARDMAN: No one is being complacent about the King’s cancer treatment, but Charles’s firm, ungloved handshakes were the clearest sign yet that our monarch is getting better

Would he or wouldn’t he? It wasn’t just the crowd waiting patiently outside St George’s Chapel this morning who were wondering if the King might exchange a few words with the public for the first time since his cancer diagnosis. Every right-minded royalist will have been having similar thoughts.

In the event, he did not merely swap pleasantries. This was a full-scale, traditional royal walkabout with – crucially – handshakes. And not just one or two.

If proof were needed that our monarch is getting better, then here it was. He didn’t just look well but he was manifestly enjoying being back among his people, greeting a long line of well-wishers from as far afield as New Zealand and the USA with an outstretched, ungloved hand. Even the late Queen, when in the rudest of health, did not undertake Easter Sunday walkabouts like this. The routine was always the same: a chat with the Dean of Windsor, a posy from a child or two, a wave to the waiting crowds and back to the castle.

So St George’s Chapel regulars were more than pleasantly surprised by the King’s enthusiasm.

I had not expected handshakes. You may recall that in the earliest days of the Covid pandemic, the King introduced the ‘royal Namaste’, palms pressed together as if in prayer, as a substitute for a handshake or that distinctly unroyal alternative, the ‘elbow bump’. I imagined we might see some judicious ‘Namaste’ salutations today. Not a bit of it. This was proper gladhanding with a firm grip.

One hopes that Queen Camilla had a bottle of sanitiser on standby as soon as they were back inside the State Bentley. You can’t be too careful.

No one is being complacent. Palace staff are making it clear that the King’s cancer treatment is still ongoing and that potential royal attendance at any event will be reviewed on an individual basis.

King Charles greets a little boy among the well-wishers following the service at St George’s Chapel today

Queen Camilla and King Charles attend the Easter Mattins service at Windsor Castle

However, this was the clearest indication yet that we are going to see more, not less, of the monarch as we enter the royal peak season. This is an extra busy summer. In addition to the usual fixtures of Trooping the Colour, garden parties, the Garter ceremony, Royal Ascot and ‘Royal Week’ at Holyroodhouse, there are global events on either side of the Channel to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. All the Allied nations will be represented at the highest level.

Three nations led the charge on June 6, 1944 – Britain, the USA and Canada. As the head of state of two of them, Charles will want to do everything in his power to be standing alongside President Joe Biden and France’s President Macron as they salute the last veterans of the greatest operation in modern military history.

Today’s attendance at Easter matins followed another encouraging event earlier in the week when the King hosted a meeting of the Windsor Leadership Trust, a gathering of a dozen leaders of different faiths and communities around a conference table in the Buckingham Palace Billiard Room.

Little by little, the scope and scale of the monarch’s engagements is being extended. Today, there were no limits placed on the congregation at St George’s Chapel. Most worshippers were in the Nave, where they presented no risk to the King anyway. He was seated in the Sovereign’s Stall at the back of the Choir, a relatively isolated berth with only the Queen, dressed in stylish Easter green, for immediate company.

While writing my new biography of the King, I was repeatedly struck by his use of neckwear to reflect a mood or a subtle point, not least a favourite T-Rex design (a play on his ‘C-Rex’ cypher). So what tie had he chosen for today’s important public reappearance? Jaunty blue and white boats bobbing on a blue sea. A coded reference to buoyant spirits? Maybe he just wanted something to match his blue suit and shirt. Or perhaps the Queen picked it out.

She has been a tower of strength in recent weeks and I understand that she had jointly approved all of today’s arrangements, including the traditional stop for a drink inside the Deanery immediately after the service. This was the first Easter for the new Dean, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, formerly Bishop of Coventry, and the King and Queen wanted to observe this neighbourly ritual.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence; Princess Anne, Princess Royal; and Sarah, Duchess of York depart from the Easter Mattins Service

The royal party was scaled-back, as expected, since the King and Queen did not want a full Easter houseparty. Rather, it was siblings only – plus spouses (plus the Earl of Wessex, teenage son of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh). Of note was the studiously low-profile appearance of the Duke of York, who was certainly not beaming for the cameras as he had been at last month’s memorial service for King Constantine, plus the inclusion of his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York. She is also undergoing treatment for cancer. That invitation will have been of great comfort to her.

Expect things to remain quiet now for a short while, before the summer season begins. The next positive signal should be when we see the King back at his beloved Birkhall. He has not been in the Highlands since his diagnosis, given the need to be within easy reach of his doctors. Should we spot him up on Deeside in the weeks ahead, we will know, for sure, that things really are on the up.