Princess Anne has suffered a ‘bruised leg’ following an ‘incident’ at her Gatcombe Park Estate, ten months after she was hospitalised with concussion following a serious accident there.

The King’s sister was seen hobbling and in pain when she accompanied him to church on Easter Sunday, and was leaning heavily on an umbrella.

Social media commentators also pointed out that she appeared not to wait in order exchange pleasantries with the Dean of Windsor following the service.

Instead she squeezed past the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, who were busy chatting to the cleric, and walked gingerly straight to her car, placing her umbrella in first.

Her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, did stop for a few pleasantries, however.

While mystery has surrounded her condition, The Mail can now reveal that the 74-year old princess was, in fact, suffering from ‘a bit of a bruised leg’.

It is understood that the nasty injury was result of an incident at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire a few days previously. No further details of what happened are known.

She is not believed to have required medical treatment, however.

A source said: ‘As ever, she just keeps going without fuss or fanfare.’

Indeed the princess, who turns 75 this summer, has stoically been in Turkey this week on behalf of the King attending commemorations of the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign.

On Thursday she attended several multi-national services to mark the event and, as President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, visited the grave of a deceased soldier.

Today she also attended a dawn memorial service at Anzac Cove and conducted audiences with the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the Governor-General of Australia, as well as attending two further memorial services.

Her dedication to duty, so reminiscent of her late parents, will undoubtedly be praised.

Indeed, Anne is regularly known as the hardest-working member of the Royal Family.

But the incident does, once again, highlight the significant number of older working royals, most of whom are in their seventies and eighties.

However the Princess Royal has always insisted that ‘retirement isn’t an option’.

In February she returned to the intensive care unit where she was treated for head injuries last year to ‘fill in the blanks’ following last year’s accident and thank medics for her care.

She spent five nights at Southmead Hospital in Bristol following the mystery incident at her Gloucestershire estate on June 23.

According to the Princess, she had set out alone in the evening on foot to feed her chickens – but has no recollections ‘whatsoever’ of what happened next.

Medics believe, however, her injures – which also included clear bruising on her face and head – were consistent with being struck by a horse’s hoof or head.

An air ambulance was scrambled to the estate but after being assessed she was taken to hospital by road.

At the time Buckingham Palace said she was admitted as a ‘precautionary measure for observation’ but it later emerged that she had been in intensive acre.

When she visited the hospital the princess told hospital staff that it was ‘useful’ to meet them as she was still unable to recall what happened.

‘You have been filling in the blanks, which partly, from my perspective is really useful to know how it happened, because I seriously don’t have any idea, and sadly, I don’t have huge memories of being in here either, ‘ she said.

‘But I’m l also grateful in a weird sort of way that I remember nothing, because that has huge advantages – you can just carry on.’

Hinting strongly at the seriousness of the accident and her concussion – which the Mail understands left King Charles ‘deeply worried’ – she also said in an interview: ‘You’re jolly lucky… if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis and last summer I was very close to not being.’

Asked if she had any memory of what happened, she admitted: ‘No, nothing. I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens.

‘No, nothing to do with horses. Seeing the chickens was my regular visit. I don’t have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.’

She said with unusual seriousness: ‘It just reminds you, shows you, you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover. Take each day as it comes, they say.’

The princess confirmed there were no lasting injuries, but added: ‘You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus, really.’

Anne is a key member of the King’s slimmed-down working monarchy and has stepped up amid his cancer diagnosis, taking on duties such as official investitures.

She carried out her first public event in 1969 aged 18 when she opened an educational and training centre in Shropshire.

And last year she undertook 474 engagements, once more making her the hardest-working royal.

She says retirement ‘really isn’t an option’ for members of the Royal Family.