Charles at Seventy

by Robert Jobson

  Harry, while prone to volatility, too, is a much warmer man, far more prone to emotional outbursts, but perhaps not as calculating as his older brother. Charles, by giving them so much freedom and independence he himself was not afforded as a young man, has in effect allowed them to develop their own ideas and interests, but also that streak of defiance. ‘HRH has changed things unbelievably for his sons and to their advantage,’ one former courtier said. ‘A decade or so ago, before he married the duchess, the prince gave them their own court that he personally funds. He did this in spite of the fact that for his own staff it proved more difficult because they, effectively, lost control of the boys. But the Boss wanted his sons to have their own staff so that they would not be puppets run and controlled by his office, the mother ship, if you like,’ the informed source said.

  It was no surprise, then, that it was Harry, not his older brother William – who was on official duties with the Prime Minister marking the anniversary of the Manchester Arena terror bombings – who was on hand to speak up for his father on his big day. His delivery of his heartwarming speech about his father to mark Charles’s seventieth birthday (albeit six months early) at a special garden party was both funny and sincere. Those gathered at Buckingham Palace that day to celebrate the work of the prince’s charities and military associations three days after the royal wedding hung on his every word before loudly cheering the older prince for his lifetime of public service. That said, William subsequently approached Charles’s top aide, Clive Alderton, and made it clear that he would like to do more joint engagements with his father in his seventieth-birthday year, otherwise, he felt, he would be unfavourably compared to his younger brother and not be seen to be supportive of his father.

  More than four hundred charities and organisations that Charles supports were represented at the palace event. In his speech to his father, Prince Harry also said, ‘Currently there are your two major charities, the Prince’s Trust and the newly formed Prince’s Foundation, which has brought together your work supporting vulnerable young people in society, the environment, culture, heritage and education.’

  He went on, ‘These sit alongside your eighteen military associations and more than four hundred and twenty patronages, ranging from music and the arts to rare breeds and plant life. Although the subjects vary enormously, I know that the way in which you work with each of them does not,’ Harry said. ‘His [Charles’s] enthusiasm and energy are truly infectious; it has certainly inspired William and I to get involved in issues we care passionately about and to do whatever we can to make a difference.’

  He added, ‘In fact, many of the issues William and I now work on are subjects we were introduced to by our father growing up. His passion and dedication are remarkable and, seeing so many of you here today, I cannot fail but to be in awe of the drive he has had for so many years to contribute to the enrichment of society both in this country and around the world.’

  Behind Harry, Meghan carried herself perfectly. She shared a joke with a humble Prince Charles and Camilla about a bumblebee that attacked Harry at the podium. Indeed, many believe Harry’s newfound warmth towards his father is due to the Prince’s new bride. William, too, has been known to be far from deferential towards Charles. More than that, it is her newfound relationship with Charles that is proving to be key. ‘When Meghan met the Prince of Wales she was bowled over by his gentlemanly charm,’ said an inside source. ‘She told Prince Harry he was wonderful; welcoming, warm, hardworking, kind and stable. She made it clear that he should appreciate him and bond more.’ It led to a softening of relations between the prince and his second son. He now had somebody other than his older brother to discuss family matters with and Meghan’s opinion really mattered to Harry.

  In turn, Charles, charmed by the beautiful actress, has been completely taken with her, telling friends, ‘She is so intelligent and so nice. She makes Harry happy. We could not like her more.’ Harry was delighted. She has made a few slipups, however. When the prince invited the Duchess of Sussex to join him and Camilla on a private tour of his Prince & Patron exhibition in the state rooms of Buckingham Palace to mark his seventieth-birthday year, she enthusiastically accepted. She was keen to see a special display of more than a hundred works of art personally selected by the prince. But, when her advisers were told they would be joined by John Bridcut and his documentary crew, she belatedly pulled out. Cancelling on the prince after one has accepted is not the done thing.

  Meghan, meanwhile, has actively charmed her new father-in-law. She consulted Charles about the music for the wedding, while the prince has taken time to discuss the complexities of life in the ‘Firm’. It helps that Meghan is fascinated by British history, and royal history in particular, more so than her husband, who is not a star pupil when it comes to history, and sources say she is poring over lever-arch files of notes as she studies the Commonwealth. She always turns to the prince for help if she is confused and he takes time to explain the complexities.

  Charles sees his work ethic and his passion for philanthropy reflected in his new daughter-in-law, who has campaigned to raise awareness of women’s issues. It will not have escaped his notice that she shares his belief in organic food. Camilla, too, has played her part as a sort of ‘super-granny’ dispensing humorous, down-to-earth advice to Meghan. It is understood that the two ‘outsiders’ have become close in a short space of time and they were seen clasping hands as they greeted one another at the palace.

  And the result of Meghan’s magic is a resumption of a much closer relationship between Harry and Charles. There has certainly been plenty to work on for the newly ennobled Duchess of Sussex. It is hardly a secret that William and Harry endured a difficult adolescence after the death of their mother Diana in 1997, when they were just fifteen and twelve respectively. Their father, whom they blame for being absent during much of their childhood, has often been the target of their unhappiness. In the days before his work as a full-time royal, William notably preferred to focus on his young family rather than spend time with his father in the West Country or London. Since then, there has been a froideur between William’s court and that of Charles.

