The British Monarchy in Crisis: Royal Family Disappearing Before Subjects’ Eyes
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – An invisible monarchy: the British royal family is disappearing before the eyes of its subjects and if it is true, as Elizabeth said, that the Crown “must be seen to be believed”, one wonders whether we are not witnessing the sudden dissolution of the institution itself.
At the moment, there is no one at the helm of the Windsor house: King Charles is a virtual image, Queen Camilla has gone on holiday and the heir to the throne William appears and disappears to be at the side of Princess Kate, who is mysteriously convalescent away from everyone’s eyes.
Today the plane with Camilla on board took off for the Tropics, where the queen will be on holiday for at least a week: an unexpected but not unpredictable departure, given that the king’s wife is also 76 years old and since Carlo’s illness was announced less than a month ago and she took on his role, taking on 13 official commitments one after the other. Too much, perhaps, for a person who had never yearned for a public life and wanted more than anything to be next to her great love.
But Camilla’s sudden withdrawal has widened the void at the top. The sovereign, who is undergoing anti-cancer therapy, has put his entire agenda on hold and will appear only by video at Commonwealth Day next Monday. In recent weeks, Buckingham Palace has been keen to show him on video and in photos to reassure its subjects: but nothing is known exactly about his exact diagnosis, which fuels speculation.
Which, as far as Kate is concerned, have instead taken on the dimension of conspiracy theories: on social media we read about everything from a coma to attempted suicide. Nothing true, but in this case the absence of any image or update gives rise to the sickest fantasies. On the other hand, however, the best-informed English commentators have leaked out that the conditions of Charles and the princess are “serious” and that their recovery could take even longer than was initially announced (for Kate, yes it was said that it would reappear only after Easter).
The extent of the collapse of the royal family was given by the image of the Windsors arriving at the funeral of Constantine of Greece last week: leading them was a grinning Prince Andrew, flanked by his (more or less) ex-wife Sarah Ferguson . That two disgraced people like them should publicly act as standard bearers for the monarchy says a lot about the state of things.
And the misfortune seems to be getting worse: just a few days ago it was learned that the husband of Lady Gabriella, Charles’ cousin, daughter of Prince Michael of Kent, mysteriously committed suicide with a gunshot to the head. A tragedy kept in hushed tones which however casts a disastrous shadow over the entire royal saga.
The subjects watch in astonishment, as if they were waking up, stunned, from a fairy tale without a happy ending. And now the risk is that the monarchy will dissolve not with an explosion, but with a sigh.