tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/royal-family-1747/articles
Royal Family – The Conversation
2024-03-25T05:53:04Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226490
2024-03-25T05:53:04Z
2024-03-25T05:53:04Z
Announcing Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis should have been simple. But the palace let it get out of hand
<p>The British royal family is famous for its carefully curated media image. That’s why it was a surprise to see them lose control of the narrative in the wake of what we now know is a serious health crisis befalling Catherine, Princess of Wales (or Kate Middleton as she’s popularly known).</p>
<p>It is clear the nearly 1,000-year-old institution of the monarchy and its tradition of “<a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/03/14/kate-middleton-photo-pr-crisis/">never complain, never explain</a>” is being tested by social media and its power to spread rumours and misinformation. The palace’s public relations team has underestimated how difficult it is to manage relationships with social media audiences. Their reactive attempts to rein in speculation has turned Catherine’s health challenge into a PR disaster.</p>
<p>Social media, with its lax regulations and freer environment, offers a more
open forum for users to say whatever they like about the royals. It’s served as a hotbed for Catherine conspiracies, particularly on TikTok. These theories are as wild as they are ridiculous, from Catherine being a prisoner in the palace to her hiding in <a href="https://www.prdaily.com/kate-middleton-stanley-alabama-retail/">Taylor Swift’s London home</a>.</p>
<p>What should have been a simple announcement to a sympathetic public about a popular royal having cancer turned into a spider’s web of competing conspiracy theories across social media. How did it all go so terribly wrong?</p>
<h2>I’ve lost track, what happened?</h2>
<p>All was well with the Prince and Princess of Wales when they were filmed attending church on Christmas Day. As usual when royals are out in public, the scene was picture perfect with everyone dutifully smiling for the cameras in “<a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a46227698/kate-middleton-royal-blue-christmas-day-church-service-prince-william-kids/">co-ordinated</a>” outfits.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, Kensington Palace announced Catherine had undergone planned abdominal surgery, with <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/princess-kate-hospitalized-after-planned-abdominal-surgery-palace/story?id=106441561">palace sources</a> telling media the surgery had been “successful” and she would need two weeks to recover. </p>
<p>On January 29, the palace announced Catherine had returned home to recuperate. <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a46569739/king-charles-discharged-from-hospital/">Unlike King Charles</a> when he released news of his cancer diagnosis on February 5, Catherine was not photographed leaving hospital. This was the first PR misstep. She had appeared outside hospital soon after giving birth to her three children, but this time she remained uncharacteristically out of the public eye.</p>
<p>Almost a month later, when Prince William <a href="https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/prince-william-pulls-memorial-godfather-211406977.html?amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG6tOzuXsqZXP6G2nLLd-lnWzZhYKHVJ5TJ-w5XCCfgMjerRrR8v1R8unjtcoQTbvPDsVt3mtTcZ_g0os6zwOuEFfMKCh0kfEExvz-dB2FG0uqcy6-GoryjvG99TEhMli66hNZLjLENmMhq1mwoV7GmM0AYezMDsZtZVtONH9C1b&guccounter=2">unexpectedly withdrew</a> from his godfather’s memorial citing “personal reasons”, social media users started asking “Where is Princess Kate?”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kate-middleton-is-having-preventive-chemotherapy-for-cancer-what-does-this-mean-226461">Kate Middleton is having 'preventive chemotherapy' for cancer. What does this mean?</a>
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<p>Used to a steady stream of content about the royal family, the public were unsurprisingly questioning if there was more to Catherine’s abdominal surgery than they were being told.</p>
<p>In a rare reactive move, the palace tried to quell questions about Catherine’s whereabouts by releasing a <a href="https://people.com/palace-responds-kate-middleton-conspiracy-theories-online-surgery-recovery-rare-statement-8602191">statement</a> reiterating that she would not be returning to public duties until Easter. </p>
<p>On March 4, US outlet <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/03/04/kate-middleton-seen-spotted-public-first-time-mystery-hospitalization/">TMZ published</a> a paparazzi photo of Catherine driving with her mother. Social media audiences asked if it really was Catherine.</p>
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<p>Over the next week, conspiracy theories about Catherine’s absence reached frenzied levels. To show everything was fine, Kensington Palace released a <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1766750995445387393?s=20">Mother’s Day photo</a> of Catherine and her children on their social media accounts. Social media users spotted apparently edited flaws and global news agencies announced “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kate-princess-photo-surgery-ca91acf667c87c6c70a7838347d6d4fb">kill orders</a>”, saying the image had been manipulated. The next day, Catherine <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1767135566645092616">apologised</a> on social media for editing the photo.</p>
<p>Although royals have been <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a60191061/royal-photoshop-history/">editing their pictures</a> for centuries, it seems particularly digitally naive of the palace’s PR team to release such an obviously edited image into an already cynical social media environment, creating fodder for more conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Mainstream news outlets then joined social media users in asking questions about Catherine’s absence. Although this media attention did not legitimise wild conspiracies, in some ways it fuelled them. </p>
<p>Days later, TMZ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erWJNmbrECs">published footage</a> of Catherine and William shopping. At this point in the media chaos, many social media users claimed it was fake.</p>
<p>This intense public speculation finally ended on March 23, when Catherine <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1771235267837321694?s=20">released a video</a> explaining her extended absence after abdominal surgery was caused by the surgeons discovering cancer.</p>
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<p>During a crisis, the public crave transparency, authenticity, honesty and reassurance. These elements were missing in the royal PR team’s carefully worded statements made directly to mainstream media along with reactive, overly curated social media posts.</p>
<p>By providing scant details, the palace seemed to believe they could control public perception. But public image is increasingly difficult to control.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wheres-kate-speculation-about-the-missing-princess-is-proof-the-palaces-media-playbook-needs-a-re-write-225562">Where’s Kate? Speculation about the 'missing' princess is proof the Palace’s media playbook needs a re-write</a>
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<h2>The double-edged sword of social media</h2>
<p>After Princess Diana’s death in a paparazzi-chase car accident, privacy laws and <a href="https://time.com/4914324/princess-diana-anniversary-paparazzi-tabloid-media/">media regulations</a> forbade the most invasive breaches of the royal family’s privacy, particularly for her children, princes William and Harry. However, tabloid appetite for uncontrolled access soon returned once the princes became adults. </p>
<p>Recently, Harry and his wife Meghan have been involved in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-harry-his-many-lawsuits-against-press-2023-12-15/">several lawsuits</a> against media companies over breaches of privacy, including phone hacking.</p>
<p>The rise of social media has typically been viewed as a tool that gives royals more control over their image through the curation of their own personal content. Previously, the fact Catherine was the one <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kate-middleton-cutest-family-photos-2018-5">taking photos</a> of her children was seen as a sign of authenticity and being down to earth (as much as a princess could be). </p>
<p>Yet, social media is both a blessing and a curse for the management of public reputations. </p>
<p>The perpetuation of contested facts and theories on social media in the wake of Princess Catherine’s unexplained absence shows how difficult it is to curate a controlled image using social media. Lack of verified information in mainstream media helps fuel speculative flames.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2024/03/22/where-the-palace-lost-the-plot-and-what-we-can-learn-about-pr-and-empathy-kategate">PR experts</a> believe it is understandable and appropriate for Catherine and her family to have privacy during this time, more timely, direct and honest communication would have gone a long way
to prevent relentless gossip. </p>
<p>Once rumours and conspiracies gained momentum, the palace perhaps thought the less information provided, the better. However, silence during a crisis just fuels more speculation because the lack of information makes it look like there is something to hide. </p>
<p>Catherine’s personal video announcing her cancer diagnosis helped end the social media frenzy. This shows a simple, clear statement posted by Kensington Palace to social media weeks ago would likely have avoided the PR disaster and provided Catherine the privacy she so clearly needs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kate-middleton-photo-scandal-when-does-editing-become-manipulation-225647">The Kate Middleton photo scandal: When does editing become manipulation?</a>
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<p>The palace is now <a href="https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/2986509/kate-middleton-cancer-pr-disaster/">being criticised</a> for complicating a situation that was relatively simple in retrospect. Many social media users are also upset Catherine took public blame for the photoshopping incident.</p>
<p>Any organisation that deals with the media to maintain positive reputations, including the British monarchy, has no choice but to adapt to all kinds of media, including social media. The long-time practice of keeping calm and carrying on amid controversy and the 24-hour gossip cycle doesn’t work in the era of TikTok, X and YouTube. </p>
<p>In the absence of trusted information, social media will do what it does best: take mostly innocuous online chatter and amplify it until it goes viral.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What should have been a simple announcement to a sympathetic public turned into a spider’s web of conspiracy theories across social media. How did it all go so terribly wrong?
Victoria Fielding, Lecturer, University of Adelaide
Saira Ali, Senior Lecturer in Media, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226456
2024-03-23T14:59:14Z
2024-03-23T14:59:14Z
Princess of Wales and King Charles: one in two people develop cancer during their lives – the diseases and treatments explained
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583814/original/file-20240323-24-4xff0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C6000%2C4778&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-10-september-2019-duchess-1506543323">B. Lenoir/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Princess of Wales released a <a href="https://x.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1771235267837321694?s=20">moving video message</a> on March 22 to address speculation about her health. In it, the future queen disclosed that she’d been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68641710">diagnosed with cancer</a> following tests conducted after she underwent major abdominal surgery at a clinic in London in January. </p>
<p>Catherine explained that she was undergoing “preventative chemotherapy” – but emphasised that her surgery had been successful, and that she was “well” and “getting stronger every day”.</p>
<p>The message was the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/22/princess-kate-cancer-royal-family-health-annus-horribilis">second announcement</a> of a royal family cancer diagnosis in recent weeks. On February 5, Buckingham Palace <a href="https://www.royal.uk/a-statement-from-buckingham-palace-5Feb24">published a statement</a> that King Charles III had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68208157">cancer, unrelated</a> to the treatment he had been receiving for an enlarged prostate.</p>
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<p>The statement said that he had begun “regular treatments”. The king postponed all public-facing duties during his treatment, but <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68213383">reportedly continued</a> with his “constitutional role as head of state, including completing paperwork and holding private meetings”.</p>
<p>Cancer is the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer">leading cause of death</a> worldwide. <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer/#:%7E:text=The%20cancerous%20cells%20can%20invade,of%20cancer%20during%20their%20lifetime.">One in two</a> people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime – so the condition will affect almost every family. However, many cancers can be cured if, as appears to be the case with the king, the condition is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68213383">detected early</a> and treated effectively.</p>
<h2>What is cancer?</h2>
<p>Our bodies are made up of more than 100 billion cells, and cancer typically starts with changes in a small group of cells – or even a single one.</p>
<p>We have different cell types depending upon where in the body they are and the function that the cell has. The size, amount and function of each of these cells is normally tightly regulated by genes – groups of codes held within our DNA – that instruct cells how to grow and divide.</p>
<p>However, changes (mutations) to DNA can alter the way cells grow and multiply – often forming a lump, or solid tumour. Cancers can also develop in blood cells, such as white blood cell cancer which is known as leukaemia. This type of cancer does not form solid tumours; instead, the cancer builds up in the blood or sometimes the marrow in the core of bones, where blood cells are produced. </p>
<p>In all, there are <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/how-cancer-starts/types-of-cancer#:%7E:text=For%20example%2C%20nerves%20and%20muscles,of%20cell%20they%20start%20in.">more than 200</a> types of cancer, but all start with mutations in the DNA contained within each and every cell. </p>
<h2>What exactly are mutations?</h2>
<p>Think of your DNA as a big recipe book, and your genes as individual recipes for making different dishes. Mutations are smudges or missing words from this recipe that can result in key ingredients not being added into the mix. </p>
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<p>Regardless of the type of cancer or the cells from which it develops, mutations in our genes can result in a cell no longer understanding its instructions. </p>
<p>These mutations can happen by chance when dividing, but can also be the result of lifestyle choices such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6141049/">smoking</a>, <a href="https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/news/new-genetic-study-confirms-that-alcohol-is-a-direct-cause-of-cancer#:%7E:text=These%20mutations%20both%20disrupt%20the,aldehyde%20dehydrogenase%202%20(ALDH2).">drinking</a>, and <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/physical-activity-fact-sheet">inactivity</a>.</p>
<p>Research has found that in order for a normal cell to turn into a cancerous cell, anywhere from <a href="https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/1-10-mutations-are-needed-drive-cancer-scientists-find/">one to ten different mutations</a> are normally required.</p>
<h2>How is cancer treated?</h2>
<p>Treatment options for cancer depend on a variety of factors, including where your cancer is, how large it is, and whether it has spread to other parts of the body. The main treatments for cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. </p>
<p>Chemotherapy uses drugs to target and kill cells that are rapidly dividing in our bodies. This approach is effective at targeting fast-growing cells in various cancers – but also has negative side effects. It also targets healthy cells that rapidly divide, such as hair and the cells lining our digestive system. This can lead to commonly reported <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chemotherapy/side-effects/">side-effects</a> such as hair loss, nausea and diarrhoea. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/treatment/chemotherapy?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_mvBhDwARIsAA-Q0Q6tyQxTuBzU7vVD7SHjQ5dF-fRdqnL7S74-k5LXyTqODydsrPfJVsoaAkgyEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">Chemotherapy</a> can be used both preventatively – as in the case of the princess – and therapeutically. </p>
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<p>Preventative chemotherapy, also known as <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/adjuvant-therapy">adjuvant chemotherapy</a>, is given after surgery or other primary treatments to eliminate any remaining cancer cells in the body. It aims to reduce the risk of the cancer returning (known as recurrence). </p>
<p>Therapeutic chemotherapy is used as a treatment option for cancer that has spread or is well established, such as advanced-stage cancers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/treatment/surgery/about">Surgery</a> involves the physical removal of cancerous tissues as well as nearby lymph nodes – small glands which act as filters in your body that cancers can spread through – to eliminate the tumour. Surgery is often used to remove localised cancers that haven’t spread throughout the body. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/treatment/radiotherapy">Radiotherapy</a> uses high-energy radiation beams that are able to target specific areas where tumour cells are located to destroy or shrink the tumour. Radiotherapy can be applied externally or internally. </p>
<p>Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy are often combined in cancer treatment to improve outcomes for patients. </p>
<p>Thanks to developments in cancer research over the last 50 years, survival rates have improved greatly – although the rate of improvement has <a href="https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2024/02/02/world-cancer-day-2024/#:%7E:text=Improvements%20in%20cancer%20survival%20have%20slowed%20in%20recent%20years&text=Survival%20increased%20three%20to%20five,consistently%20lags%20behind%20comparable%20countries.">slowed recently</a>. Cancer survival depends on various factors such as age – people under 40 have a <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/age">greater chance</a> of survival – overall health and fitness, as well as family history. </p>
<h2>What you should do</h2>
<p>Particular changes in your body or warning symptoms could indicate the presence of cancer. These include, but are not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Unexplained weight loss;</li>
<li>Fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest;</li>
<li>Changes in bowel or bladder habits;</li>
<li>Persistent cough or coughing up blood;</li>
<li>Difficulty swallowing;</li>
<li>Persistent pain;</li>
<li>Noticing lumps, such as in a breast or testicle.</li>
</ul>
<p>The symptoms may not necessarily be the result of cancer. But it is important to get checked by a doctor if you notice anything out of the ordinary or have had persistent symptoms that don’t ease. Early detection and treatment can <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aay9040">significantly improve</a> outcomes for many types of cancer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Metcalf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Almost every family will be affected by a cancer diagnosis at some point – and the UK’s royal family is no different.
Gavin Metcalf, Cancer Biologist and Lecturer in Biomedical Science, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225647
2024-03-14T19:11:39Z
2024-03-14T19:11:39Z
The Kate Middleton photo scandal: When does editing become manipulation?
<p>On March 10, in celebration of Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom, Kensington Palace <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4U_IqTNaqU/?hl=en">shared a photo</a> of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, with her three children. It was the first photograph shared of Kate since December and was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/uk/kate-princess-wales-photo-released-intl/index.html">widely reported on by news outlets</a>.</p>
<p>Public interest and discussion about Kate’s well-being have reached a tipping point in recent months. She had not been seen at a public event since Christmas Day, and in mid-January, it was announced that she had undergone a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C2NDoYrN-9r/?hl=en">planned surgery</a>. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prince-philip-queen-elizabeth-husband-released-from-hospital-london-heart-surgery/">considerable visual precedent</a> of photographs and video taken of royal family members after <a href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/20210925122524/kate-middleton-duchess-of-cambridge-children-pregnancy-birth-post-baby-body/">medical procedures or events</a>. However, the distinct lack of photos in this case has left the media and public to fill in the information gaps with their own <a href="https://graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/tiktok-sleuthers-royal-scandal/">commentary and conspiracy theories</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pr-silence-around-princess-kates-well-being-fuels-frenzy-about-photo-mishap-225642">The PR silence around Princess Kate's well-being fuels frenzy about photo mishap</a>
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<p>The timing of the photograph suggested that it was taken to quell all the discussion about Kate. Very quickly, however, social media users began to perform <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/digital-image-forensics/">digital forensics</a> on the photograph, questioning everything from the <a href="https://x.com/oldenoughtosay/status/1766911094281359553?s=46&t=9A3pHGNi5TAYuffaoqvktQ">foliage pictured</a>, to the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@allynaston/video/7344921409816251678">clothing</a>, to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/24098724/kate-middleton-editing-photo-explained">obvious and amateur photo-editing</a>. The controversy was only fueled further by Kensington Palace’s <a href="https://pagesix.com/2024/03/11/royal-family/kensington-palace-refuses-to-release-original-kate-middleton-photo-after-botched-editing-job/">refusal to release the unedited version of the photo</a>.</p>
<p>The careful, detailed and obsessively close reading of the photo was, in part, due to the context into which it was published: the internet was looking for the “proof of life” this photo was intended to provide. The internet was not convinced.</p>
<p>Mere hours later, the Associated Press released a <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/1766944328847364201?s=20">“kill order,”</a> stating “it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement photo will be sent.” Many other news organizations and photo agencies quickly followed, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/princess-wales-kate-surgery-photo-manipulated-3863e9ac78aec420a91e4f315297c348">retracting and removing the image</a>.</p>
<p>In response to the incident, <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1767135566645092616">a statement attributed to Kate</a> was issued the following day where she admitted “I do occasionally experiment with editing” and apologized for any confusion the photography may have caused.</p>
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<h2>What we expect of photographs</h2>
<p>Photographs have always held an uneasy position between evidence and art, or truth and fiction. <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2012/faking-it">Since the technology was invented</a>, photographs have been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXe9WCeccOw">staged or “faked,”</a> edited and manipulated. While the advent of digital photography has brought with it tools and techniques that makes altering photographs much quicker and easier, the malleability of the photographic form is part of the story of photography.</p>
<p>The ability to record what is in front of the camera lens is central to how and why photography has developed as something society considered a source of truth or evidence. In journalism, science and public administration, photographs are used as proof in a variety of contexts where identification is a central, significant and necessary outcome. </p>
<p>However, because photographs can be altered, the institutions and individuals that produce them are often used to verify the extent to which they were edited, or <a href="https://twitter.com/misanharriman/status/1767883350184796447?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">vouch for their veracity</a>. Institutions have <a href="https://www.worldpressphoto.org/contest/2024/verification-process/what-counts-as-manipulation">imposed standards, practices and policies</a> to make photography legible as a credible format that can be used as actionable information. </p>
<p>For people to believe and trust photographs, then, there needs to be a level of trust in institutions that produce them. This is far from the first instance of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/donald-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-photos-edited">a political institution losing public trust by editing photographs</a>. As the controversy continues, the public becomes less likely to believe the images Kensington Palace releases. </p>
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<p>This is evidenced by the negative public reaction to the photograph published the next day of <a href="https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1397155/agency-behind-kate-middleton-and-prince-william-car-photo-addresses-photoshop-claims">Prince William, allegedly with Kate</a>, carpooling on their way to their respective appointments. </p>
<p>Institutional response has been similarly critical, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/uk/kate-royal-photograph-edited-intl-gbr/index.html">CNN announced</a> they were “now reviewing all handout photos previously provided by Kensington Palace,” and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/03/14/kensington-palace-compared-to-north-korea-by-news-boss/">Agence France-Presse (AFP) stating</a> Kensington Palace is “no longer a trusted source.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1768304152407351591"}"></div></p>
<h2>Editing: A fine line</h2>
<p>How much editing is too much? The <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20240311-kate-gate-how-might-have-the-princess-of-wales-photo-been-edited">#KateGate controversy</a> has pushed this conversation front and centre. When does a photograph tip from edited or enhanced to manipulated and deceptive? </p>
<p>When it comes to contemporary celebrity culture, there is an expectation that most, if not all, photographs circulated are retouched. Some smartphones even have a “<a href="https://www.samsung.com/za/support/mobile-devices/galaxy-camera-how-do-i-use-the-beauty-face-mode/">Beauty Face</a>” filter that can “automatically adjust the photo to create a more visually pleasing photo.” Celebrities, <a href="https://www.allure.com/story/zendaya-posts-unretouched-photo">like Zendaya</a>, who take a stand against retouching, are touted as inspiring for doing so. </p>
<p>In photojournalism, the colour balance and exposure of photographs are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/uk/kate-royal-photograph-edited-intl-gbr/index.html">regularly adjusted</a>. This is seen as justifiable if the changes mean the photograph is a more accurate representation of the scene but does not change the composition or contents of the photograph. </p>
<p>However, other editing practices, like creating a composite image from many photographs of the same event, are seen as taking it too far. During the Great Depression, Arthur Rothstein’s photograph of a bleached steer skull caused significant controversy because he had moved the skull to a section of cracked dirt in direct sunlight which made the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00028533.2001.11951665">photograph more dramatic</a>.</p>
<p>Rothstein was criticized for manipulating the scene, and thus, interfered with the integrity required for a documentary photograph. His response was that by moving the skull he had created a photograph that was a more accurate reflection of the crisis.</p>
<p>Despite photography’s shaky claim to an authentic truth or evidence as an impartial record of reality, it is expected to function as such. Institutions confer <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-burden-of-representation">credibility to photographs</a>, and photographs are put to use by institutions as “truthful evidence” as a result. </p>
<p>A central issue is that the photograph at the centre of this controversy was implied to provide evidence of Kate’s well-being. As the photograph was likely taken months before, heavily edited, and where the original unedited files were not produced for reference, the palace’s response was not sufficient to provide justification for the level of editing — whatever the reason for it might have been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bethany Berard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What can we learn when a picture inspires ten thousand Tweets and TikToks.