  The Queen, too, has been taking a keen interest in the Duchess of Sussex, thanks not least to their shared love of dogs. The day before the wedding, the Queen, who weeks earlier had lost her last corgi, appeared to share a car with Meghan’s beagle, a rescue dog called Guy. Harry declared that even the Queen’s corgis loved Meghan when she took tea with the sovereign. During his engagement interview, Harry said that when Meghan Markle had tea with Queen Elizabeth the corgis took to her right away, even going so far as to lie on her feet. It raised a few insiders’ eyebrows. ‘It was very sweet,’ said one. ‘Harry didn’t quite share his fiancée’s enthusiasm.’ The insider added, ‘For the last thirty-three years, I’ve been barked at. This one walks in, and absolutely nothing…just wagging tails.’ The reality is that the Queen hates anyone trying to pet her dogs. They respond to her and only her. Visitors who try to get into her good books by patting the dogs are sharply told, ‘Don’t do that, they don’t like it.’ The insider said, ‘What she really means is she doesn’t like it.’

  More significant still is that the transfer of the Queen’s trusted aide, Samantha Cohen, from Buckingham Palace to Kensington Palace is seen as a sensible way of trying to maintain order. Samantha, a no-nonsense, straight-talking, middle-aged Australian, has considerable diplomatic expertise after seventeen years with the Royal Family, and will help guide the young couple in their new Commonwealth roles.

  The William and Harry courts have until now been dominated by military aides and mentors such as former SAS troop commander Major Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton and former Household Cavalry Captain Ed Lane Fox. Even Miguel Head, William’s long-serving private secretary and before that press secretary, was recruited from the Ministry of Defence. His replacement shows a different type of courtier and shows William, perhaps with the Queen’s advice too, planning for his future roles as
the next Prince of Wales and then king. For his new top aide, Simon Case, doesn’t have a military pedigree but instead is a well-respected civil servant working in the Department for Exiting the European Union (Brexit). His job there was Director General for Northern Ireland and Ireland, which means he has been responsible for one of the most difficult areas of the Brexit negotiations. Prior to that, he held a number of senior positions within the civil service, including serving as principal private secretary to the Prime Minister.

  It is clear that the Queen sees the younger royals as having the star quality to take the ‘Firm’ forward and safeguard its future in a changing world. The spiritual, yoga-loving HRH the Duchess of Sussex, the first American to get that royal prefix to her title, is in no small way part of that. The Duchess of Cornwall, standing alongside Meghan, beamed with pride at the garden party in her husband’s honour. Charles, who doesn’t take praise well, looked a little awkward as Harry heaped admiration on him. Eventually, when his son had finished, he raised his arm and waved his black top hat in the air in acknowledgement, and at the same time acknowledged the part played by those gathered before him.

  On the immaculate lawn, an eclectic mix of people mingled, young and old, all with different stories on how the prince had changed their lives. As they tucked into the neatly cut sandwiches, iced coffee, juices and teacakes, they were in buoyant mood. Many were happy to chat, everyday people, whose lives had been touched in some way by the generosity and enterprises of the prince. David Bellamy from the British Red Cross was a first responder at Grenfell Tower fire in west London in June 2017 and at the Manchester Arena terror atrocity that happened a month earlier. ‘Grenfell was heartrending’ he said. ‘When you turn up and witness, it is mind-numbing. Obviously, you click into gear to support people but afterwards you have to remember to support yourself.’

  Speaking about the prince, who is president of the British Red Cross Society, Mr Bellamy said ‘He is a great example, a very enthusiastic person to have as a figurehead for any charitable organisation, inspirational to ourselves and in his leadership of our charity.’ Tom Rebair, from Newcastle, who won the Prince’s Trust Young Ambassador of the Year Award, said, ‘The Trust has done a lot for me. Coming to events such as this is just phenomenal. I had a breakdown when I was fourteen. I blamed myself for being bullied at school and felt worthless. So I self-harmed and attempted suicide. I then developed OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] and later developed anorexia. I ended up in hospital twice; at one point my heartbeat had dropped to eighteen beats per minute. My body was shutting down.’

  He went on, ‘Life is hard enough, but add stigma into the mix and it can feel unbearable. I became a Young Ambassador because I wanted to spread the word about the Trust’s work and help break down the stigma surrounding eating disorders, particularly in young men like me.’ He said being a Young Ambassador had made him a more complete person: confident, employed and ‘proud of what I have achieved’. ‘I now promote getting mental-health issues for men out in the open. I have had an eating disorder, which in men is not something that is very well spoken about,’ he said. ‘I met the prince. He’s a brilliant and inspirational man.’

  Sporting bright pink hair, social worker Lois, another young ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, aged twenty-two at the time, said, ‘I was on the programme four years ago and now I am a Young Ambassador. My key role is to do a lot of speeches hoping to inspire others and combine that with my social work. He has never treated the Prince’s Trust as a project: he is treating it as his passion to actually make an impact on young people’s lives.’

