Royal Family undergoes seismic shift of power

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In the great Game of Thrones that is the House of Windsor, cancer has the upper hand right now.

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Last week, just 17 months after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died and the Crown passed from her head to his, King Charles III was diagnosed with an unspecified form of the disease. Hearts around the world went out to him. At 75, he waited through 73 years of his mother’s reign to take on the job to which he was born.

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The past five years have been turbulent, to put it mildly, for the Windsors.

They’ve withstood the assault by a truculent prince and his whiny American wife.  Charles bade a dignified farewell to his 99-year-old father, a war hero and stoic patriarch. A little over a year later, his 96-year-old mother died.

Just as Buckingham Palace announced Charles’s diagnosis, his daughter-in-law, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, underwent abdominal surgery for a condition that was described as not being cancer. The highly popular Catherine will be out of commission until after Easter.

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Just like that, there’s a tectonic shift within the royal landscape.

Charles’s son, Prince Harry, rushed to the U.K. to see his father. According to news reports in Britain, Harry spent barely 30 minutes with his father before jetting back to his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.

He didn’t meet with his brother, Prince William, and most royal watchers agree there’s little chance of a reconciliation after the spiteful attacks Harry made in his book, Spare, on both William and Catherine.

The flying visit did send some messages. Harry had been informed of his father’s illness before the news was made public. It would seem that he was sufficiently concerned to make the trip. But it also appears he arrived uninvited.

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After the flurry of nastiness, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are still regarded with suspicion by his family. Harry’s spent the last couple of years making money out of revelations of the most intimate details of their lives.  His family likely doesn’t want him too close. Who knows what he might record on his phone, or what juicy tidbit he might seek to monetize?

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Charles had his first cancer treatment last week, then withdrew to Sandringham, his residence in Norfolk. With the King halting public duties and Catherine and William not firing on all cylinders, one thing’s fast becoming apparent.

Much as Harry has a massive complex about being the second born son of a monarch — the Spare — we now see that he could be a highly valued part of the family. Had he stuck around, he’d now be playing an important role, representing both his father and his brother in events around the world.

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Charles has several overseas tours pencilled in for 2024, including a rumoured visit to Canada. It’s likely some or all of those will now be cancelled. Harry and Meghan, had they not stomped off in a hissy fit, could have represented him on those trips. Their childish antics and brutal betrayal of his family, as the late Queen was dying, will not be forgiven quickly, either by Harry’s family or by the British public.

A recent book by royal author Robert Hardman quoted a courtier saying the late Queen Elizabeth was “as angry as I have ever seen her,” when the Sussexes announced their daughter’s name and claimed they had the Queen’s permission to call her Lilibet, an endearing moniker, given to Elizabeth in childhood.

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Nothing and no one escaped the jealous eyes of the Sussexes, even if it means appropriating the private name of a much loved monarch. Harry and Meghan have choices. They can choose to make Harry’s father’s golden years miserable — as they did with the late Queen. Or they can grow up and show some class for a change.

Charles is said to be holding up well, but will be devastated that at a time when he wanted to be working to modernize the monarchy, he’s sidelined.

Cancer is a disease that doesn’t respect wealth, power or status. While Charles will get the best of treatment, it shows how we’re all equally vulnerable.

Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery.

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