Getty Images file / 2012 Indigo

A professor says of Prince Charles: "If he led an idle life we would criticize him; when he takes an interest we slap his wrist and say he can't go there."

LONDON - It may come as no surprise that researchers conducting a survey over a four-week period found that the Duchess of Cambridge was featured on the front pages of British newspapers more frequently than anyone else, and her husband, Prince William, came fifth.

It's fair to say Britons' see a lot of the royals in their papers - but what do they know about what the monarch and her heirs think of the country's affairs? The answer is very little. The queen is obliged to remain politically neutral and has no political authority - and keeps her views to herself.

Which is why a rare opportunity to learn about Prince Charles's thoughts on topical issues has generated so much interest; there were calls for the release under the Freedom of Information Act of 27 letters written by the Prince of Wales to seven government departments between September 2004 and April 2005. But this has been scuppered by the government - the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, using a veto to overrule a court decision and keep the letters secret.

Tantalizingly, Grieve said the letters revealed the prince's "most deeply held personal views and beliefs" and were "particularly frank." But he suggested they could lead to Prince Charles being seen to disagree with government policy and so be favoring one political party over another - which clearly he wanted to avoid.

Grieve added: "Any such perception would be seriously damaging to his role as future monarch, because if he forfeits his position of political neutrality as heir to the throne, he cannot easily recover it when he is king."

Certainly in the past Charles has not been coy about expressing fairly conservative views on issues close to his heart, such as architecture, or farming and the environment. But it seems pretty clear the content of these letters went further.  

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Rob Evans, a journalist writing for The Guardian newspaper who made the initial request for the letters to be released, told NBC News the letters should be seen, because people have a right to know how much influence the Prince of Wales has.

"Prince Charles is known to lobby government on a wide range of issues, but he's unelected and there has been a lot of concern about how he influences government behind the scenes... the public ought to know how much effect he is having on government policy," Evans said.

The original court ruling (now overturned by Grieve) in similar vein concluded: "Those who seek to influence government policy must understand that the public has a legitimate interest in knowing what they have been doing and what government has been doing in response."

Evans says he will now take the matter to the high court to try to overturn the government's veto.

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Public opinion is divided. Commentator David Aaronovitch wrote in The Times, "The clever silliness of Mr Grieve's letter says... that you the subject/citizen really don't want to know if your next king or queen's a bit of an idiot because you're getting them anyway."

But Professor Robert Hazell of University College London suggests this protection is useful - even necessary - for the Prince of Wales, as there is no obvious or established path for him to follow to keep abreast with national affairs, and prepare for his future role as king.

More reporting on the British royal family from NBCNews.com

He told NBC News: "We do ask a lot of Prince Charles ... he's meant to be interesting and worthy. If he led an idle life we would criticize him; when he takes an interest we slap his wrist and say he can't go there."

"We're entitled to know his public pronouncements, not his private thoughts - same as anyone else" tweeted Parliamentarian, MP Tom Harris, in favor of the letters being kept secret.

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The issue also raises questions about Charles's role in general - how DOES he occupy himself as he waits to ascend to the throne (it's been a 61-year wait so far)and how does he prepare for the “job” he will eventually hold?

It's a role Professor Hazell describes as "a blank space."

Royal censorship? BBC says 'sorry' for daring to report UK queen's comments

Last month Britons got an unexpected and revealing glimpse of the queen's personal thoughts when a BBC journalist divulged the details of a private conversation in which she admitted she had lobbied government ministers over the radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza. The BBC swiftly apologized for this breach of confidence, and Buckingham Palace said it would never comment on private conversations involving any member of the royal family. This was an extremely unusual episode.

As for Prince Charles’s letters, the decision to keep their contents secret only has the effect of increasing speculation about what they contain and hunger to find out. It will now be up to the High Court to judge if the public will get a chance to see their contents. 

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Prince Philip attends the London 2012 Olympic Games at Greenwich Park on July 29.

Updated at 1:50 p.m. ET: LONDON -- Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, has been taken to a Scottish hospital as "a precautionary measure," Buckingham Palace said Wednesday.

