Such criticism, familiar to Princes of Wales through the ages, has diminished in recent years. The Prince’s reputation as a passionate champion of both the fashionable and the unfashionable – from rainforests to the Prayer Book Society – is comfortably entrenched in the public consciousness. His staff describe him as a ‘charitable entrepreneur’. The core network of twenty trusts and foundations (eighteen of which he created himself) is now Britain’s most extensive multi-cause charitable network, raising £120 million a year. He is a conscientious patron or president of another four hundred charities besides. Clarence House has never been busier. Over the last few years, the Duchess of Cornwall has quietly taken up a carefully chosen cross section of organisations which have quickly become very fond of their patron. Despite a lifetime’s record of never giving an interview, the Duchess has emerged as an impressive public speaker, calmly standing before a conference or a Clarence House reception to deliver a detailed appraisal of the latest work of the National Osteoporosis Society or the Literacy Trust. In 2011, she gamely delivered the address at the annual awards of the London Press Club, applauding freedom of expression while observing that, in her own case, ‘no news is good news’.
But how will the Prince of Wales adapt to the constraints of Kingship? Just before his sixtieth birthday in 2008, the author asked him if he would still be able to champion his favourite themes from the throne. ‘I don’t know. Probably not in the same way,’ he replied. ‘But I like to think perhaps that, after this, eventually people might realise that some of the things I have been trying to do are not all that mad – and that I might still have some convening power that could be put to use.’
The Prince will certainly not be able to mount a campaign like the one which suddenly hit Sir Malcolm Rifkind during his days as Defence Secretary. No sooner had Rifkind announced plans to merge a lot of regimental bands than a funny thing happened. ‘I suddenly started getting very similar letters from various Colonels-in-Chief including the Prince of Wales, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, the Duke of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra – almost everyone, in fact, except the Queen herself. I thought: “This is extraordinary.”’ Although he persisted with his plan, he remained puzzled by such a concerted assault. Two years later, all was revealed when Jonathan Dimbleby’s authorised biography of the Prince appeared. ‘It was all there!’ Rifkind laughs. ‘He was a trade union leader and he’d got all his family to write to me.’
While Prince Charles will have to be less outspoken as monarch, those demanding that he should become a carbon copy of the Queen miss the point. As she has shown more than anyone, strong monarchy is about well-judged adaptation, not being or doing exactly the same as before. And no one can have given it more thought than the man himself. ‘Prince Charles will be extremely good at it,’ says a very senior courtier. ‘He’s just going to be different. That’s the way it is and the way it should be.’
It is striking how little we know of his plans for the monarchy. His aspiration to be a ‘defender of faiths’ – revealed on television in 1994 – is much-quoted but the remark is now almost twenty years old and we have heard very little on that front since. According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, it would hardly represent a break with the status quo. The Queen, he argues, has been doing much the same for years. ‘I think that was a bit of a misunderstanding,’ says Dr Williams. ‘I don’t think the Prince was saying: “I don’t want to be Defender of the Faith.” He was saying, “I would see my role as defender of faiths,” keeping the umbrella inclusive.’
The Prince doesn’t like to discuss his plans for two reasons. First, there is no need for him to have any big ‘plans’ at all. This is an institution which stands for continuity. It does not ‘do’ instant makeovers. Second, whatever ideas the Prince may have, it would be both bad taste and disrespectful towards the Queen to air them in her lifetime. ‘They’re discussed over dinner parties rather than round table meetings,’ says a long-serving courtier. ‘No minutes are taken. No decisions are reached. But opinions are aired.’ There is no itching for the levers of power, no impatience to do things differently. Nor, for that matter, is the Queen inclined to leave instructions for the future. She has been closely involved in her own funeral arrangements (all royal funeral plans are reviewed and, to an extent, rehearsed on a semi-regular basis) but it is said that she does not wish to be informed about any Coronation plans.
Some differences in taste and tone are inevitable after any change of reign. Those close to the Prince indicate that a trimming of some of the pageantry is likely. The days of ancient bodyguards like the Yeomen of the Guard or the Royal Company of Archers being wheeled out for every royal occasion may be finite. The Gold State Coach, the ultimate in gilded pumpkins, may have already had its last Coronation excursion. Perhaps there might be something a little stronger than iced coffee at garden parties? When the Prince held a garden party of his own at Holyroodhouse in 2000, the resident staff were as surprised as the guests to find Pimm’s on offer. One thing is for certain. There will be no Winston Churchill around this time to tell the new sovereign that he has to move into Buckingham Palace if he would rather stay put at Clarence House. All the indications are that he would. At a deeper level, some of the Prince’s friends have suggested that he may be more willing to use his legitimate constitutional powers to ask more questions and demand more answers from his governments; that he may still be prepared to speak out on certain issues; that in any sort of political vacuum his default position would be to do something rather than nothing. Old Westminster hands point out that he will have to be very careful. ‘It’s a matter of choosing your cause,’ says one former Cabinet Minister, warning that the Prince will have to curb his interventions in things like planning disputes or else he might ‘pick the wrong fight’.
