King Charles’ decision to issue a pre-recorded address to the nation at this year’s Maundy Thursday service and attend another service on Easter Sunday in person is “a clear statement that he is still in charge,” a source has told The Daily Beast.
The king, who is under doctor’s orders to avoid large crowds while being treated for cancer—which was discovered when he was being treated for a benign enlarged prostate—will deliver a pre-recorded speech, which sources say will not touch on his recent health travails, to be played on big screens at Worcester Cathedral.
Parts of the audio message were revealed late Wednesday, with the king noting how Jesus set an “example of how we should serve and care for each other,” and how “we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need.”
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A new photograph of the king was also released Wednesday, taken during the recording of his audio message in Buckingham Palace in mid-March.
The king’s virtual appearance will reduce pressure on his wife, Queen Camilla, who will stand in for Charles in the real world, and distribute a ceremonial gift known as “Maundy money” to 75 men and 75 women adjudged to have performed “outstanding Christian service.” The number of recipients represents the king’s 75 years of age.
The tradition, which summons ancient and powerful concepts of monarchical charity and the magic of a royal gift, goes back to at least the 13th century but its origins lie in the story of the Last Supper when, as St John recorded, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
Each recipient of Maundy money will be given two small leather purses by the queen, one red and one white. The red contains a small amount of ordinary money, while the second purse contains specially minted “Maundy coins” making up, in pence, the value of the Sovereign’s age.
The importance with which the late Queen Elizabeth II treated not just Maundy Thursday but also the whole of Easter (like many strongly Christian individuals in Britain, she always felt Easter was more important, in terms of a religious festival, than Christmas) is no doubt feeding in to Charles’ determination to have a virtual if not physical presence at the service. And the symbolic importance of Easter as a marker of rebirth is also likely to be behind Charles’ surprise announcement that he will attend an Easter Sunday church service in person this weekend.
If there was ever a year in which the royal family needed to transmit a message of fresh starts and regeneration, this is it, with the royal family looking increasingly threadbare and leaderless.
Charles certainly isn’t giving the impression that he is planning to wind down once he gets over his cancer. As one royal source told The Daily Beast: “Charles is making a clear statement that he is still in charge by recording a message for Maundy Thursday and appearing on Easter Sunday. He has been very clear that he is still active behind the scenes. His office is a hive of activity, as usual.”
In terms of how the palace is functioning day to day, sources say it’s very much business as usual—it is not a case of Prince William (obviously with pressing family issues of his own to confront), Princess Anne, or Prince Edward and Sophie stepping up. Charles has always had a reputation for being a demanding boss and his officials are as busy as ever. There is no question of decisions being taken by anyone other than the king, who, as several images issued by the palace make clear, continues to take prime-ministerial audiences and diplomatic ones as well. He has maintained a public profile by being driven around London in a ceremonial car with absurdly large windows, very much inviting himself to be photographed.
However, day to day, the king is out, and while Camilla appears to be doing a sterling job in holding down the fort, it must be tough for her to shoulder. As one member of the public told a reporter for the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, after a shattered-looking Camilla dutifully showed up for a walkabout at the Shrewsbury Farmers’ Market: “She’s got a lot on and it’s a big thing—you think it’s an easy job but it must be very, very tiring.”
Well, quite. Camilla hasn’t performed anything like the amount of public engagements her husband would have done in the past three months. And while there are signs the British public are warming to Camilla’s “good egg” persona, she is not box office in the way the monarch is.
But really, she is the best the Firm has right now. Anne, Edward and Sophie are plugging on, but they don’t really get the public pulses racing in the way William or Kate Middleton do.
And William, his camp have been at pains to make clear, will not be rushing back to a full slate of commitments anytime soon. He is focused on his wife’s recovery from her own cancer battle and their children, especially during the school holidays which have another two weeks to run. He is keeping out of the public eye.
He has little interest in trying to seize the tiller of the ship of state from his father, let alone mounting a coup d’état. Indeed the prospect fills him with horror. As Tina Brown, founding editor of The Daily Beast, said in a recent opinion piece for the New York Times, the “news of Charles’ cancer has put William and Catherine in frightening proximity to ascending the throne just when they had hoped for a span of years to parent their children out of the public eye. The prospect of it, I am told, is causing them intense anxiety.”
The irony is that Charles’ remote Maundy message will get far more airtime than such comments would if he were in perfect health and at the pulpit to deliver it himself. Together with his Easter Sunday stroll to church, Charles will be at the top of newsfeeds everywhere over the next four days. His office might just be able to pull off the impression that all is well and the king is just keeping calm and carrying on.
