For the whole series of blog posts about the Royal Family, tag: royal mess. To start from the beginning, start here.
For the next ten days, the “Queen in a Box” is going to be carted around the country with banners waving and trumpets trumpeting. It’s all very marvelously medieval. A real life Game of Thrones.
But the “Queen in a Box” isn’t really all that interesting, and there’s only so many times people can “the Queen was a nice lady.” So the media sharks need some something juicy to feed the monster public interest in the royal family. What’s juicy? What’s juicy? Um, how about a forced reunion between four middle-aged, but still good looking people who really loathe each other. Woot! Headline time!
The big news of the weekend was that the two warring brothers and their wives – William, Harry, Meghan, and Kate — did an official engagement together. What? The four of them haven’t been next to each other, since their lasting awkward encounter back in March of 2020. The headlines screamed, “The Fab Four are Back!” “William and Harry United in Grief” Brothers, who kiss and make up during a family crisis, is definitely the heart-warming story line that appeals the world. There were some great photographs of the four of them looking botoxed and marvelous in black tights and black ties. While that story might be enough for most people, the hard-core gossipers were looking for all the backstory.
Let me add a disclaimer before going forward: I am providing links to gossip, which is intended to be entertainment. I have zero personal knowledge of the situation. I am simply providing links for others to explore.
So, in a highly orchestrated event, the four sour-pusses emerged from a car, pretended to look at all the flowers and notes outside Windsor Castle from the commoners. Then they did a “walkabout,” where each couple took a side of the road, which were lined with people, shook hands with the commoners, and pet their dogs for forty minutes. This entire scene was filmed and photographed by the world press and viewed by half the planet.
You don’t need to read the gossip rags to read the body language there. Meghan and Harry walked a step behind the main couple, per protocol. Meghan was extremely stiff and nervous, constantly fiddling with her hair, so she didn’t have to make eye contact. At times, it looks like Harry was dragging her to meet a firing squad. She was filmed snapping at an aide. Some in the crowd were nice to her; others not so much. Kate walked a step away from the other three at times and didn’t look at Harry and Meghan. William and Harry walked in between their wives, keeping them far away from each other. William and Kate are the new alpha couple and let it show. Hardly a warm family reunion. Then they got in a car and drove away.
But what’s the backstory on this event? Who set it up? What happened before hand and afterwards? There’s a million different stories, and I have no idea what’s true. I’ll give you the links and you can decide:
- The King ordered William to make peace with his son.
- William sent Harry a text inviting him to join them, without any order from the King.
- The family heard that Harry and Meghan had already planned to look at the flowers on their own and had already alerted the US press about this, and this was an attempt to mitigate Meghan’s efforts to hijack the press.
- There was 45 minutes of negotiations before hand, where Harry had to tell Meghan to follow protocol and follow behind William and Kate.
- Rumors of fighting between Harry and Meghan.
- There’s been lots of buzz about Meghan doing a podcast about the Queen’s death; the King is begging her to back down.
- Did the Queen’s death help or hurt Meghan’s entrepreneurial dreams?
- Meghan and Harry might bring out their kids from California to attend the funeral. (As a parent, I shudder of the idea of bringing a one-year old to a funeral.) This is coming from the Sussex’s PR machine, so it’s probably true.
- There’s TONS of gossip about whether Harry and Meghan’s kids will get the titles of prince and princess. The official website hasn’t changed their names yet. Meghan’s PR machine is going around saying that their names will be changed, so it’s something that they really want. But a huge percentage of people in Britain want Harry and Meghan to lose their titles, and Charles wants to slim down the monarchy. The official story is that nobody knows yet.
- There’s the usual fighting about who will wear the silly military costumes.
Other stuff that I find interesting:
- This story is going to continue to dominate the US press for a week, which I find surprising.
- Charles has long planned on downsizing the monarchy. (Good-bye Andrew and a million cousins) The commonwealth is downsizing itself. (Good-bye Belize) Castles will become museums. (Good bye leaky roof) But the real tricky issue will come when it comes to downsizing the finances. On paper, the King is worth billions. But if they downsize the office, who controls that money. Is it private money? Or is that public monies? What’s going to happen to the duchies?
Are you getting sick of all the media coverage of this topic? Isn’t a tad weird that Americans are interested in all this?
Apt. 11d 
I feel like Ukraine is pushing it out of the news – at least, that’s what I’ve been following obsessively. But then again, this blog is where I get 97% of my news about the British royal family! Glad you are having some time by yourself and hope Ian’s school is working out!
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Such great news about the Ukraine, right? I’ll go back to regular blogging later today. Sorry to annoy my regulars, but the royal posts bring in lots of traffic. It’s good for business.