Bethany Berard, PhD Candidate & Instructor, Communication and Media, Carleton University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225642
2024-03-14T14:48:15Z
2024-03-14T14:48:15Z
The PR silence around Princess Kate’s well-being fuels frenzy about photo mishap
<p>Positive public reaction was probably top of mind for Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/world/europe/princess-kate-middleton-photo-edit-apology.html">when she purportedly engaged in some homespun editing of a a family picture that has landed her in the international media’s bullseye</a>.</p>
<p>While some might consider the brouhaha surrounding her alleged photo editing mishap a tempest in a teapot, it teaches an important lesson on the value of employing strategic public relations counsel to build trust and transparency and avoid creating a media crisis.</p>
<p>There were several conditions that created a perfect storm for the photo to come under the media microscope. First, the Royal Family has been impacted by serious health issues — <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate-middleton-surgery-photo-timeline/story?id=108017783">Kensington Palace says Kate was hospitalized in January</a> for an unspecified abdominal surgery and is now recovering, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68208157">while Buckingham Palace says, and King Charles has confirmed, that he has been diagnosed with cancer</a> and is now undergoing treatment.</p>
<p>But how <a href="https://people.com/why-king-charles-disclosed-diagnosis-kate-middleton-private-exclusive-8548249">each announcement was made</a> makes all the difference in why King Charles has garnered so much sympathy while the Princess of Wales’s situation has been regarded with suspicion and criticism.</p>
<h2>Two different PR approaches</h2>
<p>The public relations team at Buckingham Palace did an effective strategic communications job of telling the public about the nature of the King’s illness and then creating a narrative for his subsequent treatment. </p>
<p>Since the diagnosis, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/a-bit-of-a-surprise-to-see-king-charles-make-appearance-after-diagnosis-royal-expert-1.6764521">he has made several public and virtual appearances</a>, given updates on his health and treatment, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68538031">showcased his commitment to continued service</a> and <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/king-charles-cancer-how-to-talk-b1009983.html">shown deep empathy for fellow cancer patients</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1767964868307538285"}"></div></p>
<p>There are good reasons for this that are in the public interest — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188258">men do not get themselves checked for prostate cancer enough</a> and the King’s publicity around the matter may spur them to do so, thus saving lives.</p>
<p>For the Princess of Wales, there are several factors at play that might make such an approach more complicated. As a woman, she faces different standards and reactions than men do when it comes to health and publicity. </p>
<p>In fact, it’s well-documented that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac020">women public figures face greater criticism</a> than men, particularly around gendered notions of health and well-being. </p>
<p>So it’s reasonable to believe Kate wants and deserves privacy about the specific nature of her condition. Kensington Palace says she had abdominal surgery, that she would be in hospital for 14 days and that her recovery would take some time.</p>
<p>That level of public communications was good enough for that moment. However, since then, there’s been silence. </p>
<h2>Silence fuels suspicion, speculation</h2>
<p>Unfortunately staying silent sent a loud message to the media and public — something may be seriously wrong with the Princess of Wales. Even when sensational online speculation included theories about <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/kate-middleton-health-update.html">whether she was dying or had passed away</a>, Kensington Palace made the serious error of remaining silent.</p>
<p>The apparent intent to protect her privacy left a media void, and social media enthusiasts and the British tabloids, in particular, abhor a vacuum. They will <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/prince-william-kate-middleton-divorce-theory-1878693">fill it with wild speculation</a> in the absence of official comment. </p>
<p>This is particularly true in the context of British celebrity, royal-watching and tabloid media, which is a highly competitive, often brutal space. Questions about Kate really heated up when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/27/prince-william-pulls-out-of-godfathers-memorial-service-over-personal-matter">Prince William cancelled his scheduled appearance at his godfather’s funeral</a> because of a “personal matter.” </p>
<p>The media’s gaze immediately returned to Kate’s condition, given the lack of transparency and strategic media outreach.</p>
<p>Kate’s silence about her condition and then the manipulated family picture were a missed opportunity both to protect her privacy and to build trust with the public.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kate-middleton-photo-scandal-when-does-editing-become-manipulation-225647">The Kate Middleton photo scandal: When does editing become manipulation?</a>
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<p>Public communications is built on trust and transparency, so the lack of official comment and storytelling around her condition and recovery has caused a media furore. The media and the public expect information, especially about public figures like the future queen of the United Kingdom. </p>
<p>People have a certain right to privacy, but for those who will one day ascend to the British throne, there’s no absolute right to privacy, even if their leadership has become largely symbolic. So silence about Kate’s condition, surgery and recovery has created a lack of trust and transparency within the media and the public.</p>
<h2>Global maelstrom</h2>
<p>Releasing the manipulated family picture on Instagram and issuing it to the world’s biggest news agencies turned a story that was already being scrutinized into an international maelstrom after those organizations put out <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/news-agencies-withdraw-photo-uks-princess-wales-2024-03-11/">what are known as “kill notices” and withdrew the image</a>. Kensington Palace’s <a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/royals/kensington-palace-wont-release-original-kate-photo/">refusal to provide an original, untouched photo</a> has only fuelled global speculation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-kate-middletons-photo-was-doctored-but-so-are-a-lot-of-images-we-see-today-225553">Yes, Kate Middleton's photo was doctored. But so are a lot of images we see today</a>
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<p>Princess Kate could have garnered significant social capital with the public by strategically sharing her story and — like the King did with the global community of cancer patients — built a bridge of empathy, education and shared experience. </p>
<p>This would have helped engender more trust in the princess, Kensington Palace and the Royal Family rather than diminish it. Indeed, personal and discreet storytelling regarding her condition could have created a narrative that satisfied the media’s need to know while keeping the specifics of her condition beyond the view of the always peering British and global media. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1767135566645092616"}"></div></p>
<p>The problem here is not so much altering a photo, but the fact that the entire narrative of Kate’s condition has been silence rather than effective strategic communications and storytelling about her experience.</p>
<p>The moral of the story is that sound and strategic communications counsel is priceless. More effective framing and storytelling at the time of the princess’s apparent surgery and during her recovery would have helped better protect her privacy, while fostering trust and transparency with the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Effective strategic communications about Kate Middleton’s condition would have helped the princess better protect her privacy, while building bridges of trust and transparency with the public.
Terry Flynn, Graduate Director and Associate Professor, Master of Communications Management Program, McMaster University
Alex Sévigny, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225562
2024-03-13T01:59:59Z
2024-03-13T01:59:59Z
Where’s Kate? Speculation about the ‘missing’ princess is proof the Palace’s media playbook needs a re-write
<p>Outside of two <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/03/04/kate-middleton-seen-spotted-public-first-time-mystery-hospitalization/">grainy</a> <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13184069/kate-middleton-photo-windsor-castle-prince-william-palace-royal-expert-theory.html">paparazzi</a> photos, Catherine, Princess of Wales, hasn’t been seen in public since Christmas Day 2023, when she <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/pictures/royal-family-attends-2023-sandringham-christmas-church-service/">attended a church service</a> at Sandringham.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/03/11/the-kate-middleton-mystery-a-complete-timeline-of-the-princess-of-wales-royal-family-pr-disaster/">January</a>, <a href="https://time.com/6899819/kate-middleton-appearances-surgery/">Kensington Palace announced</a> Kate Middleton (as she’s more popularly known) was to undergo “planned abdominal surgery” and wasn’t expected to return to public duties until after Easter.</p>
<p>Social media have been awash with speculation about Catherine’s health and whereabouts. Limited information has dripped out of Kensington Palace, inadvertently intensifying scrutiny. The information void has prompted onlookers to fill the space with their own theories.</p>
<p>As scrutiny reaches a fever pitch, we ask: why is the Palace’s typical media playbook no longer working? </p>
<h2>Not so ‘unprecedented’</h2>
<p>This isn’t the first time rumours about the British royal family have attracted public interest.</p>
<p>Anne Boleyn (circa 1501-1536), the second of six wives of Henry VIII, was executed after being found guilty of adultery, incest and treason. While historians differ in their interpretation of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/23/anne-boleyn-guilty-adultery-biography-claims">Anne’s guilt or innocence</a>, it’s clear the charges were at least partially the result of gossip <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/anne-boleyn/#gs.5qeecd">instigated by rival factions</a> seeking power at the English court.</p>
<p>The long-reigning Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was widely regarded as as a <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/history-and-stories/queen-victoria/#gs.5qc1ar">loyal wife and mother</a>. Yet she too became the target of gossip regarding her close friendship <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/dec/16/monarchy.stephenbates">with Scottish servant John Brown</a> after her husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861. </p>
<p>Then there were the rumours about Diana, Princess of Wales: that her son Harry was the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/03/james-hewitt-prince-harry-father-princess-diana">product of an affair</a>, that she was <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905239/Diana-pregnant-Dodi-s-child-died-Paris-car-smash-sensational-West-End-play-claim.html">pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s child</a> at the time of her death in 1997, and that <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/princess-diana-death-conspiracy-theories-b2248362.html">her death wasn’t accidental</a>.</p>
<p>The Palace typically refuses to comment on these kinds of sensational rumours. Sometimes, though, it will reject gossip via trusted media sources, as was the case in late 2018 when <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/palace-denies-kate-middleton-slapped-13670961">it denied there was a feud</a> between Catherine and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.</p>
<h2>The Palace’s strategic communications</h2>
<p>The royal family has gradually adjusted to new media and technologies, though not as quickly as the public might like. </p>
<p>On one hand, the Palace <a href="https://www.prweek.com/article/1798408/queen-elizabeths-death-announced-mix-old-new">continues its age-old tradition</a> of announcing major news on a noticeboard at the gates of Buckingham Palace. On the other, a previous tendency to hide serious illnesses – such as the cancer that claimed <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/health-and-wellbeing/king-charles-cancer-doctor-secrets-b2491426.html">King George VI’s life in 1952</a> – has been tempered by a more forthcoming approach. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-royals-have-historically-been-tight-lipped-about-their-health-but-that-never-stopped-the-gossip-222873">The royals have historically been tight-lipped about their health – but that never stopped the gossip</a>
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<p>When Queen Camilla underwent a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/05/monarchy">hysterectomy in 2007</a>, the media were informed on the day of the surgery. The Palace was similarly open in its acknowledgement of Catherine’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2012/12/03/pregnant-princess-kate-hospitalized-for-hyperemesis-gravidarum-which-is-what/?sh=4430a5ee3d55">hospitalisation for hyperemesis gravidarum</a> (severe nausea and vomiting) during her first pregnancy in 2012. It announced her second pregnancy in 2014 earlier than planned <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/she-said/2014/sep/27/hyperemesis-gravidarum-kate-middletons-ongoing-condition-is-much-worse-than-just-morning-sickness">due to the same condition</a>. </p>
<p>On some level, we’ve become accustomed to such updates.</p>
<h2>Internet sleuthing and a manipulated image</h2>
<p>In response to limited information about Catherine’s health, memes stepped in to fill the space. Users on X joked about her recovering from a <a href="https://x.com/THISisLULE/status/1764731759340462360?s=20">Brazilian butt lift</a>, or growing out her <a href="https://x.com/VeryBadLlama/status/1762648638684053889?s=20">bangs</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1762648638684053889"}"></div></p>
<p>There were also more serious claims that she was in <a href="https://www.thelist.com/1526431/concha-calleja-kate-middleton-coma-claims/">a coma</a>, or <a href="https://x.com/holy_schnitt/status/1767283342880223466?s=20">dead</a>, or getting a <a href="https://stylecaster.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/1730035/kate-middleton-photo-wedding-ring/">divorce</a>.</p>
<p>In the midst of this speculation, <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/03/04/kate-middleton-seen-spotted-public-first-time-mystery-hospitalization/">TMZ published</a> a grainy photo of Catherine in the passenger seat of a car near Windsor Castle. She wears large, dark glasses in the long-distance shot. It could be anyone, internet sleuths point out. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1764827518471741834"}"></div></p>
<p>Significantly, no major UK news outlets published the photo, as per <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/world/europe/princess-kate-middleton-royals.html">Kensington Palace’s request</a>. This is partly driven by a desire to preserve access to the Palace in the long term. UK news outlets are also constrained by the <a href="https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/">Editor’s Code of Practice</a> and the UK’s right-to-privacy legislation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-the-royal-family-have-a-right-to-privacy-what-the-law-says-224881">which applies to the royal family</a>. Nonetheless, the snap was widely circulated online.</p>
<p>The situation escalated further when Catherine shared a photo of her and her children <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4U_IqTNaqU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">on Instagram</a> in honour of Mother’s Day. The public quickly realised the image was at best poorly photoshopped or at worst AI-generated. Online sleuths identified strangely shaped and misplaced hands, odd shadows and unseasonal plant life. </p>
<p>The Associated Press, Getty Images, AFP and Reuters subsequently <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68526972">issued “kill notices” on the image</a>, stating concerns it had been digitally manipulated. In response, Kensington Palace released a <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1767135566645092616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">brief statement from Catherine</a>, who explained that as an amateur photographer she likes to “occasionally experiment with editing”. The photo had previously been attributed to the Prince of Wales. </p>
<h2>Old media PR won’t work in a new media world</h2>
<p>The situation with Catherine’s absence from public life exposes the limits of old media strategies in a “new media” world. </p>
<p>The Palace is used to being able to control media coverage through the <a href="https://newsmediauk.org/industry-services/royal-rota/">royal rota</a>, a select group of press outlets in the UK given access to royal events. It typically doesn’t comment on the record in response to gossip and speculation. Yet the interest in Catherine’s health has prompted a <a href="https://www.etonline.com/palace-responds-to-theories-about-kate-middletons-health-and-whereabouts-220728">number</a> of <a href="https://x.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1751938452721996034?s=20">statements</a> to the <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/26254336/prince-william-return-work-thanksgiving-service/">press</a>. </p>
<p>These old media strategies don’t seem to be working, with news outlets that are part of the <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kate-middleton-photo-given-kill-32320496">royal rota reporting critically</a> on the manipulated image. </p>
<p>In a world increasingly plagued by synthetic and AI-generated images, it seems the Palace releasing a digitally manipulated image has also undermined the public’s trust in it, adding fuel to the fire. </p>
<p>The public has become increasingly sensitised to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-uncanny-failures-of-ai-generated-hands">AI-generated images</a> over the past year, and is generally much more sceptical and switched on. At the same time, the release of the first post-surgery image of Catherine was always going to attract scrutiny online. It seems the Palace was unprepared for this. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-kate-middletons-photo-was-doctored-but-so-are-a-lot-of-images-we-see-today-225553">Yes, Kate Middleton's photo was doctored. But so are a lot of images we see today</a>
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<p>Most social media users also treat royal rumours similarly to other types of viral celebrity gossip and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-and-pleasure-and-occasional-backlash-of-celebrity-conspiracy-theories-221754">conspiracy</a> <a href="https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2871">theorising</a>, and evidence suggests the royal family’s popularity is <a href="https://time.com/6276478/british-monarchy-popularity-explained/">declining over time</a>. </p>
<p>Chaotic, fast-paced social media platforms such as X and TikTok are breeding grounds for misinformation – and #KateGate is arguably the first time the Palace has felt the full force of new-age online conspiracy.</p>
<p>Recent events demonstrate the Palace can no longer rely on favoured newspapers avoiding tricky topics. Now, everyone online can act as a reporter – and a sleuth – and the Palace will need to be much more forthcoming if it wants to preserve its image. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-and-pleasure-and-occasional-backlash-of-celebrity-conspiracy-theories-221754">The power and pleasure – and occasional backlash – of celebrity conspiracy theories</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rumours are out of control following the Kate Middleton photo controversy. It seems the royal family’s PR train is running off its rails.
Naomi Smith, Lecturer in Sociology, University of the Sunshine Coast
Amy Clarke, Senior Lecturer in History specialising in architectural heritage and material culture, University of the Sunshine Coast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223214
2024-02-13T16:08:47Z
2024-02-13T16:08:47Z
How to navigate a parent’s cancer diagnosis – like Princes William and Harry will now have to do
<p>King Charles’ <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68209998">cancer diagnosis</a> means the royal family has joined the approximately 3 million families in the UK affected by the disease. His family has already gathered around in support. William, Prince of Wales, has taken over some public duties for his father. And younger son Harry, who lives in California, flew to the UK to visit after the diagnosis was announced.</p>
<p>If you, like William and Harry, are navigating a parent’s diagnosis, you are not alone. Around 400,000 people are <a href="https://www.macmillan.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/research/cancer-statistics-fact-sheet">diagnosed</a> each year. This can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4287">frightening</a> and difficult time for families, and can change family dynamics. </p>
<p>Adult children may find themselves offering emotional and practical support for a parent in a way that has not been required before, through managing medications and symptoms, travel to medical appointments, help with meal preparation and financial support. </p>
<p>It can be rewarding to support a loved one and an important way to actively work together, but it can also be stressful. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4056">Studies have found</a> that family caregivers are generally more anxious and more likely to hide their emotional distress when compared with their family member with cancer.</p>
<h2>Being a supportive family, even in conflict</h2>
<p>Family support can act as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2333">“social cure”</a> against the stress of a life-changing illness. The social cure theory proposes that being a part of a social group (or multiple groups) has benefits for our health and wellbeing. Social groups, particularly those with whom we strongly identify, like families, provide support and help us to combat times of stress. </p>
<p>The key psychological component here is that people feel they belong to and identify with their groups. While undergoing cancer treatment, someone may not be able to participate in their usual social groups – through work or hobbies – as much as they used to. These groups may then become incompatible with a person’s new identity as a cancer survivor. </p>
<p>Of course, not all families work together harmoniously, and may be in conflict through divorce, separation or estrangement. Social psychologists have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12155">found that</a> “incompatible” social groups can lead to poorer mental health.</p>
<p>Separated families can still come together and be a helpful social group, but they must offer the kind of support that their loved one needs. To figure this out, it is important to think about the person’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2333">identity</a> within the family. </p>
<p>For example, a father may view his identity as an advisor, but a cancer diagnosis requires him to be cared for and to seek advice. He may feel a sense of loss for his typical family role, a loss of meaning and of control. </p>
<p>However, if his family communicates openly about the difficulties they are all facing, the father may be able to continue to advise his family, in addition to receiving their advice. This can help to maintain his sense of identity as an advisor within his family, while navigating a new status as a cancer survivor. </p>
<h2>Communication and support networks</h2>
<p>Cancer throws patients and their loved ones into a complex health system, often for the first time, where medical decisions and terminology become important every day. Understanding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2014.03.012">the “language of cancer”</a> can help families feel more in control after a diagnosis.</p>
<p>Equally important is communication within a family. Talking about the cancer, rather than treating it as a taboo topic, can improve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2020.101841">mental health for both patients and their families</a>. It may also be an opportunity to empower patients and their loved ones to seek outside support, such as counselling.</p>
<p>Families spread across geographical distances (like the royal family) can offer emotional support through regular phone calls or online tools. During the pandemic, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/42172">I developed</a> and trialled an app to help older adults combat loneliness. The app allowed them to see a digital map of their social groups, including family members.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older woman comforting her adult daughter, who has her face in her hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575310/original/file-20240213-24-vpo7or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sharing your concerns with mum can help her feel like she is helping you just as much as you are helping her.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/worried-aged-mother-embracing-comforting-grown-1463151290">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Your family member with cancer may feel like a burden. This is a common fear in older adulthood generally. But reminding them of how many people are in their lives – and how many people they support – can combat this feeling. </p>
<p>Social media is one way to get more involved in these reciprocal support networks. In my work, families affected by cancer have reported using online communities to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-017-0616-1">better understand what their family is going through</a>. Private social media groups <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207619898993">dedicated to illness</a> can be helpful spaces to meet other patients and families, share experiences and normalise cancer. </p>
<p>Cancer communities exist on <a href="https://doi.org/10.4103%2Fijpvm.IJPVM_36_19">Instagram</a>, on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-018-2254-2">YouTube and X/Twitter</a> and through registered cancer charities like <a href="https://www.macmillan.org.uk/">Macmillan Cancer Support</a>. These online resources all provide a way to build a network following a cancer diagnosis. </p>
<p>Just as group identification is important within families, having more groups to connect to can act as a buffer during stressful times and help you all cope with your new reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lydia Harkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Even families in conflict can be a strong source of support for a loved one with cancer.
