At this time one week ago, Buckingham Palace had just spent a solid 72 hours on a briefing campaign against Prince Harry in the wake of Harry’s BBC interview. King Charles’s courtiers complained that Harry was “gaslighting” his father and the public, that Charles “can’t” speak to his son, and that Charles simply doesn’t have the power, authority or inclination to guarantee his redheaded son’s safety in the UK. The briefing campaign ended with a whimper, as palace courtiers told the royal rota WhatsApp that they sincerely hoped Harry wouldn’t overshadow the VE Day commemorations across the week. Now, today, one week later, the dust has settled. The VE Day commemorations went ahead as planned and the British media covered all of it… alongside writing dozens of hit pieces about the Sussexes. As it turns out, everything that’s happened in the past ten days has just reinforced the fact that Charles sucks as a father and a head of state, and this Sussex situation will define his reign. Look who suddenly changed his tune – Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast wrote this in his Royalist newsletter:
This week, the United Kingdom marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day with a series of poignant and celebratory events. The Royal Family—including King Charles III, Prince William, and Princess Kate—attended a service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, observing two minutes of silence in remembrance. The commemorations culminated in a classic royal concert at Horse Guards Parade, celebrating the resilience and unity of the nation with plenty of Union Jack imagery.
Notably absent from these events was Prince Harry despite being one of the very few living royals to have seen active military service (in Afghanistan). While it’s valid to argue that Harry has behaved unwisely in litigating his grievances with the royal family in public, youthful idiocy in princes is usually forgiven. Indeed, a YouGov poll this week indicated that Harry still maintains a 56 percent favorability rating in the United States.
Kings are expected to be wiser, and the failure to get Harry back inside the royal tent reflects exceptionally poorly on Charles. Harry‘s ongoing absence as the king fights cancer—which Harry did his best last week to remind us is probably going to kill him in the not-too-distant future without actually saying it—represents a painful indictment of King Charles’s authority, not to mention his oft-vaunted alleged convening power.
Sources close to the king and Prince William have repeatedly told The Daily Beast that the principal block to reconciliation is William. Why is William able to thwart the king? Again, it’s all connected to Charles’ decision to announce he had cancer. William‘s team has argued that Charles cannot bequeath his heir a settlement with Harry that William cannot live with. With the cat out of the bag, Charles increasingly looks like a lame duck monarch to many.
This was so inevitable, I’m surprised that I didn’t predict it – after a series of stale and pale royal outings for VE Day, people reacted with horror that the left-behind Windsors are so charisma-free. Charles’s courtiers spent too much time screaming about Harry, forgetting that Charles is actually supposed to be this big uniter, a king with convening power, a power he has failed to use to repair his relationship with his son and mixed-race daughter-in-law. And so now that people are like “wait, Charles sucks,” the palace is blaming the whole thing on Prince William. “William is the reason why Charles can’t talk to Harry!” Sure.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
