The Royals Return with Tributes to Elizabeth II
Charles and Camilla at Balmoral, William and Kate in Wales, and Harry and Meghan signaling "brand separation."
As the years tick by, September 8th will be noted more and more as King Charles III’s Accession Day, but, although his accession was celebrated, this first anniversary yesterday was marked primarily as the first anniversary of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
The day began at Balmoral, as seems appropriate. The King and Queen were pictured arriving at Crathie Kirk for a special prayer service for the late Queen, after which Charles and Camilla undertook a walkabout in the clear Scottish sunshine.
Charles had released a statement late on the eve of anniversary along with a picture of Elizabeth—never released before—taken by Cecil Beaton in 1968. Otherwise, Charles spent the day away from the public eye at Balmoral.
Meanwhile, in Pembrokeshire (west Wales), large crowds were gathering outside St. David’s Cathedral. The Prince and Princess of Wales were deputized some months ago to lead the public tribute to the Queen, since Charles planned to mark the day privately at Balmoral. At the time this was announced, we weren’t told if William and Kate would release a statement or make a public appearance. Obviously, they chose to make a public appearance, which I think was clearly the right choice.
After their visit to cathedral, where they placed a bouquet of roses in front of a portrait of Elizabeth, the couple changed gears and ensembles to visit a seaweed farm and an RNLI lifeboat station.
All these activities were going on as Harry made his autumn return to Europe to undertake his royal-like public engagements.
On Thursday night, Harry was at the WellChild Awards in London. He looked happy, relaxed, and confident as he made his entrance and later while giving his presentation. Unlike in years past, his duchess was notably absent. Harry told the assembled guests that Meghan was disappointed to miss the event in the run-up to their busy week.
On Friday (the 8th), just before William and Kate got started in Wales, Harry was pictured leaving St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The photo was allegedly taken by a casual observer who just happened to see the prince emerging from a private visit to his grandmother’s gravesite in the church. I have seen some people on Twitter voice skepticism about the likelihood that a random passerby would snag a perfect shot of Harry leaving. I leave it to you the reader to ponder and pass judgment on that.
Between the WellChild Awards and this visit to St. George’s, it was impossible not to feel that Meghan is done competing with the royals on their home turf. After the Sussexes time of seclusion following their catastrophic Netflix series and Harry’s book Spare, Meghan changed tack. She obviously remained ensconced in Montecito while Harry completed various promotional events for Spare, and after that terrible Cut feature, she was careful to avoid discussing the royals in the final few interviews that featured her. At the time, I wondered if it would be a permanent pivot, but thus far, she has stuck to the program.
As if to put a punctuation mark on her absence from royal-related news, Meghan drove herself in her Range Rover on Thursday, and those images made the headlines (via DailyMail and Backgrid) on Friday.
Then, late in the afternoon (U.S. time) yesterday, the Daily Mail published a very interesting article. This piece confirmed what I felt we were observing already and added more concrete details to the story. This is certainly the most interesting piece on the Sussexes in a while, and I plan to give it its own post with my thoughts.
Well, we are certainly back in full swing for the fall season of royal watching. I loved both William and Kate’s formal event yesterday paying tribute to Elizabeth II and their follow-up engagement, which signaled they are back to their active calendar after their summer holiday. With Harry and Meghan in Germany this week, it certainly will be a very happening return to royal watching.