Lydia Harkin, Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222873
2024-02-06T05:56:16Z
2024-02-06T05:56:16Z
The royals have historically been tight-lipped about their health – but that never stopped the gossip
<p>King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer. This is an unexpected announcement: it is unusual for the royal family to release details of medical conditions to the public.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2986">Don’t let the daylight in</a>” was how British essayist Walter Bagehot advised the British monarchy to deal with the public in 1867. “[A]bove all things our royalty is to be reverenced […] its mystery is its life,” he wrote. </p>
<p>For Queen Elizabeth II this attitude framed her response to public information about the royals, quipping “<a href="https://www.news24.com/you/royals/news/royal-author-explains-queens-never-complain-never-explain-mantra-20220620">never complain, never explain</a>”. Maybe this explains why Princess Kate’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/05/king-charles-diagnosed-with-cancer-buckingham-palace-announces">recent abdominal surgery</a> has not been disclosed to the public, with media reports saying she is “determined to keep her medical details private”. </p>
<p>In revealing the fragility of the royal body much of the mystique about them as anointed by God fades away. But the royals’ health has, occasionally, been the subject of official news, and, more commonly, the subject of gossip.</p>
<h2>Henry VIII’s ‘soore legge’</h2>
<p>Henry VIII’s (1491–1547) health was well-documented and discussed in state-papers and diplomatic dispatches of the day.</p>
<p>In his early years, he was known for his robust health. In his later years, he would be described as “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789029/">cursed</a>” by his deteriorating health.</p>
<p>As Henry aged, his access to fine food led to an increase of weight. Doctors today might diagnose him with obesity, and it has been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789029/">speculated by contemporary medical historians</a> he suffered from hypertension and Type II diabetes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of King Henry VIII." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573685/original/file-20240206-25-8umju3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It has been speculated Henry VIII lived with hypertension and diabetes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/holbein-hans-joven/portrait-henry-viii-england">© Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This disease, which can lead to diabetic neuropathy and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/healthy-feet.html">serious foot complications</a>, could account for the persistent and odorous ulcers on his “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789029/#:%7E:text=In%20the%20same%20year%20Henry,annual%20salary%20of%2020%20shillings.">sorre legge</a>”, as described by his contemporaries. </p>
<p>Knowledge about Henry’s health was not widespread. The king had sequestered himself in his private apartments. Even his attending <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2388216/pdf/annrcse00840-0011.pdf">physicians did not keep notes</a>, perhaps concerned about being accused of treason in the volatile politics of the time. Most of our knowledge today is gleaned from diplomatic reports sent by diplomats to their own leaders.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-viiis-notes-in-prayer-book-written-by-his-sixth-wife-reveal-musings-on-faith-sin-and-his-deteriorating-health-new-discovery-208767">Henry VIII’s notes in prayer book written by his sixth wife reveal musings on faith, sin and his deteriorating health – new discovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Queen Anne’s lupus</h2>
<p>Queen Anne (1665-1714) had 17 pregnancies, 11 of which resulted in miscarriages or stillbirths, with the remainder all dying in childhood. Despite the regularity of her failed pregnancies, her physician, John Radcliffe, repeatedly declared she was in good health and her miscarriages were due to “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1540-6563.1986.tb00702.x">the vapours</a>”, a vague diagnosis often attributed to aristocratic women. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA12456274&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=17592151&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ee39109f7&aty=open-web-entry">now believed Anne</a> may have been afflicted with the autoimmune condition lupus. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1246&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1246&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573686/original/file-20240206-17-kpdyk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1246&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Anne by Michael Dahl. Oil on canvas, circa 1702. NPG 6187.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/use-this-image/?mkey=mw08095">© National Portrait Gallery, London</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Anne’s contemporaries, the name of the illness perhaps mattered less than the real political issue it presented: who would become monarch after her? With no heirs, there was real political fear her Catholic half-brother <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/learning/biographies/jamesfrancisedwardstuart(1688-1766).aspx">James Francis Edward Stuart</a> (“The Old Pretender”) would claim the throne. </p>
<p>But the law <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/revolution/collections1/parliamentary-collections/act-of-settlement/">excluded Catholics</a> from the taking the crown, and ensured Anne would be succeed by her second cousin, George I of Hanover and Britain.</p>
<h2>George III and mental illness</h2>
<p>George III (1738–1820) famously suffered from bouts of mental illness, more recently been speculated to be caused by <a href="https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/porphyria">Porphyria</a>, a hereditary blood disorder. </p>
<p>Throughout his illness <a href="https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2023/11/01/bulletin-on-the-state-of-king-george-iiis-health-october-2011-2/">bulletins were issued</a> by his doctors informing the public of his condition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The King sits in an armchair in profile to the left, bending forward to eat a boiled egg, holding the egg-cup in his left hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573693/original/file-20240206-25-m54hwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This satirical cartoon of George III was published in 1792.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These were kept <a href="https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2023/11/01/bulletin-on-the-state-of-king-george-iiis-health-october-2011-2/">deliberately vague</a>, with the aim to reassure the public rather than divulge details. His repeated bouts of illness mean his health was <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/92656/3/92656.pdf">a constant in the media of the time</a>, with frequent, at times twice-daily, updates during episodes.</p>
<p>His illness called into <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/92656/3/92656.pdf">question his ability to be monarch</a>, a situation eventually resolved by the installing of his son, later George IV, as Prince Regent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-owns-the-royal-body-public-interest-in-royal-health-reveals-anxieties-about-our-rulers-221534">Who owns the royal body? Public interest in royal health reveals anxieties about our rulers</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>A family of haemophilia</h2>
<p>Queen Victoria has been called the “<a href="https://hekint.org/2020/02/10/royal-blood-queen-victoria-and-the-legacy-of-hemophilia-in-european-royalty/?highlight=%E2%A3%82%E2%A3%9A%20Buy%20Viagra%20from%20%240.31%20per%20pill%20%3A%20%F0%9F%8F%A5%20www.LloydsPharmacy.xyz%20%F0%9F%8F%A5%20-%20Pharma%20without%20prescription%20%E2%A3%9A%E2%A3%82Viagra%20Cialis%20Levitra%20Staxyn%20Online%20Viagra%20Online%20Information">Grandmother of Europe</a>” due to her many descendants. This also came with a deadly legacy, haemophilia, given the moniker “the royal disease”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hemophilia/facts.html">Haemophilia</a> is an inherited disorder which mostly affects males, where the blood does not clot properly. This can lead to severe or spontaneous bleeding which can be dangerous if not treated properly. While the illness can be managed well today, in Victoria’s time little was known about it. </p>
<p>It is believed Victoria passed on the trait to <a href="https://www.hemophilia.org/bleeding-disorders-a-z/overview/history">three of her nine children</a>, at a time when life expectancy for those who had the disease was just 13 years old. Two of her daughters were asymptomatic carriers, however her fourth son Prince Leopold (1853-1884) was afflicted with the disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sepia photograph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573688/original/file-20240206-21-xy4nfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Victoria with eight of her children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NGS">Getty Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the royal family were careful to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21764831/">manage what information was publicly released</a> about his illness, his status meant it garnered public attention. It was covered in medical journals of the time, and later in newspapers. </p>
<p>As knowledge of the illness grew, both the public and members of the royal family were able to use it to guide decisions on marriages to limit its spread.</p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>In the days leading up to Elizabeth’s death on 2022, the media reported her as resting “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/09/08/queen-under-medical-supervision-as-doctors-are-concerned-for-her-health/?sh=42c483e9140e">comfortably</a>” and provided no information on the nature of her illness. Even her <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/queen-elizabeth-iis-death-revealed-death-certificate/story?id=90696648">death certificate</a> failed to reveal her cause of death, other than as old age. </p>
<p>Charles has signalled he wants to do monarchy differently than his mother. After his recent prostate surgery, his office stated he wanted to inspire men to look after their prostates. Anecdotal evidence suggests more men have sought medical tests in response which is being called the “<a href="https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/king-charles-effect-spurs-aussie-men-to-consult-their-gp-for-prostate-symptoms/">King Charles effect</a>”.</p>
<p>Now, the announcement of Charles’s cancer diagnosis signals a new approach by the royals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-if-king-charles-can-no-longer-perform-his-duties-222870">What happens if King Charles can no longer perform his duties?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
News of King Charles III’s cancer is unexpected: it is unusual for the royal family to release details of medical conditions to the public.
Lisa J. Hackett, Lecturer, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England
Huw Nolan, Animal Welfare scientist and pop culture researcher, University of New England
Jo Coghlan, Associate Professor Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221534
2024-01-26T13:28:40Z
2024-01-26T13:28:40Z
Who owns the royal body? Public interest in royal health reveals anxieties about our rulers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571618/original/file-20240126-15-1c52dw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C2%2C1928%2C1568&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">George, Prince of Wales, was mocked in the 18th century press for his profligate lifestyle</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/32912001">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Royal bodies are constantly in the news. In January 2024 alone, reports range from the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/denmark-queen-margrethe-abdication-what-to-know-389235c59f6fa081bf14c42db1ce5eee">abdication of Queen Margarethe of Denmark</a> for health reasons to the illnesses of the British royal family. </p>
<p>The first announcement, that Princess Kate will take a break from royal duties while she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68009259">recovers from “abdominal surgery”</a>, was immediately followed by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68010563">King Charles’ statement</a> about an operation for his enlarged prostate. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/17/king-charles-to-be-treated-in-hospital-for-enlarged-prostate">“Keen to share”</a>, he encouraged others to have a checkup. </p>
<p>Soon after, the announcement that the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68047608">Duchess of York</a> has melanoma was accompanied by her caution <a href="https://business.itn.co.uk/raising-awareness-of-skin-cancer-the-duchess-of-york-diagnosed-with-melanoma/">to check our moles</a>. </p>
<p>Current media fascination with the British royal family’s health reflects a long-standing tension between what the public should be entitled to know about the royal body and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/17/princess-of-wales-in-london-hospital-abdominal-surgery">that person’s right to privacy</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4sv9sJRmyTI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Popular UK breakfast TV show Lorraine exemplifies media fascination with royal health.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Royal health has been scrutinised for centuries</h2>
<p>Historically, royal bodies have attracted public interest, with British newspapers from the 18th century reporting on royal illnesses or commenting on royal diets.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-67475155">Our research</a> examines <a href="https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.FOOD.5.134745?mobileUi=0">the diet of the royal household</a> during the Regency period (circa 1789-1720), when King George III reigned. The diet and bodies of King George III and his son, Prince George revealed the nature of their rule and the fitness of the British nation.</p>
<p>It is difficult to reconcile the mortal bodies of individual rulers with the continuation of the monarchy as an institution and the head of the Church of England. For pre-modern people, the concept of the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691169231/the-kings-two-bodies">“king’s two bodies”</a> explained how the divine right to rule simultaneously existed within the spiritual and symbolic institution of monarchy and the individual bodies of rulers. </p>
<p>The growing division between a nation’s sovereignty and the king as an individual in the 18th century raised questions about when a monarch might be unfit to rule. In some ways, the king’s body belonged to the nation. </p>
<p>Parliament, for example, closely monitored George III’s daily life. The royal household was required to report its accounts – including the foods eaten daily – to the counting house of the king’s household, the <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C202">Board of the Green Cloth</a>. </p>
<p>George III’s well-known mental illness, moreover, nearly caused a political crisis in 1788. <a href="https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2023/11/01/bulletin-on-the-state-of-king-george-iiis-health-october-2011-2/">Although newspapers updated the public regularly</a> on the king’s health, the reports protected the king’s privacy by giving few details, while easing fears about his fitness to rule. </p>
<h2>Royal lifestyle as a reflection of royal morality</h2>
<p>George III looked after his body. He felt that there was a <a href="https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-stories/inside-georges-breeches-the-health-of-george-iv/">family history of obesity</a>, to which he did not want to succumb, so he watched his diet to control his weight. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="King George III eats a frugal meal of boiled eggs -- within luxurious surroundings -- with wife, Queen Charlotte, who eats leafy greens." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571232/original/file-20240124-15-st4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King George III was lampooned in the national press for his abstemious diet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0901-617">British Museum</a></span>
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<p>Because of this, some of his contemporaries saw him as miserly, despite the 20 course dinners served to him daily. His eating habits were well known because his body was always on display, from a picnic at Egham horse races to royal feasts. In 1788, when George III’s health problems began, his body and his appetites became even more interesting to the nation. <a href="https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/blog/georges-marvellous-medicine-rcp-archives-and-madness-king-george">Doctors moved into Kew</a>, where the king was being kept. They managed his diet, as part of his treatment, and regular bulletins were issued so that the king’s subjects were aware of what was happening to the sovereign’s body.</p>
<p>While George III’s ostentatious abstemiousness led him away from excessive drinking, his son was known to consume vast quantities of alcohol and food. Prince George was an unpopular British royal. His corpulence was used to lampoon him and his perceived lack of self control may partly explain his unpopularity. Fatness in the Regency period was <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/revealed-how-the-georgians-taught-us-to-diet-300-years-ago/">associated with wastefulness</a>. </p>
<p>Eating the right types of foods was important. Bodies were considered to be porous, easily affected by the environment or diet. Moral (or immoral) qualities might enter the body, depending on what was eaten. When satirical cartoonist James Gillray criticised the prince, he used food and body metaphors to make powerful political points. </p>
<p>In one instance, in 1787, he showed the prince, with his parents, gobbling up the wealth of the nation. An image from 1792 sets the prince’s corpulence alongside the unpaid bills that surround him.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Colour caricature of King George III, Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales seated outside the treasury around a bowl of guineas, ladling coins into their mouths" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571541/original/file-20240125-23-ofefj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monstrous Craws: 1787 caricature of King George III, Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales gorging on the nation’s wealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-10314">British Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both men were seen to have flawed bodies. The king’s apparent stinginess, expressed through food and drink (as much as his illness) was considered the nation’s problem. Meanwhile, his son consumed conspicuously, eating and drinking with abandon, and <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/georgian-papers-programme/official-correspondence-of-george-iv-as-prince-of-wales">plunging into debt</a> through <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/george_fourth_01.shtml">extravagant expenditures</a>.</p>
<h2>Who owns the royal body?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies">The public remains fascinated by royal bodies</a>, despite being unconcerned about fitness to rule or the “king’s two bodies”. Without such frameworks, interest can slip into prurience. If the king is merely a person, then his body should be his own and he is entitled to all privacy. </p>
<p>Although the king and duchess have chosen to publicise their health problems, the princess’ diagnosis remains heavily guarded. Crucially, the messages are tightly controlled. The king and duchess have known about their problems for months, but only recently made them public. They also emphasised the public health benefits of sharing their stories, which simultaneously deflected from private details and the princess’ operation. Just as with George III’s illness, the overarching royal narrative is designed to offer privacy, particularly for Princess Kate. </p>
<p>Unlike the rest of us, the royals cannot be fully private. Indeed, any insistence to the same right to privacy as the rest of us might even undermine the existence of the monarchy as an institution. Royal bodies are allowed to live privileged lives because, ultimately, they belong to their subjects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Smith received funding from The British Academy. She is the Chair of the Society for the Social History of Medicine.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Rich received funding from The British Academy</span></em></p>
In the 18th century, managing public perceptions of the king’s fitness were as much about the health of the monarchy as they were about the health of monarch.
Lisa Smith, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Essex
Rachel Rich, Reader in Modern European History, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220663
2024-01-10T19:14:53Z
2024-01-10T19:14:53Z
Queen Margrethe II is the first Danish monarch to abdicate in 900 years – but it is just a sign of the times
<p>Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s <a href="https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/news/read-hm-the-queens-new-year-address-2023">announcement</a> of her abdication in her New Year’s Eve address, citing her age and health, was a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/01/all-of-denmark-is-crying-danes-react-to-margrethe-iis-abdication">significant shock</a> to the Danes.</p>
<p>Margrethe became Queen of Denmark following the death of her father, King Frederik IX, in 1972. When Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, Margrethe became Europe’s longest-reigning monarch and is the world’s longest-serving current female head of state. She is also the world’s sole queen regnant – that is, a queen who reigns in her own right independent of her spouse’s rank and titles. </p>
<p>Her decision to abdicate marks a significant departure from what she had repeatedly said before: her intention was to remain on the throne for life, as did her predecessors. Queen Margrethe II will break the <a href="https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/news/abdication">nearly 900-year-old tradition</a> of lifelong reign in Denmark. </p>
<p>The abdication ceremony is scheduled for Sunday January 14, coinciding with the 52nd anniversary of Margrethe’s <a href="https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/news/programme-for-the-succession-of-the-throne">accession to the throne</a>. This historic moment will also see Crown Princess Mary becoming the first Australian-born queen consort as wife of the new king, Frederik X. </p>
<p>But while this announcement may have come as a shock, royal abdications – once rare and often scandalous events – have become more frequent over the past century. </p>
<h2>When it isn’t ‘duty first’</h2>
<p>Abdications, whether influenced by personal, political or health-related factors, significantly impact royal families, state institutions and national identities. Each instance of abdication holds the potential to shift public perceptions regarding the monarchy’s value as an institution and ignite debates about the monarchy’s relevance. </p>
<p>In 2014, Juan Carlos I of Spain – once praised as a restorer of democracy – <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-24/spains-disgraced-king-juan-carlos-could-return/102629278">abdicated amid scandal</a> and self-exiled to Saudi Arabia. After his abdication, thousands of people across Spain <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/02/king-juan-carlos-spain-protests-referendum-monarchy">marched</a> calling for a referendum into the future of the monarchy and Spain’s return to a republican system.</p>
<p>The most notable abdication of the 20th century was of King Edward VIII of Britain in 1936. King for less than a year, Edward’s intention to marry Wallis Simpson – an American socialite in the process of her second divorce – created a constitutional crisis because the democratically elected government of the United Kingdom did not support his decision to both <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/what-happened-when-king-edward-viii-quit-the-royal-family">marry and remain king</a>.</p>
<p>Edward VIII was further constrained by his role as the head of the Church of England, which then prohibited remarriage if a former spouse was still alive. He was the first British head of state to abdicate since James II/VII in 1688 was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638744">declared to have abandoned the throne</a>, and Edward’s abdication in pursuit of personal happiness was a watershed moment in royal British history. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-monarch-who-is-a-divorcee-would-once-have-scandalised-but-charles-accession-shows-how-much-has-changed-204544">A new monarch who is a divorcee would once have scandalised. But Charles' accession shows how much has changed</a>
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</p>
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<p>This event’s lasting impact was epitomised by his niece, Queen Elizabeth II, who throughout her reign <a href="https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/queen-elizabeth-a-job-for-life">embodied the ethos</a> of placing “duty first, self second”.</p>
<p>Across the Channel, in Europe’s constitutional monarchies, the position of a monarch is not seen as <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/09/queen-elizabeth-servant-of-god">sanctioned by divine command</a> but as established by secular law and abdications are not seen as a dereliction of duty. </p>
<p>In the last 25 years, monarchs of Belgium (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23167525">King Albert II</a>), Luxembourg (<a href="https://monarchie.lu/en/monarchy/former-sovereigns/hrh-grand-duke-jean">Grand Duke Jean</a>) and the Netherlands (<a href="https://www.royal-house.nl/members-royal-house/princess-beatrix/abdication">Queen Beatrix</a>) voluntarily handed down the office to their successors. </p>
<p>Their renunciation of the office was a novelty after most of their predecessors stayed in the role for life, but was seen as functional and symptomatic of the constitutional nature of their office.</p>
<h2>Global abdications</h2>
<p>The 2013 abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the head of state of the Vatican City, was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. Benedict XVI was the first pope to step down since <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07001a.htm">Gregory XII</a>, who was forced to resign in 1415, and the first pope to do so voluntarily since <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Celestine-V">Celestine V in 1294</a>.</p>
<p>The pontiff offered a <a href="https://insidethevatican.com/magazine/pope-benedicts-resignation-speech/">frank justification</a> for his decision: someone of his age was no longer suited to the papacy in the modern world. His abdication paved the way for election of his successor and established a precedent for the retirement of popes with the retiring pontiff to be called “pope emeritus”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/popes-resignation-is-a-recognition-of-human-frailty-in-an-ageing-world-12148">Pope's resignation is a recognition of human frailty in an ageing world</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Outside Europe, Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicated <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48020703">in 2019</a>, the first emperor to abdicate in 200 years. He explained his actions in similar terms to Benedict XVI and Margarethe II, citing his health and that it was time for a younger monarch to exercise a complex constitutional role.</p>
<p>This century has also seen similar steps taken by rulers of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/12/19/abdication-shocks-bhutanese">Bhutan</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/06/25/195464213/in-qatar-a-rare-royal-abdication">Qatar</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/1/23/ailing-kuwaiti-amir-to-abdicate">Kuwait</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/malaysia-s-king-muhammad-v-announces-shock-abdication-20190107-p50pwv.html">Malaysia</a>.</p>
<p>Queen Margrethe II’s abdication is a sign of times. Monarchs, after years of service, can exercise the right to retire, paralleling the rights of the citizens of their realms. </p>
<p>This shift, while upending centuries-old traditions, suggests a more relatable and empathetic view of monarchy, aligning it closer with contemporary values of personal agency.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/japan-a-new-emperor-and-a-new-era-but-women-are-still-excluded-from-the-chrysanthemum-throne-116380">Japan: a new emperor and a new era – but women are still excluded from the Chrysanthemum Throne</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darius von Guttner Sporzynski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Queen Margrethe II’s abdication ceremony is scheduled for this Sunday, the 52nd anniversary of her accession to the throne.
Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211024
2023-08-04T03:23:40Z
2023-08-04T03:23:40Z
Trudeau separation: Divorce is common for most people, but still rare for political leaders
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541130/original/file-20230803-23-yxrdcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=132%2C220%2C5748%2C4047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau announced that they were separating on Aug. 2, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/trudeau-separation-divorce-is-common-for-most-people-but-still-rare-for-political-leaders" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Over the long term, the political impact of the separation or divorce of public figures has tended to reflect prevailing attitudes towards divorce within the general population. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a man and woman sitting together in a garden." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541124/original/file-20230803-17-uvkkeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Edward, then-Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson at the Chateau de Cande, near Touraine, France on May 7, 1937. Edward would later abdicate the throne to marry Simpson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Len Putnam)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a40321966/royal-divorces/">The British royal family is an excellent example</a>. Almost a century ago, in the 1930s, divorce was extremely difficult to obtain in most countries and divorced people were widely believed to be unstable and immoral. </p>
<p>When King Edward VIII announced he intended to marry <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wallis-Simpson">Wallis Simpson</a>, a twice-divorced American, he created a crisis within Britain. Simpson’s divorces were the issue, but the fact that she was American didn’t help. </p>
<p>Edward was forced to <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/significant-events/abdication-of-edward-viii-1936/">abdicate his throne</a> so that he could marry Simpson and the couple lived, effectively in exile, for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/divorce-law-by-country">divorce laws in many countries have been liberalized</a> and divorce is more an administrative process than a judicial procedure. Divorce is common throughout most societies and there is little stigma attached to it. </p>
<p>Edward was the great uncle of King Charles, who divorced his wife Diana in 1996 when he was still the Prince of Wales following a very public breakup that involved allegations of adultery on both sides. <a href="https://harpersbazaar.com.au/charles-camilla-wedding/">Charles, as a divorcé, then married Camilla Parker-Bowles, herself divorced</a>, and he was crowned king without any objection. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man and woman wearing crowns and robes look at eachother" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541126/original/file-20230803-27-8vosrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King Charles and Queen Camilla stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the coronation ceremony in London on May 6, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Divorce can bring scrutiny</h2>
<p>Most people are aware of the complexities of relationships, even though it is common to blame one partner more than another. Politics can place peculiar pressure on couples, but this is true of many other professions and it’s up to individuals to balance their work and family lives.</p>
<p>Although divorces are common among Canadian politicians, <a href="https://theconversation.com/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-assumes-a-new-role-single-dad-just-like-his-own-father-210938">divorced premiers and prime ministers are rare</a>. It might be that voters are perceived as likely to penalize a divorced person and make them harder to elect, and there are strong political reasons not to separate or divorce while in office. It directs intense scrutiny on the couple and their behaviour, as well as retrospective analyses of their relationship.</p>
<p>Earlier sensational couple-related events at the federal level include the <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-political-foes-should-avoid-capitalizing-on-his-marital-breakdown-210958">separation and subsequent divorce of Pierre and Margaret Trudeau</a> and the <a href="https://macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/peter-mackays-private-life-on-the-public-stage/">very public breakup</a> of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and MP Belinda Stronach in 2005.</p>
<p>The first was accompanied by scandals and rumours of infidelity, the second was provoked by Stronach crossing the floor to join the Liberals — a kind of political adultery. </p>
<h2>Trudeau separation</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/02/trudeaus-split-isnt-outlier-00109512">It’s unlikely that there will be significant public reaction to the separation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau</a>, not least because divorce has become part of the family landscape in Canada. There are about <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/443290/divorced-people-in-canada/">three million divorced people in Canada</a> and there can be few Canadians without a divorce in their family or among their friends. </p>
<p>The announcement of the prime minister and Grégoire Trudeau’s separation stressed their ongoing love and respect for each other and the continued integrity of their family. The message was “nothing to see here” — and we can expect to see photographs of them together with their children to reinforce this image.</p>
<p>Any political consequences will unfold in the next months. Politicians will <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-politics-briefing-jagmeet-singh-expresses-sympathy-for-justin-trudeau/">express sympathy</a> and say that this is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmrl385Of4s">personal matter with no political importance</a>, and that it would be improper for them to comment other than to wish the separated couple well. </p>
<p>But of course the images of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh with their wives — and Trudeau without his — might resonate for some people. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CvctRHlrcL9/?img_index=1","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The separation will also reinforce the belief that some people hold that Trudeau is not a nice man. If either is primarily blamed for the separation, it will almost certainly be the prime minister, not his wife.</p>
<p>Some observers will note the timing of the separation announcement, which followed soon after a cabinet reshuffle. The decision to separate might have been made weeks earlier, with the timing of the announcement strategically planned. </p>
<p>In other words, this could have been a decision made in light of political considerations — despite the insistence that the separation itself is a personal matter. Perhaps we are seeing Trudeau preparing, politically and personally, for the next election.</p>
<p>If there appear to be few political downsides to this separation, there are no upsides. It would certainly be preferable to announce the separation sooner rather than later — further out from the election than closer — and August is a month when many people tune out of current affairs. </p>
<p>Withholding the announcement also risked it leaking to the media, with the implication there was something to hide. As it is, the separation might be conversation at the cottage or over a barbecue for a day or two, but it will be old news by the time people re-engage in September.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Phillips does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Divorce is still rare for high-profile politicians and any political consequences of the separation will likely unfold in the months to come.
Rod Phillips, Professor of History, Carleton University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205254
2023-05-09T20:16:24Z
2023-05-09T20:16:24Z
Dismay over King Charles’s coronation raises questions about Canada’s ties to the monarchy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525158/original/file-20230509-21-1iokjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5159%2C3413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King Charles and Queen Camilla stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their coronation in London on May 6, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/dismay-over-king-charles-s-coronation-raises-questions-about-canada-s-ties-to-the-monarchy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The coronation of King Charles was a cringe-inducing display of white European hereditary privilege and ostentation that angered many, both in the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/uk-republicans-call-for-saturdays-coronation-to-be-the-last">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-charles-coronation-royals-commonwealth-caribbean-africa-e450b996bc21b179cd3725789853676e">the Commonwealth</a>.</p>
<p>That anger, or in some cases simple apathy or collective eye-rolling, should not be ignored because the monarchy and the Crown are not merely symbols, they’re a massive expense. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1655826857999192064"}"></div></p>
<p>The cost of the coronation to the British taxpayer has been estimated at <a href="https://time.com/6275383/king-charles-iii-coronation-cost-taxpayers/">£100 million</a> (almost $170 million in Canadian dollars) — extremely costly in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64450882">post-Brexit period of economic uncertainty and decline for the U.K.</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the vast private wealth and land holdings of the Royal Family are also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/cost-of-the-crown">connected directly to England’s role in colonization and the slave trade</a>. </p>
<p>Despite all this, the monarch remains the head of state for many Commonwealth countries, including Canada. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly man in a large crown adorned with jewels and purple velvet waves from an ornate golden horse-drawn carriage. An elderly woman in a similar crown sits beside him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King Charles waves from a golden carriage following his coronation in London on May 6, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The U.S. style of republicanism</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/4/20/america-isnt-just-a-failing-state-it-is-a-failed-experiment">American experiment in republicanism isn’t looking especially good</a> at the moment amid the shambles left by Donald Trump’s presidency, the country’s founders were correct in recognizing that democratic legitimacy and monarchical power cannot be easily reconciled.</p>
<p>In fact, their biggest mistake and that of subsequent generations may simply have been to permit the presidency to retain elements of absolute or unfettered power in the form of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/politics/what-is-executive-privilege-what-matters/index.html">executive privilege</a>. </p>
<p>From George W. Bush’s disastrous war on terror to the Trump administration’s outright repudiation of democratic norms, <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/today/presidential-power-surges/">recent presidents have not hesitated to behave like kings</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/manhattan-grand-jury-votes-to-indict-donald-trump-showing-he-like-all-other-presidents-is-not-an-imperial-king-196451">Manhattan grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump, showing he, like all other presidents, is not an imperial king</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Canada, we can benefit from both the lessons of the United States and the U.K. to avoid idealizing a republic with a powerful president and at the same time acknowledging that a traditional monarchy, even a purely symbolic or constitutional monarchy, is no alternative. </p>
<p>As I have argued before, each Commonwealth nation would have different legislative and constitutional processes to follow to sever ties with the British monarchy. Canada’s in particular would be complex and difficult, but not necessarily impossible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-canada-cut-ties-to-the-monarchy-under-king-charles-its-possible-190894">Will Canada cut ties to the monarchy under King Charles? It's possible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It would require unanimous consent of all provincial legislatures and the federal Parliament. In practice, this would probably not be possible without referendums in each province. Because of this, <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/ask-an-expert-what-would-it-take-to-leave-the-monarchy/">some leading constitutional lawyers in Canada regard the question as a non-starter</a>. </p>
<p>But if Canadians aren’t careful, they may one day find that events in the U.K. make the decision for us.</p>
<p>Here’s how. </p>
<h2>Different political systems</h2>
<p>Suppose <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/young-british-people-want-ditch-monarchy-poll-suggests-2021-05-20/">current British demographic trends and polling data</a> pan out and a decade or two from now a younger, more diverse British population loses patience with the monarchy. </p>
<p>Like Canada, the U.K. has a constitution and the monarchy is essential to it. But unlike Canada, the U.K.’s constitution is largely unwritten. Changing the British Constitution can at least theoretically be done by an ordinary act of Parliament and without the complexity of co-ordinating 10 sovereign legislatures. </p>
<p>Another difference? <a href="https://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/back-unitary-state">The U.K. is a unitary</a> and not a federal state. This means British parliament, unlike Canada’s, can unilaterally amend its constitution to address the status of the monarchy if it wishes. </p>
<p>Similarly in the U.K., any conventions around public consultation would also be arguably less complex and more straightforward than in Canada because of the British system of government. This could lead to a bizarre situation in which the British monarch ceases to be the British head of state but remains the Canadian one. </p>
<p>To my knowledge, this would be a completely uncharted territory and a constitutional crisis of the highest magnitude. </p>
<p>Rather than continuing to sit nervously on the sidelines observing America’s presidential system lurch from crisis to crisis, or celebrating the coronation of Britain’s new king as our own, Canada should learn from the errors of both the republican model and monarchical model and do something different. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People sit in an ornate ballroom drinking tea with two TV screens showing the coronation at the front of the room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People gather to watch the coronation of King Charles in Edmonton on May 6, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>We might start by recognizing forms of political association, governance and policymaking that are less European and owe more to Indigenous models. </p>
<p>Mary Simon, Canada’s governor general and the King’s representative in Canada — as well as first Indigenous person to occupy that colonial office — is correct when she says <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/governor-general-canada-monarchy-future-1.6831365">many Indigenous people look to the treaty relationship with the Crown, which predates Confederation itself, as part of their strategy of decolonization</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1654820719178534914"}"></div></p>
<p>But it’s tough to reconcile a European hereditary monarchy with a Canada in which Indigenous people are attempting to take control over their own destiny.</p>
<p>Similarly, for many Canadians who immigrated to Canada from parts of the former British Empire in the Caribbean, Africa and India, finding the old colonial monarchy waiting for them here is no sign of dynamism.</p>
<p>It will be up to the current generation of Canadians to decide if now is the time to begin taking this question more seriously or whether to leave it to the United Kingdom to decide for us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey B. Meyers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Canadians should learn the lessons of the U.S. and the U.K. to avoid idealizing a republic with a powerful president and at the same time acknowledge that a constitutional monarchy is no alternative.
Jeffrey B. Meyers, Instructor, Legal Studies and Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204750
2023-05-04T20:04:23Z
2023-05-04T20:04:23Z
Busting a king-sized myth: why Australia and NZ could become republics – and still stay in the Commonwealth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523928/original/file-20230502-18-4wh37i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5026%2C3310&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The imminent coronation of King Charles III is an ideal time for Australia and New Zealand to take stock of the British monarchy and its role in national life – including certain myths about what becoming a republic might mean.</p>
<p>In particular, there is a common assumption that both nations must remain monarchies to retain membership of the Commonwealth of Nations. It might sound logical, but it’s entirely wrong. </p>
<p>There is no basis for it in the rules of the Commonwealth or the practice of its members. Australia could ditch the monarchy and stay in the club, and New Zealand can too, whether it has a king or a Kiwi as head of state. </p>
<p>Yet this peculiar myth persists at home and abroad. Students often ask me about it when I’m teaching the structure of government. And just this week a French TV station interpreted the New Zealand prime minister’s opinion that his country would one day <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/01/new-zealand-will-ideally-become-a-republic-one-day-says-chris-hipkins">ideally become a republic</a> to mean he would <a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/international/oceanie/nouvelle-zelande/nouvelle-zelande-le-nouveau-premier-ministre-souhaite-que-son-pays-quitte-le-commonwealth_AN-202305010328.html">like to see</a> it leave the Commonwealth. </p>
<h2>What does ‘Commonwealth’ mean?</h2>
<p>The implication that breaking from the Commonwealth would be a precursor to, or consequence of, becoming a republic relies on a faulty premise which joins two entirely separate things: the way we pick our head of state, and our membership of the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>It would make just as much sense to ask whether Australia or New Zealand should leave the International Cricket Council and become a republic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-evolving-colony-to-bicultural-nation-queen-elizabeth-ii-walked-a-long-road-with-aotearoa-new-zealand-179933">From evolving colony to bicultural nation, Queen Elizabeth II walked a long road with Aotearoa New Zealand</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The confusion may derive from the fact that the 15 countries that continue to have the British sovereign as their head of state are known as “Commonwealth Realms”. </p>
<p>What we usually refer to as the Commonwealth, on the other hand, is the organisation founded in 1926 as the British Commonwealth of Nations. This is the body whose membership determines the competing nations of the <a href="https://www.commonwealthsport.com/">Commonwealth Games</a>, the highest-profile aspect of the Commonwealth’s work. </p>
<p>King Charles III is the head of state of the 15 Commonwealth Realms and the head of the international governmental organisation that is the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth has 56 members – but only 15 of them continue to have the king as head of state.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1653406552693395457"}"></div></p>
<h2>Joining the Commonwealth club</h2>
<p>To be fair, confusion over who heads the Commonwealth is nothing new. A <a href="https://www.royalcwsociety.org/_files/ugd/e578ea_5642f282aad345faa0b39c9eebd465e5.pdf">2010 poll</a> conducted by the Royal Commonwealth Society found that, of the respondents in seven countries, only half knew the then queen was the head of the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>A quarter of Jamaicans believed the organisation was led by the then US president, Barack Obama. One in ten Indians and South Africans thought it was run by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-it-about-a-republic-that-stumps-our-leaders-46867">What is it about a republic that stumps our leaders?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Given the king’s overlapping leadership roles and the different use of the word in the contexts of Commonwealth Realms and the Commonwealth of Nations, these broad misunderstandings are perhaps understandable. In fact, it was this ambiguity that allowed for the development of an inclusive Commonwealth during the postwar years of decolonisation.</p>
<p>However the confusion arose, it is also very simple to correct. The Commonwealth relaxed its membership rules regarding republics when India became one in 1950. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/philip-murphy-109103">Philip Murphy</a>, the historian and former director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, this decision was based on the erroneous idea that India’s huge standing army would underwrite Britain’s great-power status in the postwar world. </p>
<p>From that point on the Commonwealth of Nations no longer comprised only members who admitted to the supremacy of one sovereign. To make the change palatable, a piece of conceptual chicanery was needed. Each country did not need a king, but <em>the</em> king was to be head of the organisation comprising equal members. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/god-save-the-king-why-the-monarchy-is-safe-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-for-now-190656">God save the King: why the monarchy is safe in Aotearoa New Zealand – for now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Monarchy optional</h2>
<p>Since then, the number of Commonwealth members has steadily increased to the 56 we have today.</p>
<p>As early as 1995, membership was extended to countries with no ties to the former British Empire. With the support of Nelson Mandela, Mozambique became a member, joining the six Commonwealth members with which it shared a border. </p>
<p>Rwanda, a former German and then Belgian colony, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/oukwd-uk-commonwealth-rwanda-idAFTRE5AS1C520091129">joined in 2009</a>. It became an enthusiastic member and hosted the biennial meeting of states known as CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). The most recent countries to take up Commonwealth membership are the <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/news/gabon-and-togo-join-commonwealth">former French colonies of Togo and Gabon</a>. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/about/joining">Commonwealth’s own rules</a>, membership is based on a variety of things, including commitment to democratic processes, human rights and good governance. Being a monarchy is entirely optional. </p>
<p>The new king offers the chance for a broader debate on the advantages of monarchy. But let’s do so knowing Commonwealth membership is entirely unaffected by the question of whether or not the country is a republic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Mehigan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Not only can a republic be a member of the Commonwealth, even countries that were never part of the former British Empire are now eligible.
James Mehigan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204602
2023-05-04T11:54:41Z
2023-05-04T11:54:41Z
What the coronations of maximalist George IV and (relatively) minimalist Charles III reveal about the British monarchy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523778/original/file-20230502-22-q55ica.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C11%2C1559%2C886&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Left: George, Prince Regent and Prince of Wales by Thomas Lawrence (1816). Right: Charles III photographed by Allan Warren (1972). </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HRH_Prince_Charles_43_Allan_Warren.jpg">Vatican Museums/Allan Warren</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When George III died in 1820, he was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, with 60 years on the throne. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/650761">Public mourning was adopted across Britain.</a></p>
<p>In 2022 – just over 200 years later – George III’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth II, died after 70 years as monarch. Widespread mourning took over the United Kingdom and Commonwealth once more.</p>
<p>In both instances, chapters had resolutely closed in the history of Britain and new eras were busily being ushered in. While the public mourned the passing of an important national figure, attention turned to their successors, George IV and Charles III. How would these kings follow on from their predecessor?</p>
<p>For George IV, six decades had passed since the coronation of his father in 1761. At that time, Britain was a small kingdom with a burgeoning empire in the Americas and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Georgian_Monarchy.html?id=2UNGDIrxy34C&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">the monarchy battled to prove itself</a> an indispensable British institution. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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</figure>
<p><em>This piece is part of our coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">King Charles III’s coronation</a>. The first coronation of a British monarch since 1953 comes at a time of reckoning for the monarchy, the royal family and the Commonwealth.</em>
<em>For more royal analysis, revisit our coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/platinum-jubilee-116056?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">Platinum jubilee</a>, and her <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/death-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-126761?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">death in September 2022</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>By his own coronation in 1821, the UK had experienced dramatic social, cultural and economic changes. He was to rule over a nation very different to that of his father.</p>
<p>Similarly, the country Elizabeth II swore to serve at her 1953 coronation was a dramatically different one to that inherited by her son, Charles III. Demographically, politically and religiously, Britain has shifted over the intervening decades, requiring the monarchy to adjust and adapt to accommodate these changes.</p>
<p>The coronations of these kings symbolise more than mere spectacle: they are a declaration of the new monarch’s intent as they transform from heir to sovereign. </p>
<p>For George IV, money was no object in creating the perfect coronation to establish his position as one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe. For Charles III, the coronation is an opportunity to show how the monarchy can maintain the expected tradition and splendour, without seeming to ignore the current economic issues in the UK.</p>
<h2>Life in the public eye</h2>
<p>Both George IV and Charles III spent decades as heir-in-waiting, their every move scrutinised by the press and the British public.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of Caroline in a white dress with a floral hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523782/original/file-20230502-963-k2vq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caroline, Princess of Wales by Sir Thomas Lawrence, (1798).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2007BN/2007BN5745.jpg">Victoria and Albert Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While he was Prince of Wales, George IV enjoyed <a href="https://rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/10.21039/rsj.351">numerous affairs which were discussed in the tabloids</a>. </p>
<p>His marriage to his cousin, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caroline-of-Brunswick-Luneburg">Caroline Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel</a>, in 1795 was enthusiastically welcomed by the British press and public, eager for a new princess and the promise of future heirs. However, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1906228">the couple formally separated</a> shortly after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796.</p>
<p>Similarly, the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 was feted across the United Kingdom and beyond. But when the couple divorced 15 years later, private details of the marriage and of extramarital affairs had been <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Monarchy_and_the_British_Nation_1780.html?id=WNI_cx0J5qIC">exposed by the global press.</a></p>
<p>The unhappy marriage of George IV and Princess Caroline was also a topic of avid discussion in the British papers. Immediately following his ascension to the throne in 1820, <a href="https://exhibits-new.library.yale.edu/s/trialbymedia/page/intro">George IV pursued a legal divorce from Caroline</a>, on the grounds of adultery.</p>
<p>Caroline had left Britain for Europe in 1814. Her alleged affair with her Italian secretary <a href="https://www-jstor-org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/stable/4050747?searchText=the+queen+caroline+affair&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dthe%2Bqueen%2Bcaroline%2Baffair&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aa56c9188b0ffae1f30e2e2f09de5bca7">was widely discussed by the British public</a>, but when George IV attempted to use this information to secure a divorce, <a href="https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/16816981">his hypocrisy was mocked</a>.</p>
<p>Troubled marriages were <a href="https://archive.org/details/monarchybritishp0000golb/page/78/mode/2up?q=affair">nothing new for the British monarchy</a>, but the public exposures of the fractures in George IV’s and Charles III’s marriages generated for each king a public image which differed from their predecessor.</p>
<p>Where the marriages of George IV and Charles III publicly broke down, the marriages of their parents had been publicly celebrated as symbols of stability and morality, <a href="https://archive.org/details/monarchybritishp0000golb/page/n7/mode/2up">key elements of the British monarchy in the modern era</a>.</p>
<h2>The crowning moment</h2>
<p>George IV had no intention of mimicking his father’s image and his coronation showed it. The extravagant event cost <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/coronation-a-history-of-the-british-monarchy-roy-strong?variant=40052048265294">20 times more than George III’s</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/31702/the-diamond-diadem">diamond diadem</a> worth £8,216 (equivalent to around £800,000 in 2023) was commissioned for the occasion and the 27-foot long coronation robe was designed to outshine the one worn by the Emperor Napoleon in 1804.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting showing the inside of Westminster Abbey during George IV's lavish coronation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523781/original/file-20230502-1658-yk80m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Coronation of George IV by James Stephanoff (1821).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/750785/coronation-of-george-iv-in-westminster-abbey-19-july-1821">Royal Collection Trust/His Majesty King Charles III 2023</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the best money spent was on the security: the king’s estranged (and uninvited) wife, Caroline, was <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Trial-of-Queen-Caroline/Jane-Robins/9780743255905">turned away at the doors</a> of Westminster Abbey.</p>
<p>The extravagance of George IV’s coronation contrasts with Charles III’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/13/charles-coronation-prince-king-monarchy-when-plans-cost-living/">reported desire</a> for a smaller and cheaper coronation. This contrast in approaches to the ceremony reflects the outlook of each king and the contemporary relationship between the monarchy and the British public.</p>
<p>George IV’s coronation was an announcement that the British monarchy would again be <a href="https://archive.org/details/princeofpleasure00davi/mode/2up">a centre of luxury and splendour</a>, unlike the reign of his more sober father. Charles III will, instead, have a less elaborate coronation ceremony than his mother.</p>
<p>This decision is probably in reference to current financial issues in the UK. An elaborate coronation would likely be deemed out of touch and possibly provoke criticisms of the monarchy as an institution. </p>
<p>An over-the-top coronation along the lines of George IV would no longer fit with the public image of the monarchy which has, <a href="https://archive.org/details/monarchybritishp0000golb/page/n7/mode/2up">since Queen Victoria</a>, worked to appeal to the public through association with charitable institutions. </p>
<p>Charles III’s pared back coronation plans point to a sovereign who is keen to show that he and the monarchy can respond and adapt to the contemporary economic and social climate of the UK.</p>
<p>Despite their different approaches, for both George IV and Charles III, the coronation ceremony serves as an opportunity to step out of their predecessor’s shadow and to make a clear statement about their personal intentions for the monarchy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalee Garrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The coronations of these kings symbolise more than mere spectacle: they are a declaration of the new monarch’s intent as they transform from heir to sovereign.