Ian’s school is great. I am still in recovery mode after a summer of keeping him busy this summer, trying to force a school district to educate him for 2-1/2 years, driving him to various private programs, and organizing tons and tons of paperwork for the lawyer. It’s been a haul with tons of stress and worry. I’m so burned out from all of that that I’ve only been capable of binge-watching royal coverage. He’ll be in this school for two years. After that, I’m screwed, but I won’t think about that today.
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Tweet from the Ukraine military: “Russian troops who recently fled from the front lines left behind so much weaponry and ammunition that Ukraine has struggled to handle it all, an unidentified Ukrainian soldier from an intelligence unit told The Telegraph recently.
“They left a huge amount of vehicles and ammunition. We couldn’t transfer or evacuate it all to our rear,” a Ukrainian commander, whose call sign is Birdie, told the paper.
Ukraine’s defense ministry posted a tweet on Sunday with a video that purported to show a litany of abandoned Russian military vehicles. In the video, the caption read: “Everyone gets a tank. F..ck there is enough tanks for everyone. What a bonus.” ”
Clearly, Ukraine has more Oprah fans than we knew…. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Oprah+Winfrey+You+Get+a+Car&mmreqh=cyQ5WNwXcoWnOnmKVC5DVebdtxrprFOIMHOAG1ax9wk%3d&first=1&tsc=ImageHoverTitle
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Such great news!
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What has been really fascinating is watching the news/propaganda shows where the Russian hawks are arguing amongst themselves. One commented that they should keep fighting and will eventually emerge victorious, even if it takes years. Another responded with something like, “So my 10-year old son will be fighting this war?” And that’s only what makes it onto tv.
I’m not annoyed by the royals stuff – it’s a nice break! Very glad to hear Ian’s school is going well.
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af wrote, “What has been really fascinating is watching the news/propaganda shows where the Russian hawks are arguing amongst themselves. One commented that they should keep fighting and will eventually emerge victorious, even if it takes years. Another responded with something like, “So my 10-year old son will be fighting this war?””
I saw that–that was great.
I also liked the one where a guy on one of those shows was saying, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to say that Ukraine isn’t real, Ukrainians aren’t real, and Ukrainian isn’t a real language? Maybe that gave Ukrainians the wrong idea?
https://mobile.twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1569870269191229440
Francis Scarr also has a nice account on twitter where he covers similar turf.
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The interesting tidbit I read today is that Sarah Ferguson is living with Andrew. It was in the WaPo article about the queen’s corgis.
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I hope he doesn’t molest the corgis.
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She’s actually been living with him for years. It’s a very odd arrangement.
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Part of this dies remind me a bit of the beginning of Richard III, where Anne takes around the body of Henry VI. I also think Megan Markle is the Amber Heard of the royal family.
That said, I have a great of respect for Elizabeth II and mourn her passing.
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Camilla will be crowned, apparently, and the UK PM is a woman. So yay! There will be women at the coronation!
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Glad you’re not sick of the royal family posts yet, because I still want to write about the commonwealth, Russian bots, and Charles’s fortune.
And, yes, Ian’s school is going really well. I can’t really explain how relieved that I feel. The past 2-1/2 years have had too much responsibilities, stress, and sadness. Ian was a full time job. Actually, more than full time. It was morning to night, seven days per week. And after a million meetings and basically writing my own legal briefs, I can move on with my life. It’s so weird.
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Under the George V convention, Archie and Lilibet would automatically become entitled to be a HRH (Prince or Princess) (grandchildren of a reigning monarch)
https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2021/03/23/craig-prescott-modernising-the-monarchy-moving-beyond-the-1917-letters-patent-and-the-george-v-convention/
There is no way that Meghan didn’t know this – especially after it was explained to her in words of one syllable following her public tanty about Archie not ‘getting a title’ (he actually has one – Earl of Dumbarton – the secondary Scottish title of H’s Duke of Sussex title – but M&H haven’t chosen to use it). *If* they had chosen to remain working members of the RF – it would have almost certainly just happened automatically.
Of course, you don’t *have* to accept or use a title (Princess Anne’s children have never had titles, and Prince Edward’s children are ‘Viscount’ and ‘Lady’ (the subsidiary titles of his Earl of Wessex title, rather than his ‘Prince’ one)
However, the chance the M would pass up the opportunity for the reflected glory is somewhere between fat and slim.
However, the important point is that it is only a *convention* – and it’s entirely possible that Charles3 will choose to change it. Especially if M&H continue their public war – and super-especially if H’s book targets Camilla unfairly.
Another interesting post that H is probably no longer eligible to fill, is Royal Counsellor of State – these are the next 4 adults (over 21) in line for the throne + the monarch’s spouse. There’s another qualification (which was added to exclude the Duke of Windsor – who’s claim to the throne was nebulous after his abdication) – that they have to be resident in the UK. And Harry is not. He’s currently a CoS for QE2 – but I’d be surprised if C3 reappoints him.
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