Category: King Charles III

This week, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Southport for only the second time following the deadly stabbing attack on a children’s dance class in July 2024. That was William and Kate’s only public event this week – right after the Southport visit, William flew to Scotland to spend a few days with his father at Balmoral. The Telegraph said that Kate stayed behind in Windsor with the kids and the beloved school run. What’s interesting about William’s trip to Balmoral is apparently this is the second or third time he and his father have done this in the early autumn – sources now claim that it’s an annual thing for William and Charles to have private time at the tailend of Charles’s Scottish summer holiday. I’m not sure I believe that, but it’s fascinating to see that story pushed to the Sun, Telegraph and Daily Mail. Someone else not buying any of this? Tom Sykes, writing in his Royalist Substack. Some highlights:

The palace narrative: Palace spinners are in overdrive. Smarting at suggestions by The Royalist that King Charles and Prince William are at loggerheads—first reported here but now gaining traction in the broader media—the court has moved to project an image of father–son harmony, briefing the Telegraph that the two men are enjoying a “mini-break” in Scotland, set aside for “informal” chats as sovereign and heir.

The Royalist isn’t buying it: I can’t be alone in thinking that such a transparent attempt to show unity is arguably worse than none at all, as it only serves to highlight the fractures it seeks to conceal. I mean, it is hardly a secret, thanks to their actions, that far from being aligned, Charles and William are bitterly divided on the two poorly handled issues that have come to define this reign: Andrew and Harry.

William & Charles can’t agree on the Yorks: Allies justify Charles’ hopeless vacillation on the grounds of Christian teaching, filial loyalty to the late Queen’s indulgence, and even the bizarre notion that Andrew “can’t be stopped going to church.” William, by contrast, sees only weakness and naïveté on the part of his father. His line is hard and clear: Andrew should be cut off entirely, never again should he be in the monarch’s presence.

William thinks Charles is making the same mistake with Harry! He fears the same mistake is now being made with Harry. Two weeks ago, Charles invited Harry to tea and chocolate cake. Harry’s team immediately began briefing that he intended to spend more time in the U.K. William’s nightmare is that his father’s innocent, private gestures will morph into public endorsements—culminating, perhaps, in Charles appearing alongside Harry at the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.

Whether Charles & William are actually spending time together: The questions I’ll be looking to my sources to answer in the days ahead about this Balmoral retreat are simple: did William stay with his father at Birkhall, or apart at the castle, eight miles away? How much real time did they spend together? And was anything said, or resolved, about Harry? (We must assume William and the other adults will now prevail on the Andrew issue). What emerges about Invictus will be crucial. If Charles’ team begins suggesting he will attend while William pointedly says he will stay away, the break will become undeniable. William does not seek to stop his father reconciling with Harry privately, but he is determined to block any public rapprochement that might be the thin end of the wedge. Many courtiers agree; as one sniffed to the Mail, Harry’s team are “mistaking tea and cake for the Treaty of Versailles.”

William is still panicked about Harry: William’s red line is clear: no royal should grant Harry the legitimacy of a meeting or photograph after Spare and Netflix. Charles, by contrast, is tempted by affection for his “darling boy” and fear of appearing heartless in the shadow of his illness. William is guided not just by personal grievance but by public opinion, which is firmly against a reunion. He was right about Andrew, his friends say, and he is right about Harry. I actually think he is right as well. You can’t let people say things like that about you or your wife. William’s friends are blunt. He sees the danger in a way his father does not. Charles, ever the conciliator, believes he is embodying forgiveness. In fact, he is gambling the monarchy’s reputation on a distinction—the private family versus the public institution—that the public, by and large, refuses to make.

The background: Harry was Charles’s favorite. William thinks Charles’ monarchy is pompous and out of touch—too much ermine, too many uniforms. Charles believes his son shirks duty by putting family ahead of the job. When William hesitated to attend the Pope’s funeral because it clashed with an Aston Villa match, Charles was aghast. When William declined to mark VJ Day, courtiers were dismayed. Charles sees tradition; William sees absurd Edwardian relics. All this unfolds against the backdrop of Charles’ illness. Since he disclosed his cancer, insiders have quietly accepted that William’s reign has already begun in all but name. That makes every fracture more dangerous. William’s authority grows daily, while Charles’ ebbs away. Aligning against the heir would be folly.

[From The Royalist Substack]

Someone in the comments of an earlier post suggested that William’s trip to Scotland was less about crisis management and more about William getting in one last hunting trip. After all, Charles has apparently ceded control of organizing royal shooting parties to Peg. It would be very funny if that’s all this was, and William and Charles barely spoke. It’s always seemed to me like Charles and William are actually fine with not speaking to each other directly, and merely communicating through courtiers and the media. If you look at it that way, the past week’s stories make more sense. William didn’t rush up to Balmoral to have urgent one-on-one meetings with his father. Why would he, when he can just order his courtiers to brief the Mail and other outlets, all to try to control and contain the narrative. I 100% believe the “back-and-forth” between unnamed sources about Harry’s desire to “come back” was entirely Kensington Palace trying to make it look like Harry was briefing about the meeting with his dad. Also: I guarantee that the Invictus Games are too far off for all of this hand-wringing.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden claimed there was a dark, malevolent conspiracy afoot in the house of Windsor. That conspiracy? Prince Harry plans to visit the UK more often, which will obviously “undermine” Prince William and Kate, and King Charles is just letting it happen! That’s part of the conspiracy too, that Charles is displeased with his heir, and Charles doesn’t give a sh-t about William’s panic and rage about Harry and Meghan. Eden managed to draw out those conspiratorial observations into high crimes and misdemeanors. Well, Becky English said: wait a minute, there’s something THERE. English followed up Eden’s coverage with this piece, which sounds a lot like Prince William’s courtiers and handlers trying to placate him (while adjusting his meds). Some highlights:

The conspiracy!! If recent events are anything to go by, then something is starting to look more than a little suspect. From sources at the weekend, apparently close to the Sussexes, suggesting Prince Harry might be able to ‘help’ lighten the load of royal engagements, to claims by biographer Tina Brown that King Charles is ‘less irritated’ by his prodigal son than he is by Prince William over his work ethic, there has been a torrent of suggestions about tensions at the top. Indeed, a source close to both the King and the Prince of Wales told me starkly this week: ‘It’s evident there’s an attempt to manufacture division between them, when in reality, no such rift exists. In truth, their relationship is as strong as ever, they are aligned in their work, with many areas of shared interest, and united in their vision for the role of the Royal Family.’

Something calculated is happening: Sometimes a media whisper (that may or may not have a nugget of truth at the heart of it) is whipped up into a cacophony of speculation, particularly online. But there’s now more than a flicker of suspicion in royal circles that something more calculated could be at work. What or who may be behind the conjecture isn’t clear. But it is a worrying turn of events after I revealed earlier this year that Kensington Palace had discovered Russian bots were seeking to disseminate misinformation around the Princess of Wales’s prolonged absence from public life in the run-up to her cancer announcement last year.

William & Charles’s actual relationship: It’s important to acknowledge, in the interests of fairness, that William, 43, and his 76-year-old father have never had the easiest of relationships. No surprise given their complex family history, particularly the breakdown of Charles’s marriage to William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Harsh words have been exchanged in the past, angry rows permeating even the thickest castle walls, sometimes within earshot of staff. There have also been clashes of opinion on the professional side, such as the retention of ivory treasures in the Royal Collection (William wants to burn them, Charles believes they should be kept as historical artefacts) which not so long ago resulted in a ‘frank’ exchange.

Windsor men’s quick temper: But really, isn’t that what families can be like? And what bothers you in your 20s or 30s, doesn’t seem quite so important at 40. Particularly given the rollercoaster of the past few years for William, with his younger brother’s very public betrayal and his wife’s shock cancer diagnosis. Similarly the King, who like many Windsor men can have a quick temper, is facing his own health challenges. While he is managing his cancer diagnosis extremely well, I am told, it has, naturally, been hugely challenging at times. And with both age and illness can often come a reassessment of what matters most. While it’s not a phrase he would personally use, the King is more of a proponent of ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ nowadays, in his own way. ‘Do they [the King and William] sit down for dinner every night, or even see each other every week? No. But they never have,’ a source reminds me. ‘However they do speak regularly and they are in absolute lockstep about the future of the monarchy and the good it can do this country.’

Competitive tensions: Another source adds: ‘Like many father-son relationships, there are occasional personal and competitive tensions. Both are very driven individuals and have very similar interests such as the environment, conservation, the military and helping deprived communities. However, they are also going about supporting them in quite different ways. Does that sometimes bring them into competition with one another? Yes, to be fair, it does. But ultimately they have the same goal: to make life better for the people of this country.’

Why Charles & William rarely do events together: ‘The whole point of having a Prince of Wales with a separate household and funding from the monarch is that they have space and autonomy to try things in a different way,’ a source argues. ‘Sometimes they get things right, sometimes wrong. But even their failures make them a better king when they get there. Don’t forget His Majesty had more than his fair share of ups and downs as heir to the throne.’

Willy’s trip to Balmoral this week: Indeed, I can reveal that they will be both be up in Scotland this week – admittedly staying in different residences (Birkhall for the King and neighbouring Balmoral for William, as is their habit) but they plan to meet and will almost certainly attend church together this Sunday. ‘Scotland is a place they both love,’ my source says.

William’s tough time: And if the King privately feels his son could possibly take up some of the slack on those royal engagements, it’s not something that comes up in conversation. ‘If prioritising his family helps make him [William] a better king, it’s got to be a good investment,’ says one who knows them both. ‘The Prince of Wales has had a universally sh***y time of late… he lost his beloved grandmother, his brother, and has faced terrible heartache with his father and his wife. If this [way of doing things] makes him feel that much more happy and confident when the moment comes and he accedes him to the throne, then that’s something his father supports.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Something to keep in mind, just one week ago, the Mail also published A.N. Wilson’s “what’s eating William” takedown. And when Tina Brown’s Fresh Hell Substack dropped – in which she openly said that Charles is less annoyed with Harry than lazy-ass William – that gave ALL of the British media an opening to publicly discuss what had been common knowledge among royalists. This isn’t a conspiracy, it’s the media starting to acknowledge that all is not well with William in particular. This piece by English is almost entirely based on William’s narrative too, this is damage-control by his office, not Charles’s. This is William “forging” his father’s signature on pity-poor-Willy talking points. “He lost his beloved grandmother, his brother…” Harry is not dead, and it’s disgusting that the only way William can get through the f–king day is by pretending that his brother is dead or a “non-person” or whatever psychotic phrasing they use.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.