Natalee Garrett, Lecturer in History, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204173
2023-04-26T16:29:19Z
2023-04-26T16:29:19Z
King Charles coronation: what impartial broadcast coverage of the event would look like
<p>King Charles III’s coronation will be broadcast to millions of people around the world. Many of those viewers will be watching on the BBC, whose impartiality when it comes to the monarchy has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/17/bbc-accused-of-lacking-impartiality-in-royal-coverage">come under question</a>. </p>
<p>The campaign group Republic recently sent a <a href="https://twitter.com/RepublicStaff/status/1647847609258717190">letter</a> to the public broadcaster stating that the BBC “not only fails to be impartial, but makes no attempt to be impartial or balanced and, most shockingly, openly colludes with the palace in its coverage”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1647847609258717190"}"></div></p>
<p>Broadcasters have long <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884918807036">been criticised</a> about their coverage of politics and public affairs. Unlike newspapers, online news and social media, broadcasters are regulated by Ofcom and have to abide by rules on impartiality.</p>
<p>Ofcom’s <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/section-five-due-impartiality-accuracy">code</a> asks broadcasters to follow “due impartiality” guidelines. Being impartial means not favouring one side over another. But, as my research has <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464884916685909">shown</a>, the “due” gives broadcasters plenty of leeway in how they construct impartiality and select competing perspectives.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>This piece is part of our coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">King Charles III’s coronation</a>. The first coronation of a British monarch since 1953 comes at a time of reckoning for the monarchy, the royal family and the Commonwealth.</em></p>
<p><em>For more royal analysis, revisit our coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/platinum-jubilee-116056?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">Platinum jubilee</a>, and her <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/death-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-126761?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">death in September 2022</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Ofcom’s guidance emphasises broadcasters’ rights of freedom of expression. But it <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/99177/broadcast-code-guidance-section-5-march-2017.pdf">asks</a> for news items to “take account of all relevant facts, including the nature of the coverage and whether there are varying viewpoints on a particular item”. </p>
<p>The regulator also <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/99177/broadcast-code-guidance-section-5-march-2017.pdf">points out</a> that any topic – not just political controversy or public policy – is potentially subject to impartiality.</p>
<h2>Covering the crown</h2>
<p>The BBC <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/17/bbc-accused-of-lacking-impartiality-in-royal-coverage">claims to report impartially</a> on the royal family. Over recent years, there have been times when broadcasters have reported critically on royal figures. </p>
<p>The now-infamous Newsnight interview, where Prince Andrew <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50449339">discussed</a> his alleged sexual exploits, lavish lifestyle and friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50451953">widely reported</a> by broadcasters, as was his subsequent <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2019-11-22/prince-andrew-forced-to-sack-most-senior-member-of-staff-after-withdrawal-from-public-duties">withdrawal</a> from public life.</p>
<p>In a Netflix series, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/09/uk/meghan-racism-uk-reaction-gbr-intl/index.html">reflected</a> on her experiences of racism inside Buckingham Palace. While Netflix is not subject to Ofcom regulation, many broadcasters followed up on the interviews. </p>
<p>Some, including the BBC, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56326807">reported</a> on Prince Harry’s suggestion that an “invisible contract” existed between the royal family and reporters. This gave <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17499755221092810">credence</a> to claims that journalists trade inside access for less serious scrutiny of the monarchy. </p>
<p>The BBC has also faced criticism from viewers who see the broadcaster as not being appropriately respectful in royal coverage. A notable example was the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/apr/08/broadcasting.queenmother">controversy</a> over newscaster Peter Sisson’s burgundy tie when he announced the queen mother’s death in 2002. When BBC news anchor, Huw Edwards, announced the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, he was <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/huw-edwards-bbc-reacted-death-queen-clive-myrie-1844319">praised</a> for his sombre and emotional demeanour – while wearing all black attire. </p>
<p>When broadcasters reported the queen’s funeral, a sombre tone of public mourning <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/09/19/queen-elizabeth-ii-funeral-media-coverage-broadcaster-huge-audience/">shaped</a> coverage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman lays a bouquet into a pile of flowers outside of Buckingham Palace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522676/original/file-20230424-20-xw5dl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A national mood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/windsor-uk-september-15-2022-womans-2204600993">Henk Vrieselaar/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62964166">“national mood”</a> was represented in interviews with <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-09-19/how-the-nation-mourned-the-queen-as-they-bid-her-a-final-farewell">members of the public</a> paying testament to the queen’s long reign and praising the monarchy more generally. </p>
<p>But while broadcasters understandably adopted a respectful tone about the royalty during the queen’s funeral, how accurately does this represent public opinion about the monarchy?</p>
<p>In 1994 the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey <a href="https://natcen.ac.uk/news/british-social-attitudes-monarchy">revealed</a> that two-thirds of the public – 67% on average – agreed “it is important for Britain to continue to have a monarchy”. By 2021, this slipped to 55% – the lowest score on record – with one-quarter <a href="https://natcen.ac.uk/news/british-social-attitudes-monarchy">believing</a> either the monarchy was “not at all important” or that it should be abolished. </p>
<p>Far fewer younger people considered the monarchy to be very important, but the <a href="https://natcen.ac.uk/news/british-social-attitudes-monarchy">BSA</a> survey suggests that support tends to grow as people age. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65326467">new YouGov poll</a> commissioned by the BBC has assessed public perception of the monarchy in the weeks before the coronation. While showing broad support for the monarchy, it also revealed the youngest age group favour replacing the monarchy with an elected head of state. This reinforces a <a href="https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1395677899987079169?s=20">similar poll</a> taken by YouGov in 2021. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-the-politics-of-national-mourning-left-no-space-for-dissenting-voices-190591">Queen Elizabeth II: the politics of national mourning left no space for dissenting voices</a>
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<h2>Impartial coronation coverage</h2>
<p>In day-to-day reporting, my <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/174205/bbc-news-review-content-analysis-full-report.pdf">studies</a> of television news have shown the monarchy do not typically make up much coverage. Beyond dramatic scandals involving royal figures, it tends to be the pomp and ceremony of major events, such as the late queen’s death and funeral, that pushes the monarchy up the news agenda.</p>
<p>When focused on these events, broadcast coverage can often imply that the UK is united behind the monarchy – but the evidence suggests this is not a full picture of public opinion. Many people hold republican perspectives, and a significant minority of the public hold critical viewpoints about the monarchy. </p>
<p>But based on the special programming broadcasters have announced they intend to air during the coronation, it does not look likely that these perspectives will be prominently reflected.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/bbc-coronation-of-his-majesty-the-king-and-her-majesty-the-queen-consort">schedules</a> of the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/04/24/king-charles-iii-tv-channel-watch-live-bbc-uk-us/">major broadcasters</a> will largely follow royal events and ceremonies. Only Channel 4 appears to include <a href="https://www.channel4.com/press/news/channel-4-mark-coronation-altogether-different-royal-programming">programming</a> that raises <a href="https://time.com/6272423/uk-coronation-channel-4-alternative-coverage/">critical</a> questions about the UK’s constitutional arrangements. </p>
<p>The comedian Frankie Boyle will consider whether the monarchy is out of touch in modern Britain, while the journalist Emily Maitlis will reflect on that controversial 2019 interview with Prince Andrew that had devastating implications for the royal family. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1648160170676043778"}"></div></p>
<p>Should other broadcasters be following Channel 4’s lead? Ofcom’s rules on impartiality <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/99177/broadcast-code-guidance-section-5-march-2017.pdf">ask for</a> “varying viewpoints on a particular item”. Whether in routine news reporting or in one-off programming about the royalty, broadcasters could do more to reflect the public’s perspectives.</p>
<p>In practice, royal correspondents could adopt a more critical and detached standpoint by challenging rather than largely accepting perspectives they source from Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/royal-family/957673/pros-and-cons-of-the-monarchy">debates</a> about the pros and cons of a constitutional monarchy could be a more regular part of coverage. News bulletins, for example, could feature interviews with the public that include republican as well as royalist voices. </p>
<p>An impartial approach to covering the coronation would include broadcasters not only reporting the pomp, circumstance and bank holiday celebrations – it would also feature perspectives that question the existence and role of the monarchy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Cushion has received funding from the BBC Trust, Ofcom, AHRC, BA and ESRC.</span></em></p>
Ofcom guidelines ask broadcasters to use ‘due impartiality’ in reporting.
Stephen Cushion, Chair Professor, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197611
2023-01-12T01:49:21Z
2023-01-12T01:49:21Z
What Prince Harry’s memoir Spare tells us about ‘complicated grief’ and the long-term impact of losing a mother so young
<blockquote>
<p>The thought of her, as always, gave me a jolt of hope, and a burst of energy. And a stab of sorrow.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prince Harry’s <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/727238/">reflection</a> on his mother Princess Diana, who died unexpectedly when he was just 12 years old, appears in his memoir Spare, released officially this week.</p>
<p>In fact, the bestseller <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/727238/">is marketed</a> as a story about the “eternal power of love over grief”.</p>
<p>The book’s revelations, retold in high-profile TV interviews and featuring in his <a href="https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81439256">Netflix series</a>, are the subject of much media coverage. These revelations chart the prince’s experience of mourning the traumatic death of his mother in public, media intrusion, and its long-term impacts.</p>
<p>On face value, Prince Harry may share typical symptoms of people suffering “complicated grief”. But not everyone agrees with how he “shows” his grief so publicly.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spare-how-the-soap-opera-around-prince-harrys-memoir-will-affect-the-royal-brand-197452">Spare: how the soap opera around Prince Harry's memoir will affect the royal brand</a>
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<h2>The myth of ‘time healing all wounds’</h2>
<p>It’s been more than 25 years since the traumatic death of Prince Harry’s mother after a car crash in Paris. And with his family’s immense privilege, it’s easy to assume the need to explore the layers of grief that shape his experiences has passed its use-by date.</p>
<p>But the idea of “time healing all wounds” is a myth. Pain is ongoing. And by silencing someone’s pain, <a href="http://hospicewhispers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/NiemeyerGriefTheory.pdf">this can worsen it</a>. The public, health professionals, the media and family can all silence someone’s grief by minimising discussions about the impact of losing a loved one. </p>
<p>Twenty years working with grieving people and researching grief reminds me of the countless people in my counselling rooms reflecting on the stinging words someone says to them: “it’s time to move on”.</p>
<p>Counsellors urge people to make meaning of the life lost with those still living. This can involve sharing memories with family members about the person lost, remembering happy times, imagining their inclusion in life currently, and always creating space for conversations about their absence.</p>
<p>If people struggle to make meaning of the new life they are forced to live due to their loss, this can lead to long-term reactions known as complex or complicated grief.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/20-years-after-the-bali-bombings-survivors-are-still-processing-a-unique-kind-of-grief-191512">20 years after the Bali bombings, survivors are still processing a unique kind of grief</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is complicated grief?</h2>
<p><a href="https://prolongedgrief.columbia.edu/blog/complicated-grief-is-dsm-5-prolonged-grief-disorder/">Complicated grief</a> is a severe, persistent and pervasive longing for the deceased. If the death is sudden and unexpected, the prolonged impact will be greater. </p>
<p>People who experience this intensity of grief struggle to engage in everyday life. This profound distress can affect their physical and mental health, and the relationships around them, for years.</p>
<p>Prince Harry has been candid about his struggles with mental health since his mother’s death and his fractured relationship with his wider family. He’s openly admitted to drug use to help him cope with his loss. We see these types of effects on people suffering with complicated grief, as well as the associated trauma when the loss is sudden.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1611247174490234880"}"></div></p>
<h2>He was so young</h2>
<p>Grief isn’t just about what who was lost, but when the loss occurred.
Prince Harry was just 12 years old when his mother passed away.</p>
<p>Psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556096/">tells us</a> this period of development between childhood and adolescence oscillates between a child seeking a sense of identity versus confusion about where they “fit” in the world. </p>
<p>It’s a time when young people explore values, beliefs and ideas about who they might become as adults. But this stage of development is impacted with the loss of a parent to guide them through this period.</p>
<p>When a significant loss happens at his life stage, this can <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12560">destabilise the child</a> for significant periods – well into adulthood – especially when the death is related to an external cause, such as an accident.</p>
<p>Prince Harry has shared this destabilising effect and the strain between himself and his surviving parent. Not all siblings experience grief the same way. There may be conflict with the wider family.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27813715/">Long-term studies</a> in the United States show children who have lost a parent do eventually grow to be resilient and forthright individuals. Yet traumatic memories of both the event and the impact of that loss remain just under the surface. </p>
<p>Prince Harry’s accounts of his experiences are reminders of what can happen for children who have experienced trauma. </p>
<p>His perspectives about the ways his wife was <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-harry-and-meghan-the-sussexes-are-not-unique-in-being-royal-victims-196738">treated in the media</a> and by his family, may have activated reminders of this past trauma.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-harry-and-meghan-the-sussexes-are-not-unique-in-being-royal-victims-196738">Netflix’s Harry & Meghan: the Sussexes are not unique in being royal victims</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So what helps?</h2>
<p>Grief will have long-term impacts on people’s wellbeing throughout their lives, especially if they were only a child when the loss occurred.</p>
<p>When we look back on what helps children to manage their childhood grief, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2190/OM.65.1.b">personal agency</a> is key. They want to choose how they grieve, and their voice needs to be a priority.</p>
<p>This may mean choosing not to attend performative activities, such as funerals. This may mean openly sharing their experiences in a way that suits them – at school, work or with families. This may mean getting angry.</p>
<p>An evidence-based national grief program for children in Australia, <a href="https://www.goodgrief.org.au/sites/default/files/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Research%20Support%20for%20Children%202019%20Email.pdf">Seasons for Growth</a>, emphasises the importance of agency. This includes choosing how to accept the reality of their loss, and finding ways of voicing the emotional impact of that loss. This won’t always be through calm, reflective sharing. It may be through frustrated, angry voices, that suddenly emerge later in life.</p>
<p>Even with all the access to therapy, or even family members to speak to, grief will eventually show up in our thoughts, behaviours and actions. There is no discreet way to do it. Grief is both hope and sorrow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197611/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Wayland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Children and the adults they become need to choose how they grieve. That may include sharing their experiences and getting angry.
Sarah Wayland, Associate Professor, University of New England
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197452
2023-01-10T17:06:05Z
2023-01-10T17:06:05Z
Spare: how the soap opera around Prince Harry’s memoir will affect the royal brand
<p>As one of the world’s most famous brands, the British royal family has a strong, tailored narrative of patronages, pageantry and people. The monarchy has long demonstrated its value in contemporary consumer culture, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-family-why-even-a-charles-and-diana-divorce-mug-is-important-for-the-monarchy-176588">kept its buyers engaged</a>.</p>
<p>But what sets the royal family apart from other corporate brands is its individual, and often uncontrollable, human elements. The narratives that they (or the media) create can produce what then Prince Charles once <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781586484910">referred to as a “soap opera”</a>. </p>
<p>With history repeating itself – at least when it comes to royal public drama – the soap opera effect is again in full swing. The growing animosity between brand Sussex and the rest of the royals has come to a head with the release of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare.</p>
<p>It is hard not to see the ongoing sagas as a soap opera. The genre’s serial form follows a continuing narrative around a permanent cast of characters. With their sentimentality and moments of melodrama, soap operas engage us at an emotional level, inspiring feelings from sorrow and hate to joy and love. They bring us insights into the ups and downs of personal relationships, and of society at large. </p>
<p>Soap operas make us feel bonds with people who are otherwise not like us. A study <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Watching-Dallas-Soap-Opera-and-the-Melodramatic-Imagination/Ang/p/book/9780415045988">of the series Dallas</a> showed that even though the rich lifestyles portrayed were inaccessible to most viewers, they could relate to the tensions between love and duty. Such themes resonate strongly with royal watchers, and indeed, recur again and again throughout history.</p>
<h2>Shaping the narrative</h2>
<p>The release of Spare is a dramatic moment. Prince Harry’s many revelations about his life as a member of the royal family often double as criticisms of his family members.</p>
<p>At the heart of Harry’s narrative is his defence of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, against her persecution by the tabloid press and the alleged complicity of his family in this. From Harry’s perspective, his powerful passion for Meghan has led to the current rift with his family and the couple’s new life in California. There, Harry and Meghan are <a href="https://theconversation.com/harry-meghan-and-a-right-royal-battle-for-control-129715">non-working royals</a>, no longer permitted to use the Sussex Royal branding. </p>
<p>They have established the Archewell Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to humanitarian work and progressive causes, including through media partnerships with Spotify and Netflix. The drama around Spare threatens to overshadow and even extinguish this aspect of Harry and Meghan’s own brand. </p>
<p>Harry’s book is full of familiar narrative tropes. There is his wicked stepmother, Camilla, who he accuses of <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/01/09/prince-harry-camilla-villain-dangerous-60-minutes-sot-ath-vpx.cnn">scheming with the press</a>. And the emotional coldness of his father, who he claims <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/charles-didnt-hug-prince-harry-after-revealing-diana-died-in-car-crash-memoir/news-story/8002c96dcd8058920fae5e71ef0a991c">did not hug him</a> on telling him of his mother, Diana’s death.</p>
<p>Harry is the book’s heroic protagonist. He labels his brother William his “arch nemesis”, recounting many incidents of sibling rivalry and even a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/04/prince-harry-william-physical-attack-2019-meghan-spare-book">physical altercation</a>. All the emotional ingredients are here to sustain many future episodes of the royal family soap opera.</p>
<h2>Empathetic engagement</h2>
<p>It is exactly these archetypal human tensions – arch nemeses, wicked stepmothers – so easily relatable to ordinary family life, that encourage soap opera fandom and build audience empathy with the characters. </p>
<p>But as we have seen in the reactions to Spare, many peoples’ empathetic involvement is not for Harry. Instead, it lies with those he criticises, particularly William, Kate and Charles. This can be explained if we consider another key characteristic of soap operas.</p>
<p>Soap opera heroes and heroines are not perfect and are likely to be flawed. That’s what makes them appealing and relatable. The <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/prince-harry-says-he-fled-uk-with-meghan-archie-fearing-for-our-lives?via=rss&source=articles_fancylink">reports about Harry’s book</a> seem to show he enjoys highlighting flaws in other people, but not in himself or Meghan. </p>
<p>The blame is often firmly with others (even his <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/prince-harry-nazi-outfit-william-kate-racist-b2258422.html">decision to wear a Nazi uniform</a>). This is why he is unlikely to emerge from his biography as a heroic figure – particularly if people read coverage of the book instead of the memoir in its entirety. </p>
<p>Much <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f411c19-409f-43f1-8d5e-712a0e990df4">British sympathy</a> is with Charles, as a father in conflict with his wayward son, and William, who has to shoulder the responsibility of the monarchy’s future with active resistance on the part of his younger, resentful sibling.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/william-and-harry-reunite-to-mourn-the-queen-heres-why-the-death-of-a-family-member-can-bring-siblings-together-190609">William and Harry reunite to mourn the Queen — here's why the death of a family member can bring siblings together</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>The term soap opera is frequently used in a derogatory sense, but this application is unfair. Soap operas deal with human life in all its richness, often focused around events such as births, weddings and funerals. Soap opera fans thrive on the social aspects, discussing plot lines and relationship intricacies with others who share the same interests. </p>
<p>For this reason, the idea of the soap opera effect in the royal family brand is not necessarily a bad thing. It helps to humanise them and to bring an emotional value to their public. </p>
<p>The more Harry criticises them, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/01/09/prince-harry-favourability-falls-new-low-after-run">the more his popularity falls</a>. To recover, he will have to find a clearer brand narrative of his own, one that doesn’t depend on resentment of the royals and playing the victim role in the family saga.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pauline Maclaran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The drama around the revelations in Harry’s book are just the latest episode in the royal soap.
