Charles is now King of the United Kingdom and the 14 Commonwealth realms. What the future holds, no one knows for sure, but it seems like the new monarch is ready and willing to change several things.
His Majesty’s relationship with his youngest son, Harry, has been somewhat rocky since the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview last year. And now, it seems like King Charles is ready to give Harry even less royal attention. Reports suggest that the new King is plotting to make a string of changes the monarchy.
The funeral for the Queen was held on Monday. Following the State Funeral, her coffin traveled from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch in Procession. From Wellington Arch, the coffin went to Windsor, and once there, the hearse continued in Procession to St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, via the Long Walk. At St George’s Chapel, another funeral service was held.
Queen Elizabeth – funeral
The Choir of St George’s Chapel sang during the funeral service at St George’s Chapel. Then, before the “final Hymn,” Queen Elizabeth’s imperial state crown, the Orb, and the Sceptre was removed from her coffin and placed on the altar.
Next, King Charles put his mother’s Company Camp Colour of the Grenadier Guards on her casket before The Lord Chamberlain broke his Wand of Office and placed it down.
As her Majesty’s coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault – and the guests sang God Save The King, Charles was seen clearly emotional, fighting back the tears. Later on Monday evening, a small, private burial service was held with only the closest family attending, without any cameras nearby.
On Sunday, the day before the funeral, King Charles addressed the nation again.
King Charles held a reception at Buckingham Palace on Sunday evening for all heads of state attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. At 8 P.M, a national minute’s silence was held.
It should go without saying that virtually an entire nation is mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth. On Sunday, King Charles made sure to thank the public. The monarch said he and Camilla – the Queen Consort – were “moved beyond measure” by everyone paying their respects.
King Charles becomes monarch
“Over the last 10 days, my wife and I have been so deeply touched by the many messages of condolences and support we have received from this country and across the world,” he wrote.
“In London, Edinburgh, Hillsborough, and Cardiff, we were moved beyond measure by everyone who took the trouble to come and pay their respects to the lifelong service of my dear mother, the late Queen.
“As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my family and myself in this time of grief.”
King Charles was officially announced as King just days after Queen Elizabeth’s passing. He will take on many new duties, but unfortunately, as he confirmed in his speech, this will mean cutting down on particular charitable work.
He and Camilla have lived at Clarence House for nearly 20 years. As of today, it’s still unclear whether he and the Queen Consort will move into Buckingham Palace or remain at their residence.
Last Monday, though, many of the King’s employees were said to have received a message that was hard to handle. During the church service for the Queen, staff were reportedly handed a redundancy notice – and told that they could lose jobs.
King Charles rocky relationship with Harry
And while the new monarch now seems ready to part ways with many of his employees, the same might also apply to some of his family members. One of whom is Harry, who soon might see himself pushed even further away from any sort of royal engagements.
The relationship between now-King Charles and his son, Harry, hasn’t been at its best lately, primarily because of Harry leaving the royal family and speaking out against his family and father through the aforementioned Oprah Winfrey interview.
Harry’s remarks about his family in the Oprah interview left many senior members of The Firm angry, especially his father and brother, Prince William. Harry even revealed that Charles stopped taking his calls following their move to the US.
Still, when Prince Philip was to be buried, Harry attended the funeral – the first time he’d seen his family since the interview. At that time, he didn’t walk beside his brother William, which many saw as a sign that the two weren’t getting along.
Following the funeral service, the pair were seen talking to each other, a possible indication that they were making amends. However, hours later, the opposite occurred. Harry was said to have met with his father and brother during a two.-hour-sit down. Harry didn’t even know it was going to take place and felt “ambushed.”
Things didn’t exactly get better when Harry, on an episode of the Armchair Podcast, took another swing at his father regarding his upbringing.
Harry felt Charles handled down “pain and suffering”
At the same time as stating that he places no blame on his father, Harry said Charles handed down a “cycle” of “genetic pain and suffering.”
“I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody. But certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure that I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on basically,” Harry said.
“There’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, as parents we should be doing the most that we can to try and say ‘you know what that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.’”
Harry continued: “I never saw it, I never knew about it, and then suddenly I started to piece it all together and go ‘OK so this where he went to school, this is what happened.’ I know this bit about his life, I also know that’s connected to his parents. So that means that he’s treating me the way that he was treated. Which means how can I change that for my own kids?”
Charles took over more and more responsibilities regarding the Queen’s duties as she began having health issues about two years ago.
King Charles ‘plots’ a major change to the monarchy, report
As King, it seems like he has a clear plan for approaching the job. However, that plan appears to include changes that may make close family members somewhat disappointed. That involves his son, Harry.
As reported by The Mirror, King Charles plans to make changes to the law to prevent non-working royals from being Counselors of State. They currently consist of five people – the spouse of the monarch and the next four royals in the line of succession over the age of 21.
However, with the passing of the Queen, three of those are now non-working royals: Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, and Princess Beatrice.
That’s something Charles is said to be wanting to change – by removing the trio for good.
The 1937 Regency Act dictates that the spouse of a monarch and the four adults next in line to the throne can act as Counselors of State.
They can fill in for the King and carry out official functions such as holding Privy Council meetings and meeting new ambassadors. However, they do not have the authority to dissolve Parliament, grant rank titles, or deal with matters that involve the entire Commonwealth.
Want Harry out of the role as counselors of state
During the Queen’s latter years, the roles of Counselors of State were filled by Charles, William, Harry, and Andrew, as well as her husband, Philip.
If the King gets what he wants, though, Harry, Andrew, and Beatrice will all become ineligible and pushed further out in the cold outside the royal sphere.
As reported by The Telegraph, the King understands the incompatibility of having three non-working royals eligible to fill in for him when he is abroad or unable to work.
Parliament has to pass any change in legislation – and we will soon see what King Charles will do about the trio of non-working royals.