Even the briefest look back at British and in particular English history will throw up stories of noble and royal families who are divided, sometimes to the extent that some members of these families have taken up arms against one another. There have been periods when there has been claim and counterclaim by Princes, nobles, or other members of a high born family, that they have a right to occupy the throne, which have sometimes broken out into violence and indeed civil war.
Thankfully for Britons the days when the head of state could change through violence and at the point of a sword are over. Succession in the Monarchy has been codified in law and there’s not been any serious, barring the Jacobite Rebellions of course, kinetic conflict over it since Parliament installed the dual monarchs William and Mary during the Glorious Revolution . We know in advance when it comes to the House of Windsor, who is going to inherit the throne in their turn and members of the house move up and down the succession line depending on who has died and who has been born. It’s somewhat boring and predictable but far far better than the much more violent alternative methods of choosing a head of state that has been seen in Britain’s past.
Therefore I look at the current dispute between two royal princes with some degree of world weariness and amusement. The spat between Prince William and Prince Harry is nothing really that unusual in British history, sometimes Princes kick off against one another over issues of power, influence, money or some other more personal factor, it’s just what happens. However at least today we can comfort ourselves that unlike in the period of The Anarchy in the 12th century we are not seeing the country ravaged by a violent succession dispute nor do we have Dukes building up private armies who were loyal to the Duke rather than the King, as was one factor in the Wars of the Roses. Now the existence of private armies with loyalties to their Duke instead of the monarch are a thing of the past, mostly, as only the Duke of Atholl is permitted to have a private militia and even then it’s mostly ceremonial and armed with probably deactivated Lee Metford rifles dating back to before the Second Boer War. In the present time rather than kicking off violently or keeping silent and dignified about internal disputes, Prince Harry has instead engaged in incredibly unusual and stupid things like whining about how hard done by they are in the international media and publish ghost written books about the various slights, both real and imagined, that one Prince has given to another. The revelations that Prince William had a physical altercation with Prince Harry which resulted in Harry’s necklace being broken and Harry falling into a dog’s water bowl are a very minor incident when compared to the princely disputes of my nation’s past. Falling into a dog bowl after a minor altercation is nothing like as serious as being drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine, as was the fate of George Plantagenet the brother of King Edward IV.
We’ve seen princely disputes many times in British history, it is a feature not a bug in the monarchical system. The job of monarch is one that people have wanted and desired and therefore people who believe that they have a chance at the job have been willing to risk all to get it.
However succession is not the issue with the current handbags at dawn spat between Prince William and Prince Harry. We and they all know that Harry is very unlikely to be in a position where he occupies the throne, he’s far too low on the succession list for that and has gone lower every time Prince William and Princess Catherine of Wales have had a child. The current conflict between Harry and William is much more to do with personal issues, personality clashes and the fact that Harry, being the back up to the heir presumptive, really didn’t have a proper role in life and what roles he could do, such as service in the military, are limited. Opportunities to do stuff outside of royal circles are even more limited when the ‘spare’ might not be intellectually brilliant. I also doubt if Prince Harry has the intellect to join the Church, which was a good place to deposit royal ‘spares’ in the past as it gave them a socially useful role and hopefully kept them busy and out of mischief.
When I look at the current princely clash I don’t see either Prince Harry or the Duchess of Sussex coming out of it with any sort of win or even with any dignity intact. Prince William and the King’s policy of saying nothing in the face of Prince Harry’s emotional incontinence is probably the best one to follow.
Prince Harry’s tendency to whinge about his life and fail to recognise the enormous advantages he had and still has rankles people, especially those who are currently struggling in Britain just to survive. Prince Harry’s wife is also exceedingly unpopular and unpopular for reasons that have sod all to do with race and everything to do with the various reports of her eccentric, entitled and less than respectful behaviour whilst a working member of the Royal Family. Britons have quite rightly been disappointed in Prince Harry’s choice of wife as more has been revealed about her and her personality, despite welcoming her to Britain and being completely unconcerned about the fact that the Duchess is mixed race.
I don’t see any future for Prince Harry that involves him shouting, as Richard III is alleged to have said ‘my horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse’ before dying on a battlefield, but I do see an incredible amount of loneliness and regret. There could come a time when Prince Harry starts to realise that the very comfortable life, although one with limited personal opportunities, that exist for junior members of the House of Windsor might be better than being chewed up, spat out and mercilessly exploited by the Hollywood crowd. He’s rapidly moving into a situation where, if what the media and the various book leaks that have come out so far, is correct, he has no friends in the UK and even less in the USA once the media that Prince Harry professes to despise, but still cooperates with, has wrung whatever content they can get from his life and life story.
The current conflict between the Princes is of no political or dynastic importance, it is a sordid nothingburger of a tale which will probably end equally sordidly for Prince Harry. A sorry end for a life that could have been so much better lived.
When Megan first appeared as serious contender for the role of “Princess” to Harry’s Prince I turned to my then partner and commented that this was an ill-suited match and the whole thing would end in tears. She’s American, bad choice, she’s an actress, highly relevant in respect of everything which has subsequently taken place, * and dishonest “Until I met Harry, I’d never even heard of him!” Really? All those “Hello” magazines and the endless drivel on TV had passed you by?
My then partner accused me of being cynical, and you know what? We had the wedding, the “Fab Four”, they, the four, were going to “modernise the Royal Family” as though it needs modernising. For goodness sake the queen kept her corn flakes in a Tupperware box, not a diamond encrusted casket. How modern did it have to be?
And I apologised. Sorry, you were right, she’s lovely, she’s not a gold-digging scheming actress of the #me,me,me type gathering material before she heads of to California to star in “Megan the martyr, the Real Princess Diaries”.
Sometimes one just has to accept that people have to be taken at face value and not misjudged.
* she’s an actress, just remember that….
PS. Why did the dog bowl break? Biggles’ dog bowl was made out of stainless steel with a rubber edge, so it stayed put on the floor.