Pauline Maclaran, Professor of Marketing & Consumer Research, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196738
2022-12-19T11:21:07Z
2022-12-19T11:21:07Z
Netflix’s Harry & Meghan: the Sussexes are not unique in being royal victims
<p>To our surprise, one of us (Robert Hazell) appeared in episode one of the Netflix documentary <a href="https://theconversation.com/harry-and-meghan-what-the-first-episodes-reveal-about-meghans-reputation-within-the-royal-family-196303">Harry & Meghan</a>.</p>
<p>His contribution was based on our book <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/role-of-monarchy-in-modern-democracy-9781509944552/">The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy</a>, a comparative study of the other monarchies in western Europe, as well as the UK. Monarchy makes extraordinary demands not just of the monarch but of other close members of the royal family, whose lives are restricted from the moment of their birth.</p>
<p>The first and biggest restriction is that all royals suffer from constant intrusion of the press into their private lives. The worst cases come from the UK, where intense competition in the tabloid press has led to grotesque invasions of privacy.</p>
<p>These range from The People <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-camillagate-tapes-exposed-secret-10958350">publishing a transcript</a> of a late-night conversation between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_World_royal_phone_hacking_scandal">illegal phone hacking</a> of Prince William’s staff, to paparazzi using <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/14/palace-increasingly-dangerous-paparazzi-tactics-prince-george-duke-duchess-cambridge">dangerous tactics</a> to get photos of then two-year-old Prince George.</p>
<p>But there is a symbiosis between monarchy and the media which makes it difficult for royals to criticise the press. If they do so, they risk bad press coverage – and monarchy depends on the media both to publicise what it does and to maintain popular support.</p>
<h2>Royals and the press: a special relationship</h2>
<p>Most of the time the media accept the line they are fed, but not always. Alongside all the glossy pictures, there is more serious investigative journalism which keeps monarchies on their toes.</p>
<p>The media also commission regular opinion polls on all the European monarchies. Is the royal family paid too much? Who are your favourite royals? Should the monarch abdicate? Should the country become a republic? </p>
<p>Support remains high in all European monarchies, with <a href="https://constitution-unit.com/2020/09/30/the-role-of-monarchy-in-modern-democracy/">polls regularly showing</a> that between 60% and 80% of the people wish to retain the monarchy.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Harry & Meghan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Privacy and freedom from press intrusion is not the only freedom which the royals lack. They also lack free choice of career, freedom to marry who they like, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to travel.</p>
<p>Take free choice of career. In all European monarchies the heir and others close in the line of succession cannot choose a profession or pursue a business career, lest they be accused of exploiting their position for commercial gain.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/08/07/princess-to-stop-exploiting-her-title/">Princess Märtha Louise of Norway</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/oct/15/marketingandpr.broadcasting">Prince Edward</a> in the UK have both been accused of this, as have spouses of minor royals. In the Netherlands, members of the royal family and their spouses cannot take a job without first seeking government approval.</p>
<h2>The heir and the spare</h2>
<p>The harsh reality is that younger sons such as Prince Harry are ultimately disposable. It is only those in direct line of succession who count. </p>
<p>Other European monarchies have learned to keep the core team as small as possible. It can be just four people. In Norway and Spain it is the King and Queen, the heir and their spouse.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Queen Margrethe of Denmark in a royal portrait against a book shelf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501507/original/file-20221216-17105-pf4ypv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Margrethe of Denmark stripped four of her grandchildren of their royal titles in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drottning_Margrethe_av_Danmark.jpg">Johannes Jansson / Nordic Co-operation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2019, the King of Sweden <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49958085">removed five grandchildren</a> from the royal house. In 2022, Queen Margrethe of Denmark followed suit, <a href="https://people.com/royals/queen-margrethe-denmark-strips-four-grandchildren-royal-titles/">stripping four grandchildren</a> of their royal titles. They are the children of her younger son Prince Joachim and the decision caused a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/07/danish-royals-in-crisis-as-grandchildren-stripped-of-titles-queen-margrethe">serious rift</a> in the royal family.</p>
<p>The UK is apparently following suit. King Charles wants a <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-prince-charles-slimmed-down-monarchy-could-look-like-2021-5">smaller, streamlined monarchy</a> of perhaps just half a dozen people. </p>
<p>Until 2020, the team was much larger, with <a href="https://writeroyalty.com/2019-by-the-numbers-royal-work-round-up-part-1/">15 royals</a> who carried out public engagements. It has since shrunk with the departure of Harry and Meghan, as well as Prince Andrew and now with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-national-atmosphere-an-expert-explains-the-mood-surrounding-the-queens-death-190712">death of the Queen</a>.</p>
<p>It will soon shrink further with the eventual retirement of the older royals who still undertake some public engagements. But with a smaller team the royal family will be able to do a lot less. </p>
<p>That will require careful management of public expectations, not just in the UK but in the 14 other countries around the world where <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-canada-cut-ties-to-the-monarchy-under-king-charles-its-possible-190894">Charles is now king</a>.</p>
<h2>Have Harry and Meghan been uniquely victimised?</h2>
<p>The Netflix documentary conveys the impression that Harry and Meghan have been uniquely victimised. But, aside from the alleged racism, many of the difficulties they faced are shared by all the royal families of Europe.</p>
<p>It is monarchy which is unique, in the extraordinary demands which it makes of close members of the royal family. The public tend to think that royals lead very privileged lives, in glittering palaces with lots of servants. But in truth it is a gilded cage.</p>
<p>In a piece <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-why-half-in-half-out-just-isnt-an-option-for-royals-129726">written in 2020</a>, we said about the departure of Harry and Meghan: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It should be possible for minor royals to opt out of the gilded cage if they find the restrictions too great. But opting out would need to be total: giving up not just their public duties but their public funding, their royal titles, their security – trying as far as possible to become private people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We leave viewers of the Netflix series to judge to what extent that has proved possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hazell is Professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Morris has received some funding from the Rowntree Foundation.
He is a non-stipendiary Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Constitution Unit, University College London.</span></em></p>
Racism aside, many of the difficulties they face are shared by all the royal families of Europe.
Robert Hazell, Professor of British Politics and Government & Founder of the Constitution Unit, UCL
Bob Morris, Honorary Senior Research Associate, Constitution Unit, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193417
2022-11-03T16:55:05Z
2022-11-03T16:55:05Z
Why Prince Andrew and Prince Harry can fill in for the King, and how the law might change
<p>A fundamental principle at the heart of the UK constitution is that the crown never dies. On the death of one monarch, the heir to the throne immediately accedes. This smooth transition ensures that the government (which is carried on in the name of the crown) continues largely unaffected.</p>
<p>While the monarch is required to remain out of party politics, there are a number of decisions made by the government and parliament that require the monarch’s formal approval. The appointment of a new prime minister, granting royal assent to new legislation and ratifying international treaties are just a few. Some of these matters require the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/23">royal sign-manual</a> – the sovereign’s personal signature. </p>
<p>The monarch, being the head of state of 15 countries, is also required to travel overseas. And, as monarchs are human beings, they may fall ill from time to time. So what happens when the monarch is required to fulfil constitutional duties, but cannot do so in person?</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw8and1Geo6/1/16/contents">Regency Act 1937</a>, which was updated in 1943 and 1953, the monarch can delegate their powers to counsellors of state, two of whom must act together and exercise the powers of the monarch on their behalf. The law provides that the counsellors of state are the spouse of the monarch and the first four in the line of succession who are of full age (over 21) and domiciled in the UK. The heir apparent becomes a counsellor of state from the age of 18.</p>
<p>As this is regulated by legislation, parliament can make changes. In 1953, after Elizabeth II became Queen, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/2-3/1/section/3">Regency Act 1953</a> made the Queen Mother an extra counsellor of state for the rest of her life. The death of her husband George VI in 1952, had meant that she was no longer a counsellor of state, as she was no longer the wife of the monarch.</p>
<p>The late Queen’s extensive overseas travel (which led to some newspapers in the 1950s describing her as <a href="https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/jet-age-queen-13-capitals/docview/1769781643/se-2">“the Jet Age Queen”</a>) meant that counsellors of state were often required, and for most of her reign were appointed twice a year. Her significant place on the world stage would not have possible without counsellors of state ensuring that matters at home were taken care of on her behalf.</p>
<p>During the first few decades of Elizabeth’s reign, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret often acted as counsellors of state. In 1974, high inflation, prolonged industrial disputes with miners and railway workers, together with concerns over oil supplies meant that politics reached a difficult moment. </p>
<p>With the Queen in New Zealand for the Commonwealth Games, the pair acted on government advice to declare a <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/46203/supplement/1745/data.htm">state of emergency</a>. And after the prime minister, Edward Heath, asked the Queen via telegram to dissolve Parliament, that task, too, <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/46205/">was carried out</a> by the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.</p>
<h2>Charles’s challenges</h2>
<p>Now that Charles III has become king, he is no longer a counsellor of state. Holding the role are Camilla the Queen Consort, William the Prince of Wales, Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex, Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Princess Beatrice. </p>
<p>Two of these names are notably controversial. Prince Andrew has not conducted public duties since his fateful TV interview in 2019, and was <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prince-andrew-is-losing-his-military-titles-but-staying-a-prince-174990">stripped of his remaining military titles</a> after he reached an out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre in early 2022. Prince Harry is no longer a senior royal following his decision to no longer conduct royal duties and live in America. He remains a counsellor of state as he retains his British domicile by maintaining the lease of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.</p>
<p>Prince Beatrice has never conducted public duties, and the queen consort will usually be travelling alongside the King. This means that as things stand, when the King travels overseas, only Prince William can act as a counsellor of state, when legally, two counsellors are needed to fulfil the King’s duties.</p>
<p>However, the King cannot simply replace counsellors of state. Their role is a matter of law, at least until parliament passes legislation to change it. There has been no such legislation proposed in the last few years, though royal commentator Robert Hardman <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11354319/How-question-House-Lords-revealed-Palace-plan-sideline-Harry-Andrew.html">suggested</a> this was considered over the summer.</p>
<p>Though turbulence in British politics combined with the Queen’s death has stalled any likely conversation, it is expected that legislation will be enacted before the King travels overseas for any extended period of time. The government gave a heavy hint that legislation is on its way, when the matter was <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2022-10-24/debates/AD3AEDE1-B3AE-4492-91B6-6A61D1C793E0/RegencyAct1937">raised in the House of Lords in October</a>.</p>
<p>The question is what form that legislation will take. One possibility would be to specifically remove Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice, with the next three in the line of succession replacing them. But this would include Princess Eugenie, who does not conduct royal duties either. In time, this would also include the children of Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex – Lady Louise Windsor and Viscount Severn – who are also unlikely to conduct public duties. </p>
<p>A better solution is to follow the precedent of the Regency Act 1953, and specifically include more members of the royal family as counsellors of state, as was done with the Queen Mother. Those who conduct royal duties, such as Prince Edward and Princess Anne are obvious candidates. Having three active counsellors of state would create the necessary flexibility so that Prince William, if he wished to, travel abroad at the same as the King.</p>
<p>The legislation may also consider adding the Princess of Wales as a counsellor of state. In any event, she will become one when her husband becomes king. This also creates the possibility that William and Catherine could act together, giving the country a glimpse of the next king and queen. The King’s reign has only just begun, but at the age of 73, it is not too early to start thinking about the transition to the next reign.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Prescott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite being non-working royals, the two members of the family remain counsellors of state for King Charles III.
Craig Prescott, Lecturer in Law, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191445
2022-10-04T16:34:51Z
2022-10-04T16:34:51Z
Karl, Karel or Karol? The translation confusion over King Charles III’s name, explained
<p>Prince Charles is no more. In the English-speaking world, we’re now getting used to calling the former Prince of Wales “King Charles III”. As the King has chosen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-the-difficult-legacy-and-political-significance-of-the-new-kings-name-190383">keep his birth name</a> as his regnal title, the change isn’t too difficult. But in other languages, things are more complicated. </p>
<p>Looking at leading foreign press outlets, Charles’s name is translated in a variety of ways. His title of king is usually translated as French <em>roi</em>, Spanish <em>rey</em>, German <em>König</em>, Russian король (<em>korol</em>), Finnish <em>kuningas</em>, Czech <em>král</em>, Polish <em>król</em>, Bulgarian крал (<em>kral</em>). </p>
<p>For the Germans, this marks a change. <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/tod-von-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-king-charles-fuer-global-britain-bedeutet-a-b7238b19-3dd3-41c7-80e2-9458ac7d97c1">Queen Elizabeth II</a> was most often referred to using her English title – <em>die Queen</em> –, rather than with the German word for queen, <em>Königin</em>.</p>
<p>But while German and some other western European languages do not translate the regnal name, many Slavonic languages do. The Czechs called Elizabeth Alžběta, the Russians Елизавета (Yelizaveta), the Poles Elżbieta. Her son is, as king, called respectively Karel, Карл (Karl) and Karol. </p>
<p>But the practice isn’t necessarily the same by language group. Bulgarian, a closely-related Slavonic language, seems to call the new king крал Чарлс (<em>kral</em> Charls). </p>
<p>Finnish, a non-Slavonic language of the Finno-Ugric group, translated his mother’s name to Elisabet, but has left Charles alone. In Spanish, the Queen was Isabel II and her son is Carlos III. French is unexpectedly easy because the name is the same in both languages – <em>Le roi</em> Charles III.</p>
<p>As Prince of Wales, Charles’s name was usually left as is. In the <a href="https://wiki.korpus.cz/doku.php/en:cnk:syn:verze9">Czech National Corpus</a> (a 4.7-billion-word database of Czech texts), I found over 10,000 such examples referring to <em>princ</em> Charles, but only one example of his name in the Czech form <em>princ</em> Karel. Curiously, as the Charles in King Charles III is a regnal name, it is treated differently. </p>
<p>This has led to some confusion. In the first days of his reign, the king’s name appeared with varying translations. One recent evening, I checked <a href="https://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/">WebCorp</a>, an interface for searching the web for linguistic data. In Czech, I found him called <em>král</em> Karel III. 170 times (with the fullstop after III indicating that it is an ordinal number, as is Czech custom), but also clocked 45 examples of <em>král</em> Charles III.</p>
<p>The Institute for the Czech Language in Prague has been fielding queries from Czech media about what to call the new king. Kamila Smejkalová, who is head of the institute’s language advice service, told me they have been recommending Karel III., while acknowledging that Charles III. is also being used.</p>
<p>Confusion over British royal family names (Elizabeth or Alžběta, Philip or Filip) led the institute to draft a <a href="https://ujc.avcr.cz/jazykova-poradna/zajimave-dotazy/">briefing document</a> on the issue in the days after the Queen’s death. </p>
<p>The guidance suggests that in Czech, monarchs get treated differently from other members of the royal family, including – previously – Charles, Prince of Wales. Now that Charles is king, they recommend translating his name rather than leaving it in its English form. The guidance explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The names of monarchs are traditionally adapted into Czech … therefore, we can expect – and media usage of this name supports this – that now, and in the future, we will find both forms [Charles and Karel] of the British monarch’s name. Some speakers will respect tradition and nativise his name to Karel III. Others will prefer the form Charles III., which is also permissible, as the heir apparent was always referred to as <em>princ</em> Charles. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, Smejkalová says, we can see a clear preference for Karel over Charles. As soon as major media outlets opted for the former, it tipped the scales. However, practical concerns can also play a role. </p>
<p>Smejkalová notes that if Charles had been the IV, rather than the III, Czechs would have called him Charles IV., to avoid confusion with Karel IV., the most famous Czech king, who became Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century.</p>
<h2>English translations</h2>
<p>In English, a foreign leader goes by their own name, but the title held is translated. For some languages, we swap the ordering of first and last names to conform to our practice of putting the personal name before the family name, for example, Hungary’s Orbán Viktor is known in English as Viktor Orbán. There are exceptions, such as Chinese, where President Xi Jinping’s family name stays in pole position. </p>
<p>Monarchs’ names and titles are a special and not entirely consistent case. A monarch inherits a title, which may have an equivalent in a foreign language and could be translated, just like president or prime minister. The monarch’s regnal name can be different from their personal name, as was the case with Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, whose name in personal life was Albert.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman takes a German newspaper off of a stand, the front page has a photo of the Queen and a headline reading Die Welt betet fur die Queen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486773/original/file-20220927-22-qu7ahs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While Charles will be known as König Charles in Germany, his mother was simply ‘die Queen’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-sep-9-2022-2200790837">Hadrian / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For contemporary rulers, English tends to translate titles, but leave regnal names alone. Spain’s head of state is King Felipe VI (never Philip) and Denmark’s is Queen Margrethe II (not Margaret II). </p>
<p>Certain states in the Middle East are exceptions. Rulers may keep local titles, like emir or sheikh, which have been adopted as English words.</p>
<p>Looking back through history, the picture is more complex. We keep some familiar historical titles in the original language (Kaiser Wilhelm from imperial Germany, and the tsars of Russia). However, we call Catherine the Great an empress, rather than her Russian title of <em>tsaritsa</em>. </p>
<p>We leave German regnal names untranslated as above, but those less familiar are often anglicised. The tsars are known as Alexander or Nicholas rather than Aleksandr or Nikolay. We retain the semi-anglicised Ivan, rather than use its English equivalent John.</p>
<p>Translation here, as everywhere, is a balancing act. The name and title of a hereditary ruler can be deeply specific to a country, but monarchy is found worldwide. </p>
<p>Every language has its own dynastic vocabulary, and translators have to find equilibrium between the foreign and the familiar. Their decisions will chart a slightly different course in every language reporting on the British royal succession.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Bermel receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council and has received funding in the past from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. He collaborates on research with colleagues at the Czech Language Institute and the Czech National Corpus Institute named in this article. </span></em></p>
Throughout Europe, the new king’s name has been translated (or not) in many different ways.
Neil Bermel, Professor of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190810
2022-10-03T15:14:51Z
2022-10-03T15:14:51Z
King Charles will redistribute hundreds of charity patronages – here’s why they are such an important part of royal life
<p>After the Queen’s death, her son not only inherits her role as monarch and a significant fortune. King Charles III will also like take on most of the more than 600 charity patronages previously held by Elizabeth II. And as for the patronages Charles held as Prince of Wales, these will likely pass to his son Prince William, who now holds that title.</p>
<p>The monarchy has engaged in patronage, for altruistic and broader reasons, for approximately 900 years. Patronage has been, traditionally, a vehicle for those in power to exercise, cultivate and entrench their power. By dispensing patronage the patron is able to ensure that they are involved in various worthy projects and are seen to contribute to the betterment of society. </p>
<p>But patronage is not just a vehicle to gain <a href="https://theconversation.com/harry-meghan-and-a-right-royal-battle-for-control-129715">positive press coverage</a>. The benefits of patronage can be summed up in what I’ve termed in my research the <a href="https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3087043">“patronage bargain”</a>, referring to the positive qualities that arise from the relationship. </p>
<p>These benefits, such as obligation, reciprocity, responsibility, dependency, kudos and indebtedness, give the patron a sense of duty and purpose. These features have been a hallmark of the patronage relationship from the 17th century through to today’s royal patronages.</p>
<p>Being the patron of a charity has long been a tradition for British <a href="https://givingevidence.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/giving-evidence-royal-charity-patronages-july-2020.pdf">royal family members</a>, who in total are patrons of <a href="https://www.royal.uk/charities-and-patronages-1">over 3,000 organisations</a>.</p>
<p>Charity patrons shouldn’t be confused with donors, as they typically give their time for free and money does not change hands. They are figureheads appointed to a titular position with no legal responsibility and no formal power, at least internally within the charity.</p>
<p>Externally, however, patrons help attract funds, publicity and attention from the public. In addition to royalty, members of the aristocracy have also lent their names to charitable activity, as have celebrities, naturalists, philanthropists, religious leaders and many others. </p>
<p>King Charles was, as the Prince of Wales, patron of over 420 charities. Umbrella-like management structures are required to administer so many charitable commitments. <a href="https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/">The Prince’s Trust</a> and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund fill this role, and have amassed some colossal sums for charitable purposes. This includes raising approximately £140 million a year for good causes and adding approximately <a href="https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-the-trust/research-policies-reports/40-years-impact">£1.4 billion</a> to the UK economy in the last ten years. </p>
<h2>Historical role</h2>
<p>Economies of patronage have existed for thousands of years, with the aristocracy, marketplace, and church all fulfilling some patronage role at various points in time. Derived from the Latin <em>fautor</em> (one who gives support), patronage broadly conceived includes supportive and protective behaviour. In the case of royal patronage, the patron lends their name and status to help enhance the charity’s reputation. </p>
<p>The evolution of patronage over time also shows us how wealth has moved between groups in society. In the 17th century, rich patrons including aristocrats and merchants supported writers financially. </p>
<p>In the early to mid 18th century, the arts – poetry, painting, music, sculpture and architecture – benefited greatly from the support of aristocratic patrons. So much so that the Earls of Bathurst, Burlington, Pembroke, Leicester, and Oxford were known as the “Earls of creation”. </p>
<h2>Ending a patronage</h2>
<p>There is also a tradition of passing on patronages. When Prince Philip died in 2021, some of his 992 patronages were <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/prince-philip-charities-duke-of-edinburgh-award-b1829522.html">redistributed</a> to other members of the royal family, while others were retired, meaning organisations lost their royal patron. </p>
<p>When Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-why-half-in-half-out-just-isnt-an-option-for-royals-129726">stepped back from royal duties</a>, their patronages were <a href="https://www.royal.uk/buckingham-palace-statement-duke-and-duchess-sussex">returned to the Queen</a> to be distributed among working royals, though the couple <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a25835910/meghan-markle-royal-patronages-charities">kept a number</a> of personal patronages as part of their Dukedom of Sussex work. And when Prince Andrew <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prince-andrew-is-losing-his-military-titles-but-staying-a-prince-174990">lost his military titles and patronages</a>, his charities too <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-prince-andrews-200-charities-seek-a-new-patron-should-they-find-a-replacement-royal-127549">lost a royal figurehead</a>.</p>
<p>In demonstration of the significance of the patronage bargain, after losing <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/prince-harry-mental-health-james-cordon-b1807968.html">their patronages</a> the Sussexes noted: “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.” This suggests that patronage isn’t just something royals do to look good – it’s something that brings them value as well.</p>
<p>In giving up his royal patronages, the Duke of Sussex expressed personal loss. The position was valuable to him for personal and professional reasons. This shows that patronage is not a one way street. Both parties benefit from the relationship. These benefits will be front of mind for charity clients and their potential “protectors” as the royal patronage deck is shuffled once again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Tribe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
While ‘patron’ is a position with no formal power, it’s an important role for members of the royal family.
