On Wednesday 12 April, the British press received confirmation that Prince Harry will indeed attend the coronation of his father, Charles III, on 6 May. The youngest son of the monarch will not be accompanied by his wife, Meghan Markle, or their children, and will make a brief appearance at the ceremony. Another headache is thus underway at Buckingham Palace…
With less than a month to go before the coronation of Charles III, tempers are flaring at Buckingham. On Wednesday 12 April, the Palace confirmed that Prince Harry would honour his father by attending his coronation on 6 May. This announcement was eagerly awaited by the British press, which was also surprised that neither Meghan Markle nor the couple’s children would be present in London. After months of arduous negotiations between the Firm and the Sussexes, a new headache has presented itself to the teams in charge of organising the historic ceremony. Harry’s place in Westminster Abbey was the subject of intense discussions between the Duke and the Crown before his decision to visit the UK was made public.
Before accepting his father’s invitation to the coronation, the Prince reportedly asked to be part of the carriage procession from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony. The Prince is said to have asked to be part of the carriage procession from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony, with the knowledge that his brother William, Kate Middleton, Sophie and Edward of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and Timothy Laurence, as well as the Duke of Kent and his sister Princess Alexandra, will be in the procession. Lady Diana’s son is also said to have demanded a better position in the church than he had at the platinum jubilee of his late grandmother, Elizabeth II, in June 2022. “It was a case of negotiating over the configuration of the whole abbey, equivalent to Siberia, as to where Harry was going to be seated,” laughed royal historian and writer Robert Lacey, interviewed by The Guardian on Thursday.
Harry’s negotiations with Buckingham Palace fail miserably
Unfortunately for Harry, and according to the same expert, the prince did not get his way. It is for this reason – the failure of negotiations between Harry, Meghan and Buckingham – that the American has finally chosen to stay in California. According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, who spoke on the subject in OK! magazine on 26 March, the 74-year-old monarch had already planned for a long time to keep “William and Harry apart” in order to avoid any tension or shocking live images.
Another point of contention between Archie and Lilibet Diana’s father and his family is her place on the Palace balcony. While Charles III only wanted to show the active members of the royal family, his youngest son was refused access to the balcony, along with Lady Louise, who is presented as Elizabeth II’s favourite granddaughter, and her brother James. For Robert Lacey, the king’s inflexibility in relation to his son’s demands would be a way of making him understand that his attacks on the Crown – on Netflix as well as in his memoirs – are now having consequences.
“Charles III acted with a mixture of firmness and conciliation. He was firm in ending the couple’s lease at Frogmore Cottage, and conciliatory in making it clear early on that they were both welcome at his coronation,” analyses the author of a 2020 book on the rivalry between Princes William and Harry. The 79-year-old historian also suggests, in his interview with The Guardian, that Harry’s coming to London can be seen as “a fruitful compromise”. “Harry’s willingness to put the feuds aside for a ceremony is a real sign of hope, given what he has said about his father. So this could be a step forward,” said Robert Lacey.
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