But if we accept that the Queen has brought a feminine subtlety to the job, we can hardly be surprised if the Prince adopts a more ‘masculine’ approach, like his grandfather and great-grandfather. It was constitutionally acceptable for George VI to wave his shoes at a Labour Chancellor and declare: ‘I really don’t see why people should have free false teeth any more than they have shoes free.’ So it would surely be acceptable for a future King Charles to ask the occupant of Number Ten a few searching questions on global warming.
The Queen’s twelfth Prime Minister certainly has no qualms about the Prince’s approach thus far. ‘I think people misunderstand the way Prince Charles does this,’ says David Cameron. ‘Yes, he’s fantastically interested in a number of subjects which he’s been consistent on. When you see him, he’ll want to hear how you’re getting on with deforestation, complementary medicine, climate control and so on. But he’s extremely deferential to the fact that you’re the elected government and he’s making suggestions. He does not say: “It’s outrageous, you haven’t done this.” And he’s also very grateful for the time you give. He knows exactly how the relationship should be. He doesn’t push things too hard. He gives things a bit of a heave but that’s fine. In the areas where he does throw his weight around – like Business in the Community* – it is an entirely appropriate thing to do.’
There may be some changes to the monarchy which are entirely beyond royal control. It is possible that some of the sixteen existing realms may choose to seek a new constitutional settlement having decided not to do so during the Queen’s reign. If so, there will be no rearguard action from the throne. The Prince has no wish to outstay his welcome on any of the various thrones he will inherit. He said exactly that to the Australian people as long ago as 1994. ‘Some people will doubtless prefer the stability of a system that has been reasonably well tried and tested over the years, while others will see real advantages in doing things differently,’ he told his Australia Day audience in Sydney. ‘Personally, I happen to think that it is the sign of a mature and self-confident nation to debate those issues and to use the democratic process to re-examine the way in which you want to face the future.’
The position of Head
of the Commonwealth is slightly different. It is not enshrined in the Coronation Oath or somehow attached to the Crown. It was a title given to George VI when the new eight-nation Commonwealth evolved from the London Declaration of 1949 but no one said anything about passing the title on. Within hours of the Queen’s accession, though, the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had sent her a telegram welcoming her as Head of the Commonwealth. Everyone else just followed suit. Will the same thing happen again? Or will today’s fifty-four Commonwealth nations decide to break with the ‘tradition’? Among the heads of government, it is hard to detect the slightest appetite for severing the long and largely happy connection with the Crown. Why should they? The monarchy is one of the few things which actually manages to reverse the organisation’s gently declining profile and give it a certain star quality amid all the other international talking shops. Besides, post-colonial sensitivities are fading. President Nasheed of the Maldives is one of the new generation of Commonwealth leaders. ‘Of course future monarchs should carry it [the title] on,’ he says. ‘You know, I was born in 1967. I don’t have a hang-up with colonialism.’
But, ultimately, all of this is little more than speculation. It is pointless to compare the succession to the throne with the succession to a political party or a family business or a great landed estate, as commentators often like to do. The monarchy moves at an entirely different pace. And it can never become a competition. That is why any mention of abdication, of the Crown ‘skipping a generation’ or any other sort of regal beauty contest, is preposterous. That way lies a republic. It would be like striking a match to find your way out of a munitions factory.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are, unquestionably, a tremendous asset to the monarchy, but they have absolutely no interest in jumping their turn in the queue. Prince William is the first to acknowledge the importance of wise heads in a changing world. ‘Without the senior members of the family who’ve seen and done it all, the junior lot wouldn’t be relevant. You need to have the balance and the experience. It’s like a rugby team,’ says the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union. ‘If you’re picking for the World Cup final, you’re picking experience with youth. Everything is better off having that balance and that mix. I think that, especially, goes for the monarchy as well.’
If anything, the Duke and Duchess seem determined to make the most of whatever vestiges of a private life they can retain. For now, the Duke seems very happy to forge a conventional career in the Forces rather than ponder any new royal role – let alone the big one.
‘I try not to think about it, to be honest,’ he says. ‘As I am flying along in my helicopter through the mountains of Wales, I try desperately hard not to think about it. That can wait until I’m a bit older.’