John Tribe, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190686
2022-09-16T15:31:00Z
2022-09-16T15:31:00Z
Queen Elizabeth: what we mean when we say we are mourning her for the values she embodied
<p>The feeling and public expression of grief and sorrow following the death of Queen Elizabeth on September 8, 2022 has caught much of the British population off guard. It was inescapable that, at the age of 96, the Queen was nearing the end of her life. As retired palliative care doctor and author Kathryn Mannix <a href="https://twitter.com/drkathrynmannix/status/1569067840409419783">tweeted</a>, she had likely been dying for some time. </p>
<p>However, photographs of her meeting both the outgoing and incoming prime ministers just 48 hours prior meant that the announcement that she had died was unforeseen. Her passing is in that category of death in old age that end-of-life specialist Diana Teggi <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305446">defines</a> as expected but still sudden, and somewhat of a shock.</p>
<p>The coverage of the Queen’s death in the last week reflects how death is increasingly “spectacularised”, to use a term <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Age-of-Spectacular-Death/Jacobsen/p/book/9780367368272">coined</a> by death studies sociologist Michael Hviid Jacobsen. </p>
<p>We have seen blanket media coverage – on television, radio and online – of the extensive and highly choreographed pageantry involved in transporting the Queen’s coffin, with crowds of onlookers along the various routes, from Balmoral to Edinburgh, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. This serves to make of her death a spectacle. It creates a narrative of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616696.2019.1616795">national community of grief</a>.</p>
<p>The question, though, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/15/crowd-behaviour-london-mourning-queen">whether what we are seeing</a> actually is a community of grief. Labelling the public response in this way simplifies what is a profoundly social event. </p>
<h2>A collective reluctance to face up to death</h2>
<p>There is a growing death-positive movement in the UK and around the world. It proposes the concept of death and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2020.1739780?casa_token=pOKT-JrQBcEAAAAA%3AtEa1llWmf8zm_Ugdy1OQid-UkuexK0onfVqOUlwQbJqbiLFV3lT9MR8Vu8y0rwXwHUJAFgeG1_k">grief literacy</a> which champions talking about and preparing for death. </p>
<p>Rather than having dying be only the purview of the medical establishment, it frames death as a collective, social responsibility. The idea is that greater openness and greater compassion can increase collective wellbeing and a sense of community. It can make people feel less isolated in both their grief and facing up to their mortality.</p>
<p>Despite this, <a href="https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/end-of-life/data">most deaths</a> still remains abstracted from everyday life and hidden from view. As sociologist Tony Walter <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/death-in-the-modern-world/book255329">has put it</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Death in the modern world is profoundly subject to medicalisation, professionalisation, rationality, and bureaucracy. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a result, actual, raw grief is still largely concealed too. It can be difficult to face up to and talk about openly, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-prince-charles-and-his-mother-down-why-britain-finds-it-hard-to-talk-about-death-107155">even for the monarchy</a>.</p>
<p>Losing the Queen is likely, therefore, a significant moment in people’s lives as a very public, shared and visible reminder that you can be here one day and gone the next. </p>
<h2>The Queen’s death as a societal loss</h2>
<p>It is this shared quality of the Queen’s death that makes this national period of mourning so interesting and the term “grief” to describe public responses so inadequate. Only a handful of the British people actually public knew her as a person. </p>
<p>By all accounts she had enduring relationships and was well liked by her inner circle, as evidenced by the multitude of affectionate anecdotes that have been shared since she died. To those people, the impact of her death <a href="https://theconversation.com/grieving-for-a-grandparent-a-counsellor-explains-how-they-help-people-through-such-a-loss-190456">will be deeply felt</a>. </p>
<p>But for others who did not know the Queen personally, more than the death of an individual, they are perhaps mourning the loss of what she represented. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13576275.2012.755505?casa_token=cp7-9LO2RfMAAAAA%3A6tnRVcp3zWA5XJUa9XzQOHjZfcTyBD_40dD05MEM6p4YPLVUts-ZtjRi74UvQw0ZIZ3iRCvEqVg">This has been seen</a> in funerals for “ordinary” people, where it is not only the deceased individual who is being remembered but also the values and beliefs that they embodied. </p>
<p>These values in turn are expected to be reflected in the funerary rituals chosen by the organisers. A sign of a “good funeral” is when the values espoused in the funeral align with those of the individual who has died and the memories of those bearing witness to said ritual. </p>
<p>So far, this seems to be the case with the Queen. The respect being shown for her by people visiting makeshift shrines and filing past her coffin lying in state mirrors the esteem with which she was held in life and the values of reverence and resilience that she personified. </p>
<p>Such sentiment has been echoed in countless <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/08/world-leaders-pay-tribute-death-queen-elizabeth-ii">news</a> articles, <a href="https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/all/the-queen-was-a-rock-of-stability-and-a-champion-of-timeless-values-3zGIweyowuwnkoEvCu9aqs">opinion pieces</a>, statements from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/queen-platinum-jubilee-canada-1.6341571">politicians</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2022/sep/14/king-charles-iii-prince-william-harry-accompany-queen-elizabeth-ii-coffin-casket-westminster-hall-lie-lying-in-state-live-updates-latest-news?page=with:block-6321ab898f0818891db89366#block-6321ab898f0818891db89366">interviews</a> with people on the street, where time and again it has been recognised that the Queen was a unique individual worthy of such attention and public response. </p>
<p>Over 70 years her behaviour and apparent value system was absolutely consistent, with commentaries reflecting on her humility, tolerance, discretion, pragmatism, graciousness and sense of civic duty. The sadness being expressed by those mourning in public then becomes about not just the loss of her as an individual but also the way she conducted herself and the values she embodied.</p>
<h2>Why we have ritual</h2>
<p>Much like attending a funeral but taking part on a much grander scale, participating in the public mourning for the Queen – standing on the pavement to watch the coffin cortege pass, waiting in the queue to pay one’s respects – is thus about bearing witness to this loss together. In his <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-954X.00344">analysis</a> of where people went to mourn the death of Princess Diana in 1997, sociologist Tony Walter describes the rare sense of solidarity these mourners experienced. </p>
<p>In mourning Diana, much like in remembering the war dead on Remembrance Sunday, a sense of society – of togetherness with others people did not know personally – was constructed. For everyday people, this is typically the purpose of a funeral service, to come together and feel a sense of community in remembering the deceased. </p>
<p>Such rituals of remembrance, whether highly or orchestrated or spontaneous, have a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/death-and-the-regeneration-of-life/2C26BF619DD42B131CF9C971DB014C99">restorative and social function</a> after a significant event. Rather than being simply about the expression of grief, it is this social function that we are observing right now in the public mourning for Queen Elizabeth, as we mourn the loss of what she represented.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Woodthorpe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As words go, grief feels inadequate for describing public sentiment in the wake of the Queen’s death.
Kate Woodthorpe, Reader in Sociology, University of Bath
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190342
2022-09-11T11:17:56Z
2022-09-11T11:17:56Z
Charles has been proclaimed king. But who is Charles the man?
<p>Charles Philip Arthur George, Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son, has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-proclaims-accession-of-king-charles-as-leaders-say-republic-talk-must-wait-20220911-p5bh54.html">finally ascended the throne</a> as King Charles III. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1567943405493256192"}"></div></p>
<p>As Prince of Wales, Charles has been there for as long as many of us can remember; every major moment in his life, from his birth through to his marriages and parenting of two sons, his public declarations about architecture, environmental sustainability and so on have been paraded before us in a regular drip feed of media
coverage. </p>
<p>And yet, many Australians feel as if they know little about Charles the man.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-a-new-head-of-state-what-will-charles-be-like-as-king-176878">Australia has a new head of state: what will Charles be like as king?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A sensitive, solemn boy</h2>
<p>Born in 1948 to the then Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Charles soon emerged as a solemn, sensitive young boy; he was <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/03/the-isolating-boarding-school-days-of-prince-charles">loved but bullied</a> by his father and loved but kept at arm’s length by an emotionally distant mother whose first duty in life was to the Crown.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://youtu.be/j3WHnMi3TJk">scene</a> of his parents’ return from a 36-day royal tour of Canada in 1951 offers a poignant snapshot of Charles’s early life as a royal prince.</p>
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<p>Prince Philip decided Charles would benefit from going to the same schools he had himself attended, and Charles was despatched to the prep school Cheam in Hampshire, and later to Gordonstoun in Scotland. Charles <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/03/the-isolating-%20boarding-school-days-of-prince-charles">hated both of them</a>.</p>
<p>After graduating with a 2:2 (lower second class honours) from Cambridge (the first British royal ever to earn a university
degree) and time spent in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy between 1971 and 1976, Charles transitioned to civilian life and began to develop interests in the causes that would prove his enduring passion for the rest of his adult life: environmental sustainability, urban and rural conservation, architecture, spirituality, social reform and gardening. </p>
<p>He launched The Prince’s Trust and the Business in the Community (BITC) scheme and oversaw the management of the Duchy of Cornwall.</p>
<h2>The search for an heir</h2>
<p>Throughout the 1970s the pressure grew for Charles to find a wife and cement the line of succession. His bachelor days whizzed by with a series of relationships with beautiful women (who were almost always blondes) who each seemed to be treated to endless afternoons gazing on admiringly while Charles played polo.</p>
<p>But there was a problem: in 1970 Charles had already met the love of his life, Camilla Shand, who would go on to marry military veteran Andrew Parker-Bowles in 1973. The woman Charles most wanted to marry was not in the running.</p>
<p>An heir, however, was required, and subsequently in 1981 Charles married the young Lady Diana Spencer in one of the most famous weddings of the 20th century.</p>
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<p>For 15 years the world looked on with fascination as the marriage produced two sons, William and Harry, before eventually ending in divorce in 1996.</p>
<p>One story that serves to sum up the Waleses’ marriage concerns the interior decoration of Charles and Diana’s apartments in Kensington Palace and country estate, Highgrove.</p>
<p>Before his wedding, Charles lived in an apartment in Buckingham Palace described by royal biographer <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/charles-9781405932790">Sally Bedell-Smith</a> as possessing a “strong masculine flavour”. With Charles and Diana’s subsequent move to Kensington Palace: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>came Diana’s pastels and chintzes to brighten the rooms made gloomy by limited sunlight […] Diana and Charles’s divergent personalities defined their respective offices. Hers, the one room where sunlight flooded through tall windows, had two pink sofas and was brimming with embroidered pillows, porcelain figures, enamel boxes, and her childhood collection of stuffed animals. Charles’s study was his man cave: small and dark, with stacks of books and papers, watercolour box, and sketch pads. From a portrait behind his desk, his mother gazed in silent judgment</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Upon his separation from Diana, Charles moved his own interior designer, Robert Kime, into Highgrove and charged him with the task of expunging “all traces of Diana”.</p>
<p>The years after Diana’s death saw a recalibration of Charles’s public image. After a life spent in the shadows of the arc lamp of Diana’s fame and popularity, Charles brought in a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/all-hail-king-charles-iii-the-green-monarch-20211201-p59dtn.html">public relations team</a> to re-shape his reputation and to pave the way for Camilla’s gradual acceptance as his future Queen Consort.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/16-visits-over-57-years-reflecting-on-queen-elizabeth-iis-long-relationship-with-australia-170945">16 visits over 57 years: reflecting on Queen Elizabeth II's long relationship with Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A man of contradictions</h2>
<p>The Charles who is keen to stress that he is “just an ordinary person in an extraordinary position” and someone to be “treated like any other” person, is one whose identity is nonetheless anchored in his royal heritage.</p>
<p>This is the schism that besets his life.</p>
<p>For example, it has been <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/royal-family-prince-charles-unusual-23517697">reported</a> he is someone who each day has a simple light breakfast such as a boiled egg, yet given his royal status, the egg must be cooked to perfection (four minutes exactly) and his cook <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/sep/23/monarchy.topstories3">boils several eggs</a> in the event the one Charles is served does not meet his standards.</p>
<p>He has worn the same <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9618545/As-pictured-repaired-jacket-%20Prince-Charles-big-fan-recycled-outfits.html">grey double-breasted suit</a> for years as proof of his environmental credentials, yet he’s a person for whom his clothes are laid out each morning, his toothpaste (it has been <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/spoiled-prince-has-a-flunkey-to-squeeze-his-toothpaste-20021117-gdftvv.html">noted</a>, perhaps erroneously) is squeezed on to his toothbrush for him. A valet carries a special cushion Charles needs to have placed on nearly every chair he sits on. </p>
<p>His “Farmer George” image (inherited from his ancestor George III who earned the nickname because of his love for agriculture) rests alongside the reality that the gardens he tends belong to stately homes and palaces owned or managed by his own family.</p>
<p>As Bedell-Smith notes, Charles’s: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>cunning in extracting money from eager benefactors was perilously entwined with a weakness for the company and perks of the superrich […] he took full advantage of free yachts, flights on private jets, and estates for private vacations. From time to time his patrons turned out to be shifty, and Charles would find himself tarred by the tabloids</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Charles’s many internal contradictions reflect both aspects of his character but have also been shaped by the royal system into which he has been born.</p>
<p>With the death of his mother, Charles is confronted with perhaps the most searing contradiction of his life: the moment he became king was one that he has waited for — <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bd5e64c4-1d33-4ad7-807a-fb02b5b914f7">often impatiently</a> — for decades, and yet it was also the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHwKTkvCWPY">the moment he has most been dreading</a>” for as long as he can remember.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-legal-and-constitutional-consequences-for-australia-of-queen-elizabeth-iis-death-190335">What are the legal and constitutional consequences for Australia of Queen Elizabeth II's death?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The now King Charles is a man of contradictions.
Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176878
2022-09-08T21:23:34Z
2022-09-08T21:23:34Z
Australia has a new head of state: what will Charles be like as king?
<p>With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Australia has a new king. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59135132">BBC has confirmed</a> Charles will take on the regnal name of “King Charles III”. </p>
<p>Charles was made the Prince of Wales at age nine in 1958 - with his investiture held a decade later - making him the longest serving royal heir in the longest reign of a British monarch. </p>
<p>We are familiar with him as a senior royal, but what will it be like now he is king?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/16-visits-over-57-years-reflecting-on-queen-elizabeth-iis-long-relationship-with-australia-170945">16 visits over 57 years: reflecting on Queen Elizabeth II's long relationship with Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Who is Charles?</h2>
<p>With the popularity of Netflix drama The Crown and Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart, we are currently awash with fictional (re)imaginings of Charles. </p>
<p>Of particular interest, however, is his marriage to Princess Diana. Despite now being married to Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, for almost 16 years, the pageantry of his wedding to Diana and the subsequent divorce still loom large in the public imagination.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prince Charles and Princess Diana standing in front of Lodge Canberra, Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461677/original/file-20220506-17-lbek4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public perceptions of Prince Charles have been significantly shaped by his tumultuous, and ultimately tragic, marriage to Diana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Romantic entanglements aside, Charles’s career as a senior royal has been plagued by scandals. </p>
<p>Two salient examples include his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/29/jimmy-savile-behaviour-prince-charles">association with Jimmy Savile</a> and, more recently, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-17/police-probe-prince-charles-charity/100838324">cash-for-honours allegations</a> against his foundation. </p>
<p>He has also had a tumultuous relationship with the press, filing a successful <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/mar/18/mailonsunday.associatednewspapers">court case against the Mail on Sunday</a> in 2006 for publishing excerpts from his private journals. Charles was also one of several royals targeted by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/11/phone-hacking-charles-camilla">News of the World phone hacking affair</a>.</p>
<p>Like other senior royals, Charles is patron of numerous charities. </p>
<p>However, the issue apparently most dear to his heart is the environment. He has long advocated for environmental sustainability and even has his own <a href="https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/what-duchy-originals-it-anything-do-duchy-cornwall">organic brand</a> and <a href="https://poundbury.co.uk/">sustainably-built urban village</a>.</p>
<p>The British monarch is intended to be a non-partisan, impartial head of state. As heir, however, Charles has been prolific in letters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2015/may/13/read-the-prince-charles-black-spider-memos-in-full">lobbying various government ministers</a>. This makes Charles much more interventionist than his predecessors. </p>
<h2>Will Charles make a ‘good king’?</h2>
<p>Since 2019, British market research firm YouGov have maintained a poll tracker asking <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/will-prince-charles-make-a-good-king">this very question</a>. </p>
<p>The results paint the very picture of ambivalence, with 34% of respondents endorsing King Charles and 33% opposing such an outcome. The final 33% were unsure. </p>
<p>Importantly, despite being the second most popular royal, Prince William is not necessarily viewed as “king material”. In fact, only <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/who-should-succeed-as-king-after-queen-elizabeth-ii">37% of Brits expressed a preference</a> for Prince William to lead the monarchy over Charles.</p>
<p><a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/has-the-queen-done-a-good-job-during-her-time-on-the-throne">A similar poll</a> taken while the queen was alive asking whether she was doing a good job found 59% believe she did, while only 4% believe she did not.</p>
<p>But what do we mean by a “good king” or “good queen” in a constitutional monarchy where political power rests largely with the parliament?</p>
<p>We shouldn’t simply dismiss the political power of the monarch entirely - after all, they can still sack the government. </p>
<p>However, the idea of a good king or queen today is more linked to their symbolic power. They derive this symbolic power not only from their ceremonial roles, but from what they mean to the ordinary Commonwealth citizen. </p>
<p>The long reign of Queen Elizabeth II has made her an icon of familiarity and constancy, particularly amid a tumultuous 20th and 21st centuries.</p>
<p>As her long-serving heir, Charles has also come to represent stability, but has generally failed to capture public sentiment. </p>
<p>So even if Charles succeeds in meeting some objective criteria to become a “good king”, he may not assume this role with the same public favour as his mother.</p>
<h2>What will this mean for Australia and the Commonwealth?</h2>
<p>Australia arguably has sentimental meaning for Charles. He spent a semester of his schooling at <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/prince-charles-school-australia">Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop campus</a>, and at one point was even keen to become its governor-general. </p>
<p>However, this idea proved to be unpopular with both Australians <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/14/australian-papers-reveal-queens-thoughts-on-charles-as-director-general">and the Queen</a>, albeit for different reasons. </p>
<p>Today, modern attitudes to the monarchy and the question of an Australian republic remain ambivalent. </p>
<p>A 2021 <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-sense-of-momentum-poll-finds-drop-in-support-for-australia-becoming-a-republic-20210125-p56wpe.html">Ipsos online poll</a> found that republican attitudes in Australia had subsided since their peak in 1999 - the year of the failed republic referendum. </p>
<p>Only 34% agreed that Australia should become a republic, while 40% were against the proposal. The other 26% were unsure. This uncertainty was highest among respondents aged between 18 and 24.</p>
<p>The future of the monarchy is an issue entwined with the historical and contemporary legacies of colonialism. Combined with the personal ambivalence some may feel towards Charles, his succession may reignite republican debates.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/long-live-king-charles-an-australian-republic-is-in-turnbulls-hands-for-now-50764">Long live King Charles? An Australian republic is in Turnbull's hands for now</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Carniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son has waited a long time to be king. Now, he is charged with holding the popular imagination after the death of his beloved mother.