The 91-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary by car, the palace confirmed with NBC News.

According to a palace statement, he has had a recurrence of a bladder infection that led to his hospitalization for five days in June during the jubilee celebrations marking the queen's 60th year on the throne.

Philip is likely to remain in the hospital for the next few days, according to the palace statement.

The royal couple had been staying at their castle in Balmoral, Scotland, the palace told NBC.

After Philip's hospitalized in June, Philip later resumed royal duties, attending the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 27 and carrying out engagements on the Isle of Wight on Monday.

In December last year, Philip had an operation to clear a blocked heart artery and spent Christmas in the hospital.

'Winding down'
Philip is a former naval officer who married the queen in 1947. His health remained robust through his 80s, but he has appeared frailer in recent years.

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Her Majesty celebrates 60 years on the throne.

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When he turned 90, he told the British Broadcasting Corp. he was "winding down" his involvement with charities, and he has cut back on official duties. But he still carries out some engagements, both with his wife and on his own.

"I reckon I've done my bit so I want to enjoy myself a bit now, with less responsibility, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say. On top of that your memory's going, I can't remember names and things," he told the BBC.

"It's better to get out before you reach the sell-by date," he added.

NBC News' Shanshan Dong, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander, will meet with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II next week and shake hands in an historic first for the Northern Ireland peace process, the party has confirmed.

The Northern Ireland deputy first minister will attend a cross border event in Belfast on Wednesday, which the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, will also attend.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the decision had been taken after consulting with grass roots support and allowing the party's ruling council, the ard comhairle, to decide at a 4-hour meeting in Dublin.

“This will understandably cause difficulties for some republicans and nationalists,” Adams said. “Especially for those folks who suffered at the hands of British forces.”

WPA Pool via Getty Images file

Sinn Fein confirmed that Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness and First Minister Peter Robinson are to meet with Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Northern Ireland next week. They are shown here arriving for a meeting at 10 Downing Street on June 8, 2011 in London.

Adams, who, alongside McGuinness, helped end decades of sectarian violence and gave Catholics an equal voice in a power-sharing government with former Protestant foes, said, "This is a very significant initiative by us. We don't have to do it, we are doing it despite the fact that it will cause difficulties for some of our own folk but we think it's good for Ireland."

Sinn Féin stressed the meeting is not a celebration of the queen's Diamond Jubilee, although 86-year-old monarch will be in Northern Ireland at the time for jubilee events.

There has been speculation since the queen's momentous visit to Ireland in May last year that a senior Sinn Féin figure would meet her at an event.

Stefan Wermuth / Reuters

Britain's Queen Elizabeth smiles after her horse Estimate won The Queen's Vase on Friday, the fourth day at Royal Ascot, southwest of London.

McGuinness was always the candidate to shake the queen's hand but delicate talks have been going on for months to arrange a suitable venue and occasion.

The meeting is understood to be taking place in the Lyric Theatre in south Belfast and is sponsored by Co-operation Ireland, which works to bring divided communities together.

Since it was established in 1979, the charity has created opportunities for groups from the two main religious communities in Northern Ireland and from both sides of the border to learn about each other's traditions and cultures.

Adams said the party's decision was not unanimous but that a clear majority were in favor of the meeting. He also confirmed that McGuinness would "of course" shake hands with the queen.

The handshake will be viewed as another in a long list of dramatic advances in Anglo-Irish relations.

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The queen has never met a senior figure in the now-defunct IRA, which killed her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979, or its political wing Sinn Féin.

The IRA ended its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in 1998, but small splinter groups have continued to launch attacks against British targets, prompting security concerns that have prevented the queen from publicly announcing trips to the province ahead of her arrival.

The Tuesday and Wednesday visit was the first to be announced in advance since violence broke out in the 1960s and will see the queen and her husband, Philip, travel to Belfast and Enniskillen, scene of an IRA bombing that killed 11 people at a memorial service in 1987.

ITV is an international television partner of NBC News. This article also contains reporting by Reuters and Jim Gold, msnbc.com staff. Follow Gold on Facebook here.

