King Charles is reported to have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to broker a deal to enable the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to attend his Coronation at Westminster Abbey in May.
The King is a loving father, and it is understandable that he should want his younger son to be present on such an occasion. He hopes to give the world the impression that the Royal Family is reconciled.
If only it were! The truth is that Harry has fired torpedo after torpedo at members of the Royal Family, most notably at the Queen Consort Camilla and his brother William, who is said to have misgivings about a deal to lure the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to the Coronation.
The truth is that Harry has fired torpedo after torpedo at members of the Royal Family, most notably at the Queen Consort Camilla and his brother William
There’s no evidence that Harry is remotely contrite. More books, and doubtless further television interviews and self-serving documentaries, lie ahead, and neither Harry nor his wife shows any sign of intending to desist.
While promoting his recently published memoir Spare on television, Harry described Camilla as a ‘villain’ and ‘dangerous’. He also accused her in the book — provably falsely — of leaking details of her first meeting with Prince William in 1998 to the Press.
As for William, Harry has represented him in Spare and other outpourings as a hot-tempered pugilist who physically attacked him, was rude to Meghan and is fundamentally repressed and conventional.
As I say, like any good father, King Charles doesn’t want to be at odds with any of his offspring, however annoying Harry may be. The King dislikes confrontation. In many ways, it does him great credit that he should want Harry with him in Westminster Abbey.
It is surely unimaginable, though, that this could happen without an assurance from Harry and Meghan that their broadsides will cease for good — and it seems extremely unlikely that such an undertaking will ever be given by the vengeful Sussexes.
As for William, Harry has represented him in Spare and other outpourings as a hot-tempered pugilist who physically attacked him
King Charles is reported to have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to broker a deal to enable the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to attend his Coronation
The King should obviously consider the feelings of his wife and elder son as well as those of his angry younger son. Harry’s remarks about Camilla were particularly hurtful and unchivalrous.
But for the King, this is not just a question of weighing the wounded feelings of his wife and William against his natural inclination to have his younger son present at his Coronation.
Charles is not simply a loving father. He is also our sovereign, who is aware that he must sometimes look beyond the personal feelings of members of his family to consider the interests of the monarchy.
For Harry’s attacks haven’t simply damaged members of the Royal Family. There has been wider collateral damage to the institution, which, with breathtaking arrogance and presumptuousness, Harry says he has a ‘responsibility’ to reform.
Harry and Meghan are not merely cruel and untrustworthy critics of individual members of the Royal Family. They have also made themselves into enemies of the institution of monarchy
In many ways, it does Charles great credit that he should want Harry with him in Westminster Abbey
He has depicted almost the entire Royal Family as dysfunctional because, in his preposterous view, it is somehow controlled by the media, and collaborated in unspecified ways in a campaign to drive Meghan from our shores.
These are ludicrous allegations which instantly crumble when they are examined, but their certain effect, and probable intention, is to undermine the monarchy in the minds of suggestible people.
In other words, Harry and Meghan are not merely cruel and untrustworthy critics of individual members of the Royal Family. They have also made themselves into enemies of the institution of monarchy — from which, in their continuing use of their royal titles and connections, they nonetheless intend to benefit.
Without a cast-iron assurance that these attacks will stop, it is unthinkable that the couple should be invited to attend the religious ceremony at which the sacred nature of monarchy is re-affirmed before the nation.
If the Sussexes arrived without giving such a pledge, they might use their visit to mount further attacks on members of the Royal Family. It is likely, even if a solemn undertaking were made, that they would try to promote themselves with their fans, and divert attention from the Coronation.
While promoting his recently published memoir Spare on television, Harry described Camilla as a ‘villain’ and ‘dangerous’
Like any good father, King Charles doesn’t want to be at odds with any of his offspring, however annoying Harry may be
Harry does write a few things in his memoirs which ring true. One is that his father is ‘deeply religious’. The King will know Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son in St Luke’s Gospel very well. He could discuss it with the Archbishop of Canterbury before Justin Welby embarks on his diplomatic mission to Harry.
The Prodigal Son is a younger son who asks his father for his share of his estate, and then leaves home. He travels to ‘a distant country’, where he blows his fortune in ‘riotous living’ before ending up yearning for the food that he gives the pigs he tends. The parallels with Harry are admittedly not exact.
Suitably contrite, the Prodigal Son returns home, resolving to seek his father’s forgiveness. In the moving words of the King James Bible: ‘When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.’
Charles the loving father wants to embrace his younger son. But unless the errant Prince recognises the error of his ways, Charles, in his role as monarch, should not forgive him.
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