Illness, like death, is society’s greatest leveller, and so the news that the King had been affected by cancer led to an outpouring of sympathy and compassion that few other circumstances might prompt. Since he came forward earlier this year to share his diagnosis, Charles – sometimes seen as a remote and inaccessible figure, especially when Prince of Wales – has acquired a universality and straightforwardness that may have been present before, but was largely concealed beneath protocol and a quick temper.