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Slideshow: Life of a queen

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After more than five decades on the throne, view images from the extraordinary life of Queen Elizabeth II.

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LONDON - Britain's Queen Elizabeth has another reason to be cheerful in her Diamond Jubilee year - her annual pay is about to jump by 20 percent to 36 million pounds ($56 million).

Her property holdings, known as the Crown Estate, posted a record profit of 240.2 million pounds ($377.4 million), a net rise of 4 percent in the year through March 2012 largely due to strong tenant demand for its shops in the upmarket Regent Street and St James's districts of London.

At a time when Britain is in recession and many families are feeling the pinch of higher household costs and taxes, the Queen's allowance will rise to 36 million pounds from 30 million pounds, the level at which it was frozen in October 2010 under new laws which peg her pay to the estate's profits.

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Her Majesty celebrates 60 years on the throne.

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"It's a great set of results and I'm sure everyone's going to be happy," Crown Estate Chief Executive Alison Nimmo said.

The 85-year-old queen celebrated her 60th year on the throne this month with a 1,000-vessel flotilla on London's River Thames and nationwide street parties.

Read more news about Britain's royal family on TODAY.com

She has been paid by taxpayers through an allowance set by Parliament and via other government grants since King George III ceded all property profits to the Treasury in 1760.

The Crown Estate pays all of its profit to the Treasury, or finance ministry. Under new laws that come into effect in 2013-14, the monarch's pay is calculated as 15 percent of the estate's profits from two years prior.

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The changes were designed to ensure the queen's pay would rise and fall with the health of the British economy, which this year entered its second recession since the start of the global financial crisis.

Used mainly to pay the Royal household's staff as well as for items like laundry, stationery and official functions, her 2013-14 pay will be the highest since 2008 though still less than half of her 1991 pay of 77.3 million pounds ($121.2 million).

The Crown Estate, which owns a mix of wind farms, retail parks and most of Britain's seabed in addition to its central London properties, outperformed the industry's Investment Property Databank (IPD) benchmark index due to strong international interest in the London property market and the country's growing dependency on renewable energy.

The value of its property portfolio rose 7.4 percent to 7.6 billion pounds from the previous year, while the total return, which includes rental income, was 16.8 percent, outperforming the IPD index by 10.4 percentage points.

Its London projects include the 500 million pound ($784 million) regeneration of the St James's district, where it will redevelop almost 300,000 square feet of new shops, offices and homes.

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LONDON -- A thousand boats on the River Thames -- the biggest water-borne celebration for more than 350 years -- and hundreds of thousands of loyal subjects lining the river banks to watch a floating belfry carrying huge bronze bells, followed by a Royal Barge bearing the monarch and her closest family. This is the showpiece of Sunday's celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. 

Up and down the land, roads are closed off so people outside the capital can join the festivities -- almost 10,000 street parties were organized. The four-day holiday will go unnoticed by no one. This is a national celebration of monarchy; after all only one other British royal has reached this landmark -- Queen Victoria in 1897.

Amid all this pageantry and partying one voice is straining to be heard: that of the Republican movement, which believes this is all utter nonsense.

"What are we celebrating? A singularly undistinguished family's hold on the nation, a mirage of nationhood, a majestic delusion," writes journalist Polly Toynbee, a member of Republic, an organization campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy.

Vying with the teaming crowds of royal enthusiasts, the group organized a demonstration beside the River Thames at London's Tower Bridge. There supporters will attempt to make their point to the Queen and other members of her family as they glide past in the Royal Barge. 

"We are speaking out for the millions who oppose the monarchy," Republic's campaign manager Graham Smith told NBC News. "This is not something to celebrate. We have an unelected head of state who has been here for sixty years."

Are the Republicans merely party-poopers or do they represent an important segment of public opinion?

Republic claims support for their movement is increasing rapidly. Smith says the group had 7,000 volunteers supporting their work when Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton was announced in 2010. Eighteen months later that number has risen to 25,000, he says.

