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Harry may be sticking around for a few days
The morning after the momentous day before brings a few questions. How is the queen? We hope settled with a lovely pot of tea in her favorite room at Windsor, family at least on Zoom or a few safe feet away, and comforting Corgis snaffling at her feet.
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It appears at least that she had some company yesterday afternoon. The Telegraph reports today that the royals went back to the castle after the funeral, availing themselves of an exemption to English coronavirus rules that allows 15 people to gather for a wake. The paper says: “Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Cambridges did not leave the castle until around 6pm, suggesting they had managed to spend some quality time with Prince Harry and the queen after the funeral.”
The other big question of course is: what next for William and Harry after the brothers reunited quickly emerged as the standout image of yesterday’s austere funeral for Prince Philip? Once the St. George’s Chapel service was over, the brothers were pictured walking together, chatting, Kate Middleton at first alongside them and then detaching herself from the brothers to allow them to talk on their own.
Much credit is due to Kate, reportedly a longtime “peacemaker”—and here, in the highly charged moment, playing a series of diplomatic mini-masterstrokes to bring Harry and William together.
The image of William and Harry chatting away would have delighted Prince Philip, and will certainly do the same for the rest of the royals and their PR handlers.
Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey—with its accusations of racism and of a family ignoring Meghan when she felt suicidal, as well as Harry opining about his father and brother feeling “trapped,” and talking about his own estrangement with Charles—continues to cause reverberations, but not only did a truce seem to be in operation on Saturday, but a genuine warmth seemed to be briefly apparent between Harry and his brother and Kate.
They had walked into the funeral separated, Peter Phillips—their cousin, Princess Anne’s son—between then. But Phillips seemed to hang back a bit, not really providing an obstacle between them. There was more space between the brothers inside the chapel, as they sat opposite each other. And then afterwards: no space, just chat, and—for royal fans—no doubt some “hurrahs” being shouted at the TV.
It had been Kate, the Sunday Times reported, who had engaged Harry in conversation, and then—instead of everyone getting into their separate cars—the royal ice-melting walk up Chapel Hill was underway. Pregnant Meghan was watching the service at home in California, having written a note to accompany her and Harry’s floral tribute which lay with the rest of the family’s personal wreaths.
So, what next? Well, rather than Harry flying back to Montecito ASAP, he may be sticking around for a few days.
“It is thought Harry is keen to spend some time with the Queen, the Prince of Wales, William and his wider family in the coming days, and may remain in the UK for the monarch’s 95th birthday on Wednesday, which will be marked privately, before returning to California,” the Sunday Times reports.
As ever with Harry, however, predicting his next move is a tough call. The Mail, for example, claims that Harry is “anxious” to return to America to be with Meghan, and “could fly back to Los Angeles as early as tomorrow [Monday].”
The paper does however claim that Harry is due to go for a walk with his father, Prince Charles, today.
And so, the thawing we see yesterday may—possibly—be just the first moments in a long-overdue royal reset. We shall see.
The queen, alone with a handbag of memories
The other resonant image of yesterday was the queen herself, alone in her part of the quire St. George’s Chapel for the duration of the 50-minute service, having been accompanied to the service in a Bentley by her lady in waiting, Lady Susan Hussey.
Whatever one thinks of the royals, the 94-year-old monarch—her masked head bowed and a hat conferring yet more privacy—seemed more alone than ever as she watched her husband be commemorated in a stirring series of prayers and songs.
The Mail on Sunday reports a “royal insider” saying she had some treasured possessions in her Launer-designed handbag. Reportedly these included one of Philip’s trademark white handkerchiefs made by his Savile Row tailors Kent & Haste.
She is also said to have carried a small photograph of she and Philip together, thought to have been taken in Malta where the couple once lived between 1949 and 1951 while Philip was stationed there as a young naval officer and which the queen later described as a favorite time of her life because they were able to live “normally.”
The queen and Philip returned often to the Mediterranean island nation, including to mark their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007.
There was no drama, and no personal testimonies at the funeral; it was as meticulously and unfussily staged as Philip wanted; this, plus coronavirus guidelines and social distancing, meant that it was as old-school as a royal funeral could be with pipers, choral singers, and solemn prayers. The cameras cut away as Philip’s coffin was lowered into the royal vault (as The Daily Beast has reported, this is only temporary; he’ll be moved to lie alongside the queen when she dies).
Charles also appeared very upset as he walked behind his father’s coffin, although the mischievous and life-embracing aspects of Philip were on display, from the Land Rover that carried his coffin, which he helped design, to the playing of “Action Stations” by the Buglers of the Royal Marines at the end of the service, after the mournful Last Post. In his way, Philip was saying, “Life goes on.” And somehow for the queen, it will.
Harry and William’s feud goes back to their schooldays, biographer says.
Feared biographer Tom Bower is said to be turning his pen to a study of the royal brothers. A taste of what is to come, perhaps, in a lengthy piece for today’s Sun on Sunday in which he writes: “Although united by the torture of the exposure of their parents’ serial adultery, their volatile childhood was complicated by their different destinies.
“Identified as the future monarch, William was sometimes invited alone for Sunday lunch with the queen in Windsor. Walking across the Thames from Eton, the schoolboy was introduced by his grandmother to the secrets and magic of the world’s most enduring monarchy. To his growing dismay Harry was denied that privilege. Although Diana had spoken of Harry’s luck to be relieved of that burden, he grieved over being sidelined.
“The resentment festered as Harry struggled to pass his school exams and was tarred as a reckless teenager while William, equally wild and ill-tempered, escaped public criticism.”
This is not the first time an author has traced the feud between William and Harry back to their childhoods. As The Daily Beast previously reported, Robert Lacey did the same in his recent bio Battle of Brothers: William and Harry—the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult.
Unanswered questions
Is the queen OK? Will someone please make sure? Thanks!
And with Harry next due back in the U.K. in July for the unveiling of a statue of his mother alongside his brother William, will the brothers, freed from (or, depending on your take, deprived of the cover of) funereal convention, be able to telegraph a message of deeper and enduring reconciliation? And will Meghan and their new baby be joining Harry, or will he go it alone?
