If there's one thing about Morrissey, it's that he never turns down an opportunity to have a pot-shot at the royal family.

The former Smiths singer posted a tribute to Prince on True-to-you.net, the fansite that he uses as his mouthpiece, over the weekend.

He praised his fellow vegan musician's animal rights activism, saying "Prince has influenced the world more than is suspected, and somehow the life of his music is just beginning, and he would be thanked not only by humans but also animals for living his lyrical life as he did. Humans, you see, are not the world."

He went on to denounce the 90th birthday celebrations for the Queen, which took place on the same day as Prince's death. "Prince, who made something of his life as opposed to having fortune handed to him, is far more 'royal' than Elizabeth 2, and he will be mourned far more than she, for she could never make herself loveable, no matter how many paid and promoted non-stories flood the newspapers of the world."

He added: "Prince is the royal that people love, whereas Elizabeth 2 was thrust on the people who have never been asked whether or not they want her."

Rather conspicuously, Morrissey never posted a similar tribute to his one-time idol David Bowie when he died in January, amid rumours of a long-running grudge related to Bowie's 'Outside'  tour in the mid-nineties, when Morrissey was the support.