Here are some photos of King Charles riding in a tank on Monday. He visited the Royal Tank Regiment’s Families’ Day in Dorset, one of the many last-minute appearances being made by the left-behind Windsors this week. While Charles is usually game for an awkward or hilarious photo-op, I have to think that his courtiers believe that they’re geniuses for getting Charles on a tank, looking like he’s about to defend England from an invasion of ginger relations. Speaking of, the Telegraph’s Hannah Furness got a very special briefing from the king’s courtiers, the cherry on top of a 24-hour period full of royal shenanigans. An excerpt from “King finally gets tough with Prince Harry.”
It has taken quite some time for the King to lose patience with his younger son. But after weeks of dithering, days of back-and-forth briefing, and the rejection of a long-standing invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace, he has finally had enough. The King, whose parenting has hitherto been criticised for being too indulgent, has drawn a boundary for his 41-year-old son in a sharp lesson to be learnt publicly. Buckingham Palace is not available on lastminute.com.
Prince Harry had rejected an offer to stay at the monarchy’s headquarters, then changed his mind after the deadline, and will now revert to plans to stay elsewhere. It has taken much time, and much provocation for the King and his aides to get to this point. They have remained largely silent as the Sussexes publicly worked through their logistics of a trip to Britain, which started as a straightforward five days working their way around Harry’s old charities and descended into mayhem.
First, Prince Harry was coming to Britain, then he was bringing his family, then he might even take his children to see their grandfather, the King. Next, Harry and his team worried aloud that Buckingham Palace was not safe enough, its entrances and exits potentially allowing people to see the family through their car windows and put them in danger.
The Duchess and the children pulled out of coming to London, the Duke of Sussex dithered – in knots over a security report he had commissioned which showed there were threats, and a looming verdict from his legal case against a British tabloid newspaper.
He was accused of “emotional blackmail” for the to-ing and fro-ing over whether the King would be able to see Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, his grandchildren who have not been to Britain since 2022.
Despite “requests for clarity”, it is said, Harry missed the deadline set for the end of last week to accept the King’s offer of Buckingham Palace rooms. His team formally rejected it on Saturday, it is understood. And then the Duke changed his mind. After his team announced that he would indeed be staying at the palace, the extent of what could politely be called a muddle was exposed.
The rooms are no longer available for Harry when he arrives on Monday, with too little notice
There are logistical issues at play. The palace, which has 775 rooms and will be used to host visiting heads of state once it is reopened next year, is still a partial building site, and considerable numbers of household staff would have been needed if the Duke of Sussex and his family had come to stay.The lack of courtesy to staff making such arrangements has raised eyebrows, as has the continued impression that the Duke considers the palace unsuitable for his needs.
…The King and his team know they will be criticised for not rolling out the red carpet for Prince Harry. For fans of the Sussexes, it plays into the narrative that they are the victims of an unwelcoming establishment. A spokesman said it was “disappointing that the offer has now been withdrawn… at the last moment”. The palace has made clear that Harry, his wife and his children are welcome to stay there again, if he accepts an invitation in good time and ideally with good grace.
Charles’ aides also made similarly huffy and immature briefings to other outlets, maintaining that a son could never expect to be welcomed into one of his father’s twenty castles, palaces or mansions without adhering to a strict timetable which had never been mentioned before. I will ask again: was Harry informed that there was a deadline to accept his father’s housing offer? Besides, it feels pretty clear to me that this was probably always the plan, especially if Meghan and the children came to London – Charles and his courtiers would invent some excuse for kicking them out as well or “uninviting” his grandchildren. Charles thinks this makes him look strong or tough. It does not. And neither do these tank photos. It’s so funny that the king’s courtiers arranged it this way – a decrepit old man and deadbeat father cosplaying a tough military man just as his veteran son arrives in the UK.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
