King Carlos III had a challenging 2022. The enormous workload that this year fell on the new king’s shoulders on September 8, following the death of his mother, will not be finished before the calendar changes to mark the Gregorian New Year.
Charles is currently at Sandringham with a large family, like Queen Elizabeth – with the important addition of Sarah Ferguson, who Prince Philip couldn’t stand and whom Charles invited back this year for his first royal Christmas (with their daughter and their family) in 31 years. Christmas cookies have been eaten, gifts have been exchanged and Boxing Day has been celebrated.
But Carlos is at work this week, and great work continues in all areas of the monarchy: ensuring the political union of the United Kingdom (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England) outright; securing the Commonwealth even as some countries plan to withdraw from it; defend the endless tsunami of parliamentary offices and ministries that need your attention and/or approval; and to sort out the large amount of royal patronage left after the deceased, first, from his mother, then from his disgraced brother, Andrés, and finally, from his exiled son, Harry.
Last April, the distinguished regiment commander of the Grenadier Guards – one of several regiments in a scarlet blouse and a large bearskin – sent (to himself and his troops) the good news that the honorary royal patron/Colonel, Prince Andrew, has restored to the Queen, at her request, the post of honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards which he inherited from his father when Felipe retired from public life in 2017.
Apparently, in the regimental chaos and at other events, officers and possibly troops felt uncomfortable toasting Andres after his decades-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and the large-scale lawsuit settlement that resulted from Andres. Roberts Giuffre, Epstein victim. They had requested a change of royal guards. Andrés was forced to leave the Coronation to the Queen.
In November, rumors surfaced of an important meeting between Andrés and his older brother, where Carlos had to tell Andrés, in no uncertain terms, that his days as king were over. To an outside observer, with little knowledge of Andrew’s public tribulations of the last three years, this may seem unexpected, if not at all in terms of an outright ban on the wayward prince.
But the obstinate second son pressured his mother and, in the original, he had “saved” some hope that he would return to charity work. A few weeks after his mother’s death, Carlos had to tell him he couldn’t come back. In other words, apparently last month Andres still needed to be pushed away from his dream that there was a chance to come back to life.
So far, all is well. Carlos had yet to decide who the Grenadier Guards would go to; for now, they are in his portfolio. What Carlos had done was withdraw the Irish Guardsmen who were no less valued than William’s military patronage and give them to Kate Middleton, whose popularity in expressing YouGov polls is high and growing, as his brother-in-law Prince Harry’s popularity fell to a record low; in fact, he was only a few points away from Andrew’s all-time low popularity in the eyes of the British public. The newly appointed Princess of Wales quickly becomes a workhorse for the king, in the style of Sophie Rhys-Jones, Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward. This is how life goes and the musical chair of official royal affairs.
Which brings us to King Charles’ more complex dealings with his second son. There are several grounds to look at in this deal. As happy as the premiere Vol.1 Y Vol.2 on Netflix before Christmas for the giant flow and collaborators/producers/reality star contracted, the palace and its occupants were most directly affected -Carlos at Clarence House/Buckingham Palace and William at Kensington- they are silent about the various accusations leveled against them (and against the functioning of the monarchy in general) by Harry and Meghan Markle.
While Vol.1 and Vol.II of harry & meghan aired insanely (in the biggest first-week drop for Netflix), Carlos and Guillermo dedicate themselves to the royal family’s traditional charity work during the holidays more or less without a hitch. Carlos dances Time at a Jewish community center with 90-year-old half-sister Anne Frank, the first for a British monarch, to applause from the press. The picture offered by the courtiers is a non-stop work.
Since the release of episode ‘three’ in London primetime on 8 December and the second set of three episodes at mid-morning on 15 December, courtiers entrusted with delicate matters at court have found themselves in a rare position, both voluntary and involuntary. . because it doesn’t really have to respond to anything that appears in the video.
In particular, what we might call the high court, Carlos and Guillermo, have found themselves in the extraordinary situation of a strange alliance with the British press. against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s alleged incriminating “content”. A large number of Fleet Street supporters – incl Daily mail and the Murdochs Sunsome of which have been sued and/or blacklisted by Harry and Meghan Markle – they happily do all the hard work of digging up (perceived) inaccuracies and/or (perceived) false highlights in Netflix series.
For his part, Carlos III has made it clear, eloquently, about everything Prince Harry and Meghan Markle do weeks before the Netflix mega-series. This he did, significantly, on September 9, from Windsor, the day after Queen Elizabeth’s death at Balmoral.
This, his first televised address to his country and the world, is a moment Carlos deserves to learn from. The scene was set: Like his father, Carlos was relaxed and outspoken, so he and his speechwriter strove in their eight-and-a-half-minute speech to sum up the matter. The main thing is, the King’s job is to convey to the nation a new plan for the monarchy.
He does so in three short, emotional and poignant chapters: the first, dedicated to thanking his mother; the second, in which he outlines his and Camila’s new function; and the third, in which he announced William and Kate’s royal appointments as Princes of Wales. It was a direct communication from the new king, and was actually an important matter for the country.
The new monarch said exactly one interesting line about Harry and Meghan: “I also want to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives abroad.”
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