  The prince felt the approach of his seventieth birthday provided a sensible opportunity to review his charities to ensure that they continued to deliver the maximum benefit for those people they were set up to help. Although his office denied the change, announced in March 2018, was anything to do with his preparations to be king, it was of course part of the reason for the decision. The seamless transition of the throne has meant that Charles needed to appear in public more frequently during 2017 and 2018 in support of his mother. As a direct consequence, it meant some of his foundation’s major beneficiaries saw an inevitable decline in monetary support from Charles.

  The Queen has been slowly scaling back her duties over the past few years, and has cut the number of official events she attends by 11 per cent, down from 332 to 296. Inevitably, as Charles’s official outings in her place were stepped up, his charitable donations decreased, with the total grants handed out to good causes backed by the heir to the throne having more than halved in a year, from £7.7 million in March 2016 to £3.1 million in the twelve months to March 2017. There is nothing sinister in that. It is a consequence of his change in status and direction. Business in the Community had a cut in funding from £1.6 million in 2016 to £545,000, according to Companies House. And the Royal Drawing School’s grant also took a cut, dropping from £439,000 to £93,000.

  The prince turned to his most trusted aide to implement the changes to his charity empire. This was Michael Fawcett, nicknamed ‘Fawcett the Fence’ by the media, who have painted the prince’s powerful former valet as a pantomime villain after he was accused in the Peat Report of selling official gifts. Fawcett, who resigned twice from Charles’s employment and was once paid a £500,000 severance package, has bounced back each time, and was appointed chief executive of the newly created Prince’s Foundation.

  A controversial figure at court of whom the prince once said, ‘I can manage without just about anyone except Michael’ had been chief executive of Dumfries House, the country house in Ayrshire that, since being bought by a consortium headed by the prince in 2007, has been turned into a hub for the local community. The Foundation is now responsible for the work of four current charities: the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, the Prince’s Foundation for Building Communities, the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and the Dumfries House Trust.

  Streamlining twenty-one various charities and trusts into four areas enabled the prince to cut running costs by close to £1 million. It was essential, he felt, if they were to be sustained going forward. The party at the palace was as much a celebration of those who had worked so hard for his causes as it was for him. Charles stressed he was not ‘stepping back from my charitable work or downsizing in any way’. He said, ‘Now, as I approach something of a milestone in my own life [seventieth birthday] I have had a chance to reflect on how best to ensure my charities can continue to help those people and causes they were initially set up to serve, both now and for many years to come.’ An independent review, he said, was appointed to examine what changes were needed to let his organisations work ‘as efficiently as possible’, while also allowing him ‘to use my own time with them to greatest effect’.

  The seventieth-birthday party for Charles at the palace came, as we’ve seen, six months ahead of his real birthday in November. Prince Harry, in a nod to the fact that his grandmother, as monarch, celebrated two birthdays a year, a real one and an official one, drew a loud laugh when he joked, ‘How very royal!’

  Chapter Nine

  THE CAMILLA QUESTION

  ‘If you are a positive person, you can do so much more. People are either glass half empty or glass half full. You just have to get on with it, being British!’

  HRH THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL

  The well-preserved fourteenth-century stone-presses in the fields around the sun-soaked winery confirmed the area’s long history of grape-growing and winemaking. Bathed in sunshine and embraced by the stunning Lassithi mountains, the Duchess of Cornwall, in a flowing, loose-fitting outfit selected by her long-term loyal dresser Jackie Meakin, stepped out of her car onto a dusty road in the idyllic setting of the commune of Alagni, south of the city of Heraklion.

  Standing in a long line, it seemed the entire Lyrarakis family, old and young, had turned out to greet the dignitary who had come all the way from England to visit them in Crete and shine a light on their winery and their work. Domaine Lyrarakis, a small
family-run winery that exports its wine to many foreign markets, including the UK, was established in 1966.

  She may not have known a lot about Cretan wine, but actually Camilla is something of a vino expert. It is in the blood. Her grandfather, Philip Morton Shand (known as P. Morton Shand) was an acclaimed English journalist, architecture critic and wine-and-food writer and her father, Major Bruce Shand (MC and Bar), also worked in the wine industry after doing military service. With a friend, he first took over Block, Grey and Block in South Audley Street, a firm of old-fashioned wine merchants that supplied Oxford and Cambridge colleges. The firm eventually ran into difficulties, and he joined Ellis, Son and Vidler, of Hastings and London, with which he remained until his retirement. So his daughter knows a thing or two about wine.

  On this beautiful May Day, Camilla worked the line, watched at a relaxed distance by her ever-present PPO, Inspector Mark Andrews. She has become something of an expert in small talk. Direct and warm, she thrusts out her hand and with her rich and mellow voice she says, ‘Hello,’ always looking the person she is greeting directly in the eye. At five foot eight, she is not an imposing woman, but she carries herself well. Thanks to her blonde locks, immaculately coiffured, beautiful blue eyes and winning smile, people warm to her natural, no-nonsense approach.