Jess Carniel, Senior Lecturer in Humanities, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157897
2022-09-08T17:42:50Z
2022-09-08T17:42:50Z
Queen Elizabeth II: the end of the ‘new Elizabethan age’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483521/original/file-20220908-4832-zc824z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C64%2C3546%2C2385&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">JC JBB</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, Britain was just seven years out of the second world war. Rebuilding work was still ongoing, and rationing key products such as sugar, eggs, cheese and meat would continue for another year or so.</p>
<p>But the austerity and restraint of the 1940s were giving way to a more prosperous 1950s. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that the Queen’s succession was hailed as the “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-new-elizabethan-age-9781784531799/">new Elizabethan age</a>”. Society was changing, and here was a young, beautiful queen to sit at its helm.</p>
<p>Seventy years later, Britain looks very different. Elizabeth II ruled over perhaps the most rapid technological expansion and sociopolitical change of any monarch in recent history. Looking back on Elizabeth II’s life raises key questions about not just how the monarchy has changed, but also how Britain itself has transformed throughout the 20th and 21st century.</p>
<h2>Global Britain</h2>
<p>If Elizabeth I’s reign was a period of colonial expansion, conquest and domination, then the “new Elizabethan age” was marked by decolonisation and the loss of empire.</p>
<p>When Elizabeth II succeeded the throne, the last vestiges of the British empire were still intact. India had been granted independence in 1947, and other countries soon followed throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Although it existed since 1926, the current Commonwealth was constituted in the <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/london-declaration">London Declaration 1949</a>, making member states “free and equal”. The Commonwealth has a veneer of colonial power given that it <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/empires-new-clothes/">shares a history</a> with empire, and continues to invest the British monarch with symbolic power.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth featured heavily in the 1953 coronation ceremony, from television programmes showing Commonwealth celebrations, to the Queen’s coronation <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/a32694961/norman-hartnell-queens-coronation-gown/">dress</a> decorated with the floral emblems of Commonwealth countries. She continued to <a href="https://www.royal.uk/commonwealth-and-overseas">celebrate</a> the Commonwealth throughout her reign.</p>
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<p>The colonial history of the Commonwealth is reproduced in the <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/316/316672/the-new-age-of-empire/9780241437445.html">values</a> of Brexit, and related nationalist projects which suffer from what <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/postcolonial-melancholia/9780231134552">Paul Gilroy</a> calls “postcolonial melancholia”. The Queen was the living embodiment of British stoicism, “the Blitz spirit”, and global imperial power, on which so much of the <a href="https://discoversociety.org/2016/06/01/ukip-brexit-and-postcolonial-melancholy/">Brexit rhetoric</a> hung. What will the loss of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch do to the nostalgia that contemporary right-wing politics draws upon?</p>
<h2>The media and the monarchy</h2>
<p>At the coronation, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, allegedly <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2019.1597710">responded</a> to proposals to broadcast the ceremony on live television that “modern mechanical arrangements” would damage the coronation’s magic, and “religious and spiritual aspects should [not] be presented as if it were a theatrical performance”. </p>
<p>Television was a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/07/history-television-seduced-the-world">new technology</a> at the time, and it was feared that televising the ceremony would be too intimate. Despite these concerns, televising the coronation was a big success. The research project “<a href="https://www.peoplescollection.wales/users/8777">Media and Memory in Wales</a>” found that the coronation played a formative role in people’s first memories of television. Even non-ardent monarchists could give an intimate account of their experiences.</p>
<p>The royal image has always been mediated, from the monarch’s profile on coins, to portraiture. For Elizabeth II this involved radical development: from the emergence of television, through tabloid newspapers and paparazzi, to social media and citizen journalism (processes related to democratisation and participation). Because of this, we now have more access to monarchy than ever before.</p>
<p>In my <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526158758/">book</a>, Running The Family Firm: How the monarchy manages its image and our money, I argue that the British monarchy relies upon a careful balance of visibility and invisibility to reproduce its power. The royal family can be visible in spectacular (state ceremonies) or familial (royal weddings, royal babies) forms. But the inner workings of the institution must remain secret.</p>
<p>The monarchy’s striving for this balance can be seen throughout the Queen’s reign. One example is the 1969 BBC-ITV documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55853625">Royal Family</a>. Royal Family used new techniques of “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/cinema-verite">cinema verite</a>” to follow the monarchy for one year – what we would now recognise as “fly-on-the-wall” reality television. </p>
<p>It gave us intimate glimpses of domestic scenes, such as family barbecues, and the Queen taking infant Prince Edward to a sweet shop. Despite its popularity, many were concerned that the voyeuristic style fractured the mystique of monarchy too far. Indeed, Buckingham Palace redacted the 90-minute documentary so it is not available for public viewing, and 43 hours of footage remained unused.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/meghan-and-harrys-oprah-interview-why-royal-confessionals-threaten-the-monarchy-156601">Royal confessionals</a>”, modelled on celebrity culture and notions of intimacy and disclosure, have haunted the monarchy over the past few decades. Diana’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRH_YJTMHoM">Panorama</a> interview in 1995 was iconic, where she told interviewer Martin Bashir about royal adultery, palace plots against her, and her deteriorating mental and physical health.</p>
<p>More recently, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s <a href="https://www.itv.com/hub/oprah-with-meghan-and-harry/10a1332a0001">interview</a> with Oprah Winfrey discussed what they described as “the Firm’s” racism, lack of accountability, and its dismissal of Markle’s mental health. These interviews really did expose the inner-workings of institution, and ruptured the visibility/invisibility balance.</p>
<p>Like the rest of the world, the monarchy now has an account on most major UK social media platforms. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Instagram account, run on behalf of Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children, is perhaps the most obvious example of royal familialism in the contemporary age. </p>
<p>The photographs appear natural, impromptu and informal, and the Instagram is framed as the Cambridge “family photo album”, allowing “intimate” glimpses into Cambridge family life. Yet, as with every royal representation, these photographs are precisely staged.</p>
<p>Social media has given the monarchy access to new audiences: a younger generation who are more likely to scroll royal photographs on phone apps than read newspapers. How will this generation respond to the death of the monarch?</p>
<h2>Political figures</h2>
<p>The Queen succeeded to the throne during a period of radical political transformation. The Labour Party’s Clement Atlee had won office in 1945 in a sensational, landslide election which seemed to signal voters desire for change. The establishment of the NHS in 1948 as a central policy of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education">postwar welfare state</a>, promised support from cradle to grave.</p>
<p>Winston Churchill’s Conservative party retook parliament in 1952. Churchill spoke to a different version of Britain: more traditional, imperialist, and staunchly monarchist. Such contrasting ideologies were visible in responses to the Queen’s coronation in June 1953. </p>
<p>David Low’s satirical protest cartoon “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/01/queen-coronation-cartoon-outrage">The Morning After</a>”, published in the Manchester Guardian on June 3 1953, depicted party litter (bunting, champagne bottles) and the text “£100,000,000 spree” scrawled across the floor. The cartoon promptly instigated 600 letters of criticism for being in “bad taste”, and drew attention to contrasting political ideologies.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government began a systematic dismantling the postwar welfare state, instead emphasising neoliberal free markets, tax cuts and individualism. </p>
<p>By the time of Tony Blair’s “Cool Britannia” years at the turn of the new millennium, the Queen was an older woman. Princess Diana was famously the “people’s princess” of the age, as her new brand of intimacy and “authenticity” threatened to expose an “out of touch” monarchy. </p>
<p>By 2000, three years after Diana’s death in a car accident in Paris, support for monarchy was at its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/12/monarchy.alantravis">lowest point</a>. The Queen was believed to have acted inappropriately, failing to respond to public grief and “represent her people”. The Express, for example, published the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-queen-bows-to-her-subjects-1237450.html">headline</a> “Show us you care: mourners call for the Queen to lead our grief”.</p>
<p>Eventually, she gave <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xc8ta-AtEM">a televised speech</a> which mitigated her silence by emphasising her role as grandmother, busy “helping” William and Harry address their grief. We’ve seen this grandmotherly role elsewhere too: in her <a href="https://www.royal.uk/official-photographs-released-queens-90th-birthday">90th birthday photographs</a> in 2016, taken by Annie Leibowitz, she sat in a domestic setting surrounded by her youngest grandchildren and great-grandchildren.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>This is the image of the Queen that many will remember: an older woman, dressed pristinely, clutching her iconic, familiar handbag. While she was head of state throughout many of the seismic political, social and cultural changes of the 20th and 21st centuries, the fact that she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/queen-elizabeth-brexit-britain.html">rarely</a> gave a political opinion means she successfully navigated the monarch’s constitutional political neutrality. </p>
<p>She also ensured that she remained an icon. She was never really given a “personality” like other <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-charles-the-conventions-that-will-stop-him-from-meddling-as-king-106722">royals</a>, who have initiated a love-hate relationship with the public because we know more about them. </p>
<p>The Queen remained an image: indeed, she is the most represented person in British history. For seven decades British people have not been able to make a cash purchase without encountering her face. Such quotidian banality demonstrates monarchy’s – and the Queen’s – interweaving into Britain’s fabric.</p>
<p>The Queen’s death is bound to prompt Britain’s reflection on its past, its present and its future. Time will tell what the reign of Charles III will look like, but one thing is for sure: the “new Elizabethan age” is long gone. Britain is now recovering from recent ruptures in its status quo, from Brexit, to the COVID-19 pandemic, to ongoing calls for Scottish independence. </p>
<p>Charles III inherits a very different country than that of his mother. What purpose, if any, will the next monarchy have for Britain’s future?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Clancy has received funding from the ESRC and the AHRC.</span></em></p>
Britain has gone through unimaginable change culturally and politically during Elizabeth’s 70-year reign.
Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159485
2022-09-08T17:38:29Z
2022-09-08T17:38:29Z
Queen Elizabeth II: a moderniser who steered the British monarchy into the 21st century
<p>When the late historian Sir Ben Pimlott embarked on his <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Queen-Ben-Pimlott/dp/0007476620">1996 biography</a>, his colleagues expressed surprise that he should consider Queen Elizabeth II worthy of serious study at all. Yet Pimlott’s judgement proved sound and, if few academics have followed his lead, the political role of the monarchy has received thoughtful treatment in the creative arts. </p>
<p>Stephen Frears’s 2006 film, The Queen, showed her dilemma after the death of Princess Diana; Peter Morgan’s stage play The Audience showed the monarch’s weekly meetings with her prime ministers. And she has been shown in a generally positive and sympathetic light by both Netflix’s acclaimed drama series The Crown and even in Mike Bartlett’s speculative play King Charles III, about the difficulty her heir would have in filling her shoes.</p>
<p>Elizabeth’s reign was a delayed result of the abdication crisis of 1936, the defining royal event of the 20th century. Edward VIII’s unexpected abdication thrust his shy, stammering younger brother Albert onto the throne as King George VI. Shortly thereafter he was thrust into the role of figurehead for the nation through the second world war.</p>
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<img alt="Newspaper picture of princess Elizabeth in army uniform with her parents and sister on a podium, smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428790/original/file-20211027-21-109y9xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The second world war was an important formative experience for the future queen, seen here with family celebrating VE Day in 1945.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo</span></span>
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<p>The war was the most important formative experience for his elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Her experience as a car mechanic with the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service – the women’s army service) meant that she could legitimately claim to have participated in what has been called “the people’s war”. </p>
<p>The experience gave her a more naturally common touch than any of her predecessors had displayed. When, in 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten – who became Duke of Edinburgh (and died in April 2021 at the age of 99) – her wedding was seized on as an opportunity to brighten a national life still in the grip of post-war austerity and rationing.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C3%2C2150%2C1510&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Queen seated on a throne with full regalia, surrounded by bishops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C3%2C2150%2C1510&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428757/original/file-20211027-23-1urviap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">God Save the Queen: Elizabeth II is crowned in Westminster Abbey, June 2 1952.</span>
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<p>Elizabeth II inherited a monarchy whose political power had been steadily ebbing away since the 18th century but whose role in the public life of the nation seemed, if anything, to have grown ever more important. Monarchs in the 20th century were expected both to perform ceremonial duties with appropriate gravity and to lighten up enough to share and enjoy the tastes and interests of ordinary people. </p>
<p>The Queen’s elaborate coronation in 1953 achieved a balance of both these roles. The ancient ceremony could be traced to the monarchy’s Saxon origins, while her decision to allow it to be televised brought it into the living rooms of ordinary people with the latest modern technology. Royal ceremonial was henceforth to be democratically visible, ironically becoming much better choreographed and more formal than it had ever been before.</p>
<p>The Queen went on to revolutionise public perceptions of the monarchy when, at the urging of Lord Mountbatten and his son-in-law, the television producer Lord Brabourne, she consented to the 1969 BBC film Royal Family. It was a remarkably intimate portrayal of her home life, showing her at breakfast, having a barbecue at Balmoral and popping down to the local shops. </p>
<p>Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales the same year, another royal television event, was followed in 1970 by the Queen’s decision during a visit to Australia and New Zealand to break with protocol and mix directly with the crowds who had come out to see her. These “walkabouts” soon became a central part of any royal visit.</p>
<p>The highpoint of the Queen’s mid-reign popularity came with the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations, which saw the country festooned in red, white and blue at VE Day-style street parties. It was followed in 1981 by the enormous popularity of the wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.</p>
<h2>Testing times</h2>
<p>The following decades proved much more testing. Controversy in the early 1990s about the Queen’s <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_2529000/2529209.stm">exemption from income tax</a> forced the Crown to change its financial arrangements so it paid like everyone else. Gossip and scandal surrounding the younger royals turned into divorces for Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and – most damagingly of all – Prince Charles. The Queen referred to 1992 – the height of the scandals – as her “<a href="https://www.royal.uk/annus-horribilis-speech"><em>annus horribilis</em></a>”.</p>
<p>The revelations about the misery Princess Diana had endured in her marriage presented the public with a much harder, less sympathetic image of the royal family, which seemed vindicated when the Queen uncharacteristically miscalculated the public mood after Diana’s death in 1997. Her instinct was to follow protocol and precedent, staying at Balmoral and keeping her grandchildren with her. </p>
<p>This seemed hard and uncaring to a public hungry for open displays of emotion that would have been unthinkable in the Queen’s younger days. “Where is our Queen?” demanded The Sun, while the Daily Express called on her to “Show us you care!” insisting that she break with protocol and fly the Union Jack at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. Never since the abdication had the popularity of the monarchy sunk so low.</p>
<p>Caught briefly on the back foot by this remarkable change in British public behaviour, the Queen soon regained the initiative, <a href="https://www.royal.uk/queens-message-following-death-diana-princess-wales">addressing the nation on television</a> and bowing her head to Diana’s funeral cortege during a cleverly conceived and choreographed televised service.</p>
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<p>The extent to which she quickly regained public support was shown by the enormous, if unexpected, success of her 2002 Golden Jubilee, which was ushered in by the extraordinary sight of Brian May performing a guitar solo on the roof of Buckingham Palace. By the time London hosted the Olympics in 2012 she was sufficiently confident of her position to agree to appear in a memorable tongue-in-cheek cameo in the opening ceremony, when she appeared to parachute down into the arena from a helicopter in the company of James Bond.</p>
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<h2>Political sphere</h2>
<p>Queen Elizabeth kept the crown above party politics, but she was always fully engaged with the political world. A firm believer in the Commonwealth, even when her own prime ministers had long lost faith in it, as its head she mediated in disputes between member states and provided support and guidance even to Commonwealth leaders who were strongly opposed to her own UK government. </p>
<p>Her prime ministers often paid tribute to her political wisdom and knowledge. These were the result both of her years of experience and of her diligence in reading state papers. Harold Wilson <a href="https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2019/08/29/constitutional-problems-faced-by-queen-during-reign/">remarked</a> that to attend the weekly audience unprepared was like being caught at school not having done your homework. It was widely believed that she found <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/queen-elizabeth-ii-margaret-thatcher-relationship-prime-minister-disagree-friends-crown-netflix/">relations with Margaret Thatcher difficult</a>.</p>
<p>The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh sometimes objected to the political use to which governments put them. In 1978 <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/celebrities/news/a32649192/the-queen-hid-bush-buckingham-palace-avoid-guest/">they were unhappy</a> to be forced by the then foreign secretary, David Owen, to receive the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife as guests at Buckingham Palace. </p>
<p>The Queen could act to very positive effect in international relations, often providing the ceremonial and public affirmation of the work of her ministers. She established a good rapport with a string of American presidents, particularly Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, and her successful 2011 state visit to the Republic of Ireland, in which she astonished her hosts by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/may/19/queen-ireland-visit-respect-adams">addressing them in Gaelic</a>, remains a model of the positive impact a state visit can have. </p>
<p>She was even able to put aside her personal feelings about the 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten to offer a cordial welcome to the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, when he took office in 2007 as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. </p>
<p>Only very occasionally and briefly did the Queen allow her own political views to surface. On a visit to the London Stock Exchange after the 2008 financial crash she asked sharply why nobody had seen it coming.</p>
<p>In 2014, her carefully worded appeal to Scots to think carefully about their vote in the Independence Referendum was widely – and clearly rightly – interpreted as an intervention on behalf of the Union. And in the run-up to the 2021 UN COP26 conference in Glasgow, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59056725">from which she had to pull out on medical advice</a>, she was overheard <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-15/queen-is-irritated-by-world-leaders-lack-of-climate-action">expressing irritation</a> at the lack of political action on the climate change emergency.</p>
<h2>Final years</h2>
<p>As she approached her tenth decade, she finally began to slow down, delegating more of her official duties to other members of the royal family – even the annual laying of her wreath at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, while in May 2022 she delegated her most important ceremonial duty, the reading of the Speech from the Throne at the State Opening of Parliament, to Prince Charles. </p>
<p>She retained her ability to rise to a crisis, however. In 2020, as the COVID pandemic descended, the Queen, in sharp contrast to her prime minister, addressed the nation from lockdown at Windsor in a calm, well-judged message. Her short address combined solidarity with her people with the reassurance that, in a conscious reference to Vera Lynn’s wartime hit, “We will meet again.”</p>
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<p>The decade also brought sadness. Her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle withdrew completely from royal duties, causing deep hurt to the royal family. This hurt was compounded when the Sussexes accused the royal family, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-royals-meghan-int-idUSKBN2B003I">in an interview with Oprah Winfrey</a> which was watched around the world, of treating them with cruelty, disdain and even racism. </p>
<p>The shock of the interview was followed quickly by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-philip-dies-old-school-european-aristocrat-and-dedicated-royal-consort-84737">death of Prince Philip</a>, her husband of 73 years, a few months short of his 100th birthday. At his funeral, which was reduced in scale to meet the requirements of COVID regulations, the Queen cut an unusually lonely figure, small, masked and sitting alone. As her health declined in the months following his death, the deep impact of his loss became all too apparent. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-philip-dies-old-school-european-aristocrat-and-dedicated-royal-consort-84737">Prince Philip dies: old-school European aristocrat and dedicated royal consort</a>
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<p>The pain of the Sussexes’ estrangement from the royal family was heavily compounded by the disgrace soon afterwards of Prince Andrew, her second and, it was often suggested, her favourite son. His close involvement with the convicted American paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, led to the unedifying spectacle of a senior member of the royal family being accused in an American court of underage sex; he made his own position immeasurably worse by agreeing to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59874170">a disastrous interview on the BBC current affairs programme Newsnight</a>.</p>
<p>The Queen responded to the scandal with remarkable decisiveness: she stripped her son of all his royal and military titles, including the cherished “HRH”, and reduced him, in effect, to the status of a private citizen. Even her closest family were not to be allowed to undermine all she had done to protect and preserve the monarchy. </p>
<p>The remarkable success of her 2022 Platinum Jubilee was a sign of just how much she had retained the affections of her people; a particularly well-received highlight was a charming cameo performance showing her having tea with the children’s television character, Paddington Bear. </p>
<p>Apart from in dreams, in which she was often <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-06-02/why-so-many-brits-want-have-high-tea-queen-elizabeth">popularly supposed to appear</a>, the Queen’s most regular contact with her subjects was in her annual Christmas message on television and radio. This not only reflected her work and engagements over the previous year, but it reaffirmed, with greater frankness and clarity than many of her ministers seemed able to summon, her deeply held Christian faith. </p>
<p>As head of the Church of England she was herself a Christian leader and she never forgot it. The Christmas message adapted over the years to new technology, but it was unchanging in style and content, reflecting the monarchy as she shaped it. </p>
<p>Under Elizabeth II, the British monarchy survived by changing its outward appearance without changing its public role. Republican critics of monarchy had long given up demanding its immediate abolition and accepted that the Queen’s personal popularity rendered their aim impracticable while she was still alive.</p>
<p>Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign makes her the longest reigning monarch in British history, leaves her successor with a sort of British monarchical republic, in which the proportions of its ingredients of mystique, ceremony, populism and openness have been constantly changed in order to keep it essentially the same. It has long been acknowledged by political leaders and commentators all over the world that the Queen handled her often difficult and delicate constitutional role with grace and remarkable, even formidable, political skill. </p>
<p>Her wisdom and unceasing sense of duty meant she was widely viewed with a combination of respect, esteem, awe and affection, which transcended nations, classes and generations. She was immensely proud of Britain and its people, yet in the end she belonged to the world, and the world will mourn her passing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Lang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Elizabeth II was a safe pair of hands for the British monarchy in a turbulent and changing era.
Sean Lang, Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.