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Members of the Royal family – particularly those likely to inherit the throne – are conditioned to the principle of duty from the moment they are capable of rational thought. So it was with the Prince of Wales, whose role as heir apparent has been complicated in recent weeks by a severe double blow.
First, his father, the King, was diagnosed with cancer; and then, as we learned on Friday, his wife, the Princess, has received a similar diagnosis. I cannot think of a time in our history when an heir to the throne has had such a troubling predicament; and certainly not in an age when so much is expected of the Royal family, and when it is already short-handed.
There will have been little in the Prince’s training to prepare him for the unique nature of this trial. Having lost his mother when only 15 he understands adversity, and having to endure it in the public gaze. Coinciding with his father’s illness, and as his heir an assumption that he would lead the Firm in the King’s absence (along with the exhaustive efforts of his stepmother, the Queen), he has had to deal with the distress of his wife’s condition, and managing three young children. Perhaps even more demanding, he has had to contend with an onslaught from sick minds on social media, and increasingly offensive treatment from parts of the tabloid media.
It has been exceptionally unfortunate that, with the King unable to lead his family and the nation on important occasions, the Prince should have to step in when his wife, too, requires proper care and attention.
The trolls and conspiracy theorists had a field day when, at unusually short notice, he could not attend the memorial service for the late King Constantine of Greece. We do not know the reason, but knowing now how ill the Princess of Wales is, that provides a clue. It indicated, too, the difficulties the Prince will have until his father and his wife are restored to health, difficulties the rest of us must be prepared to understand.
Over 150 years ago Walter Bagehot, in his seminal text The English Constitution – still regarded as the textbook for monarchy in Britain – wrote that “a family on the Throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.” He also wrote that such a family made the idea of royalty comprehensible, because people had families of their own.
Perhaps because of the grandeur of royalty, and the style in which many perceive it to live, it is not always so comprehensible as might be hoped. What the Prince of Wales has had to handle in the last few weeks should make him and his situation entirely comprehensible to all of us. At some time we have all had seriously ill parents, or spouses, or other blood relations, and we know the strain it creates and what that entails. We should know what the Prince of Wales is contending with, and why he deserves and should receive our unequivocal sympathy.
While the Princess has long been immensely highly regarded, her husband has perhaps been less so. When in public together she has appeared to shine and he has often seemed to be animated by her presence. Her absence from joint engagements will unquestionably disadvantage him: though he is personable and diligent, he gains greatly by her magnetism. Something similar happened with his late mother and his father. Without the Princess working with him, albeit temporarily, his public life will be more monochrome.
Long before she suffered ill-health, the Prince endured occasional criticism for what some at Court considered his lack of effort. In 2023 he undertook 172 engagements, compared with the 457 undertaken by his aunt, the Princess Royal, 425 by the King, 297 by the Duke of Edinburgh, 233 by the Queen and 219 by the Duchess of Edinburgh. His critics said he would have to raise his game if the public were not to start asking what he did with his time. His friends said he was simply ensuring he was spending time with his small children, something other royal parents in earlier generations have been exposed as notoriously bad at doing. If so, then good for him: and again, the idea of a family on the throne should make it easy for people to understand why time with his children is vital.
The public will grasp that his worries about his sick wife come on top of ensuring the welfare and managing the upbringing of his sons and daughter: and no one sane should mind that. However, with his father also undergoing treatment for cancer and his indefatigable stepmother in her 77th year, there are also enormous pressures on him simply to maintain the public face of the Royal family. Since monarchy exists today solely by the consent of the people, such a profile is hugely important.
The public are generally reasonable, and the Royal family – thanks not least to the immaculate example of the late Queen and the equally sure start to his reign that the King accomplished until preoccupied by his own malady – enjoys immense goodwill. The Princess of Wales is exceptionally well-regarded, and her husband will be allowed much leeway in the interests of caring for his family.
Parts of the media have said lately that, with two key members seriously ill, the Royal family is in crisis. It isn’t. However, it is overstretched, and the Prince of Wales, with his father’s counsel and the practical help of his stepmother, aunt and uncle must take a lead in managing that overstretch. The timing is beyond unfortunate; the pressures of his day job may force him to take on more than he would wish just when his wife and children need him. However, the Princess’s family, especially her parents to whom she is exceptionally close, will doubtless step in to support her while he gets on with managing the demands on him as heir to the throne.
Other families afflicted by illness do not have to manage such a high-profile and demanding life, but they manage nonetheless. So too will the Prince of Wales.
The public, too, must adjust its expectations of what it gets from the Royal family. With the Sussexes off the map, and the Duke of York in disgrace, and his own blameless daughters currently non-playing members of the family (something the King and the Prince of Wales perhaps should review, given the good opinions of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie), appearances and the acceptance of patronages may have to be scaled down.
The Princess Royal and the Edinburghs are already stretched, and little less so the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, both of whom are in their late 70s: the Duke undertook, in 2023, as many public engagements as the Prince of Wales. Engagements can be prioritised, with important charities and great national occasions taking precedence, but many institutions that have become used to royal favours and the royal presence may, for the moment, have to cope without.
We know the King is getting on with work during his own treatment, and his condition is happily far from preventing him from maintaining the strategic guidance of The Firm: but it was also known, before his illness, that he consulted his heir frequently and in detail on how the Royal family should work. Despite his own illness, the King will do all he can to support his son during this time of trial; but Prince William cannot but be more concerned with his family’s strategic direction and day-to-day management while his father recovers. Luckily, senior courtiers are of a sufficient degree of dedication and expertise to ensure the ship keeps sailing, but it cannot do so without the visible presence of senior members of the crew.
There is one aspect of recent events that, according to those close to the Court, has had an effect on the Prince of Wales and is likely to shape how he, and the Princess, go about their public lives in future. The tabloid media’s treatment of the Princess since her surgery has, with good reason, upset a significant proportion of the British public, and insiders say it has upset her and her husband. It is not just social media trolls who have had a field day with her illness, indulging in unkindness and downright cruelty.
The welter of invention and trivia that can be shrugged off in good times is deeply upsetting in adversity. Despite her having been married for 13 years the Princess is still referred to by some as “Kate Middleton”, as though she is some sort of imposter; and speculation about her condition is repellently tasteless. Members of the Royal family are treated as tacky celebrities, there to provide light entertainment, in normal times. However, it turns out that the soap opera about the Princess of Wales in certain parts of the media has starred a young woman with a serious illness; as such, these exploitations take on a new, deeply unattractive, dimension.
The ridiculous hysteria over the harmlessly ‘doctored’ photographs – with so-called ‘royal experts’ cluttering the airwaves and filling acres of tabloid newspapers complaining pompously about ‘breach of trust’ and other supposedly dire offences – now appears even more shameful than it did at the time. This will not be forgotten, either by the Royal family or much of the public.
Now his wife’s illness is public knowledge, the Prince of Wales enters this next phase of his life not only with heavy burdens, but with massive public sympathy and fellow-feeling. That, too, is because we all understand the demands of family life, and in that respect he, the Princess and their children are no different from the rest of us. He has the steel to come through it, as so many families faced with such trials do.
His wife more than amply demonstrated her bravery and determination in her moving and deeply impressive address broadcast last Friday. Even if only for a moment, we had better stop treating Prince William and his family as a soap opera. They are experiencing the sharp end of life, as at some point we all do. We would do best to afford them the privacy they seek, need and deserve.
Never in our history has an heir to the throne faced such a troubling predicament as Prince William
With the Royal family already short-handed, this is a unique and distressing double blow – but the Prince has the steel to come through it