I absolutely believe that we’ll see King Charles undertake a slate of public events before we see the Princess of Wales do the same. Around Easter, Buckingham Palace courtiers insisted far and wide that they were making plans for Charles to start attending public events in June. Meanwhile, before Kate announced her cancer diagnosis, the clownshow at Kensington Palace was insisting that she would absolutely attend the Windsor church service on Easter Sunday. As we now know, KP was lying about everything. My point is that Buckingham Palace is currently making plans and revising schedules with the idea that the heir and his wife will be MIA this year. So it’s weird that royal experts are insisting, out of nowhere, that Prince William and Kate would absolutely step in and travel on the king’s behalf in the autumn.
Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, are obviously the future of the British monarchy as the heir and his consort, but the pair are also dedicated to helping a cancer-stricken King Charles III. This is despite the future queen also battling the same disease.
“William and hopefully Catherine will undoubtedly stand in for King Charles if he is unable to attend CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in Samoa in October, and a tour of the Antipodes would normally follow. We Will see,” veteran royal and entertainment expert Richard Fitzwilliams exclusively tells The Royal Observer.
“It will be appreciated that planning under these circumstances for royal engagements, let alone royal tours, is very difficult, if not impossible,” Fitzwilliams adds. “The royal family is much slimmed down, with the Sussexes and the Duke of York not functioning as senior working royals. Only four working royals are under 70.”
Under Queen Elizabeth II’s 70.5-year reign, the monarchy operated within the model of “kindness but distance,” according to one palace insider. “The late Queen grew up in a monarchy still rooted in deference, mystery, and Victorian sensibilities.” When she came to the throne at the age of 25, it is believed that she was dedicated to maintaining that style of royalty, although she accepted small changes toward modernity after Diana, Princess of Wales, died in 1997. Some have claimed that the King’s push to modernity “has created a boring” style of monarchy.
Fitzwilliams concludes: “However, if the vast amount written and broadcast, not to mention social media, is anything to go by, boredom is the last thing likely to affect people’s views of the royal family.”
It’s not that people think the monarchy is boring, it’s that we think the whole thing is crazy and unsustainable in the current climate? Not just the outside forces affecting the monarchy, like younger generations feeling nothing but apathy towards these colonialists. It’s about the internal sustainability of the monarchy. Anyway, my money is on Charles and Camilla traveling to Samoa this fall. It will be interesting to see what the conversation is after the summer, where presumably the senior royals will once again be “off” for two or three months.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Cover Images.