But opinion polls suggest the Republican movement has so far not won popular support. A recent poll conducted by Populus found 82 percent want to stick with the monarchy and keep the Queen as head of state. Whichever way you look at it, that is a resounding majority.

But Republic is optimistic. "This (diamond jubilee) is good for our movement. The jubilee celebrations will soon be forgotten but more people will have had an opportunity to think about the role of the monarchy in our society," Smith believes. "The monarchy is expensive, unaccountable and a drag on our democratic process ... a broken institution."

Britain is in a dark place economically and the government's austerity measures are hurting many. So these lavish celebrations in honor of a figurehead who leads a life of luxury way beyond the reach of her subjects are at odds with the downbeat national spirit.

Which should, perhaps, make this fertile ground for a Republican movement keen to recruit those who find the contrast unpalatable.

It is, however, far more likely that four days of glitter and pageantry are, for most Britons, a welcome period of escapism -- meaning that the Republicans call for change will, over this weekend at least, not be heard above the clamorous support for the monarchy.

But the Republicans will not be disheartened -- they know they are playing a long game. 

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LONDON -- It will be a weekend of celebration across Britain. Not least among suffering retailers, who amid the country's double-dip recession will be cheering as loudly as the flag-flying crowds lining London's River Thames to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

But despite the estimated 823 million pounds ($1.25 billion) expected to be spent by revellers this weekend, British businesses have proved stingy when it comes to raising the funds for the piece de resistance: Sunday's advertising-free pageant will include a three-hour flotilla featuring more than 1,000 boats.

The committee responsible for the event earlier this year tried entice British companies into contributing to its 10.5 million pound ($16 million) cost. But with a ban on advertising on either the riverside or on participating boats, it proved to be a difficult sell and organizers had to draw on contributions from foreign companies and individuals to make up the shortfall.

Lord Salisbury, the chairman of Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, reportedly said that he did not wish to empty the public purse.  

Instead organizers had to approach a number of non-British companies to pay for the costs, which include 7,000 stewards as well as festivities planned in Battersea Park.

'Six-figure checks'
Official supporters include American oil company Chevron, advertising company AMV BBDO and Boris Johnson, who is London's New York-born mayor. An additional 20 publicly listed donors have contributed to the tab.

Read more stories from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Companies from America, Australia and the Far East have reportedly signed "six-figure checks" as contributions.

However, the British public will never know the full list of organizations that contributed to the funding as the Jubilee Foundation only lists the donors who wish to be named.

Among this list there are 14 U.K. individuals and companies and six foreign individuals and businesses. This list includes American banking giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Japanese brokering house Nomura Group.

According to a Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant spokeswoman, there are "a considerable number of contributors who have made donations and do not wish to be named."

More Diamond Jubilee coverage from Britain's ITV News

Other events, where companies are allowed to market themselves, have proved more popular to companies.

The biggest commercial boon will be the Queen's Jubilee Picnic, to be held in the gardens of Buckingham Palace on Monday and attended by 13,000 guests. 

Supermarket giant Waitrose may be providing 10,000 free hampers for the Jubilee Picnic but its commercial gains are already pouring in.

Waitrose has predicted its strawberry sales will increase seven-fold and "sales of Elderflower cordial have been soaring by an incredible 1,000 percent."

A survey by Moneysupermarket.com also suggests Britons will spend 823 million pounds ($1.26 billion), or an average of 40 pounds ($61) per person on Jubilee-related purchases.

However, not everything is in the best possible taste. Diamond Jubilee sick bags are among the items being sold.

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LONDON -- Queen Sofia of Spain has reportedly decided not to attend a lunch celebrating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee on Friday because of a diplomatic spat over Gibraltar.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier this year raised Madrid's long-standing demand for the return of Gibraltar -- a British territory on the Mediterranean Sea -- during talks with U.K. counterpart David Cameron.

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According to El Pais newspaper, Queen Sofia's snub was in response to a scheduled trip to Gibraltar by Prince Edward.

Celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne will culminate with a four-day long weekend from June 2 - 5.

Read more on this story from Britain's ITV News.

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