Any suggestion of tinkering with the succession also neglects an obvious truth. Britain – like many parts of the world – is not going to know what has hit it when there is a change of reign, particularly a reign which has framed an entire epoch of such titanic social change. At such a time, any country would, surely, be grateful to have the most experienced successor in history to hand. ‘You can see, going through history, that it is not unusual for the heir to the throne to have criticism thrown at him,’ notes Sir John Major. ‘But that will fade away when he becomes monarch.’ Major’s successor agrees. ‘Prince Charles is pretty secure in the affections of people,’ says Tony Blair. ‘They actually think he is someone who genuinely tries his best and does his best. For me, that’s the unspoken contract between monarchy and subject – that they put their duty to the country before everything else. While they do that, the monarchy is secure.’
‘The whole history of the monarchy is not a straight line,’ says Major. ‘It’s had quite bumpy times. Queen Victoria was very, very unpopular for a long time during the latter part of her reign. The challenge is to maintain the relevance and the affection of the nation … to maintain the distinctiveness of the monarchy in the future. That is going to be its main challenge. Over the past five hundred years, it has shown it can do that. But that will continue to be the challenge.’
Our Queen has known that ever since she listened to stories from ‘Grandpa England’.* It is the theme which has run through her life. It is the code she has followed ever since the mournful day in February 1952 when she walked down those aeroplane steps to be greeted by Winston Churchill.
Sixty years on, Prime Minister number twelve is in no doubt about the magnitude of her achievement. ‘People think about the monarchy as a long-standing, old-fashioned institution,’ says David Cameron. ‘But it has changed subtly into something the nation is just as proud of today as it was fifty, a hundred or two hundred years ago. The Queen’s a fantastic exemplar of what a constitutional monarch can be. She’s probably the finest ever.’
Does she see it that way? Does she ever look back and ponder her own position in the pantheon of great monarchs? Those who know her best say not. Like the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen regards any question of legacy as irrelevant. ‘It’s important to remember that no monarch is ever looking for a legacy,’ says the Duke of York. ‘Legacy is a matter of history. Politicians will look to see what legacy they can leave but this is a different concept of operations.’
That this reign will leave a monumental legacy is beyond doubt. And historians will be reassessing it and debating it for many centuries after the last of the New Elizabethans has gone. The Queen knows that there is no point worrying about it now. But, according to her grandson and the man who will, one day, take the throne, her jubilee year should afford her a moment or two of quiet satisfaction. ‘She’d want to keep on going regardless,’ says Prince William. ‘But it’s nice for her to know, after sixty years, that she really has made a huge difference and that people massively look up to her. They see this dedication and this service. And I’d hope that people would want to emulate that sort of sacrifice and dedication in their own lives.’
* Its biannual summits, however, do have one of the ugliest acronyms on the international circuit, CHOGM, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
* The Prince retains fond memories of the party laid on by Key – ‘a very nice man’. He not only met the All Blacks but ended up wearing an apron and helping Key cook the sausages. His barbecuemad grandfather, he remarked, would have been proud.
* The accident-prone Natapei was later reinstated as Prime Minister but ousted again a year later. He was abroad yet again, this time at a climate summit in Mexico.
* Business in the Community was founded in 1982 to drive corporate involvement in the regeneration of inner-city areas. The Prince became its President in 1985.
* Her paternal grandfather, George V, was known as ‘Grandpa England’. Sandringham still houses a charming blotter which Princess Elizabeth made for him and then decorated with ‘GE’ in huge letters.
The State Opening of Parliament. The Queen has only missed it twice (the first time, she was expecting Prince Andrew; the second, Prince Edward).
Everyone must wait for the MPs ‘to attend Her Majesty in the House of Peers’. The Pages of Honour and the Cap of Maintenance are to the Queen’s right. Her ladies-in-waiting, the Sword of State and her heralds are to her left.
The Birthday Parade.
The oldest Monarch and the oldest Consort in British history return from Trooping the Colour. Although the Queen was 85 in April, this is her official birthday. The Duke of Edinburgh was 90 the day before.
The extended Royal Family – including the latest recruit to frontline royal duties.
The customary salute from the Red Arrows.
Pope Benedict XVI begins his 2010 Papal visit to Britain with the official welcome at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. In 1961, the Queen made the first state visit to the Vatican.
The Head of the Armed Forces opens the new Joint Headquarters in Northwood.
Wearing a gold coat, shawl and hat made by her dresser, Angela Kelly, the Queen tours Abu Dhabi’s Sheik Zayed mosque at the start of her 20
10 state visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Welcome to Singapore.
As the Queen visits Ireland for the first time, the excitement is too much for one resident at the National Stud.
The State Banquet for President Barack Obama at Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s reign has already spanned twelve US presidencies.
Garter Day at Windsor Castle— a celebration of the oldest order of chivalry in Britain. Lunch is always followed by a procession of all the knights and a service at St George’s Chapel. It was the Queen’s father, George VI, who revived much of this medieval pageantry.
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