by The Laird o’Thistle
January 22, 2020

I was asked by my friends at Unofficial Royalty to share some thoughts on the changes in role and status for Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.  Like many, I was caught off guard by the sudden “crisis” with which the British royal family has begun the year, but in a way I think we should not have been very surprised at all.  The signs of a different tack have been emerging ever since the Sussexes engagement. And, while I have my concerns, I think something more important is afoot, something that has dogged the royal family for several generations.

The basic issue has, I think, been rightly framed as to who is a “working royal” and who is not?  And, if one is a “working royal” what does that entail? With the Sussex decision… as sorted out by the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince William, and Harry at their Sandringham gathering on January 13… there is now the outline of a pragmatic “in, or out” model for the future.  To see this, though, I think it is important to look to another relatively recent episode of royal family life involving the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex.

In several ways, Prince Edward and his now wife Sophie were trailblazers for the royal family.  The days when Edward left the Royal Marines to work in theatre now seem like the rather distant past, but at the time they were also seen as a crisis for the royals, a crisis “spun” by the media to their own advantage.  As Edward moved into his new life and work – moving toward becoming a producer of television documentaries, etc. – he also acquired a life-partner, Sophie Rhys Jones, with a career of her own in public relations. At the time, both intended to pursue their private careers, but ultimately… after several spectacular bumps along the way… found that a hybrid royal/private arrangement was unworkable.  And, so, they made the choice to be full-time working royals, supporting the Queen. In the years since, they have proved themselves to be solid and dependable members of “The Firm” and, with their children, they have also grown personally close to the Queen and Prince Philip from their Windsor home. That, I see, as “Model A” of royal/private adaptation. They are the “In” model.

What I see emerging for Harry and Meghan is “Model B” of royal/private adaptation.  They are pursuing the “Out” model… giving up the use of their HRH status, giving up other official roles, including Harry’s military roles, and so on.  (Giving up the Royal Marines role he took on from Prince Philip must be particularly poignant for both Harry and Philip.) For them this is facilitated by, for a time at least, living abroad in Canada for much of the time.  It currently seems that this is a more radical step than Harry himself wished, but it makes good institutional sense… especially as the House of Windsor, and other monarchies, move on from older gender-based models of who is “in” and “out” over time.  (As in Princess Margaret’s and Princess Anne’s “non-royal” children.)

What, I hope, is ultimately ended by this is the sort of hybrid model that has proved so troublesome across the generations of British and other monarchies.  The unfortunate example of the Duke of York, and his unrealistic hopes for his daughters, provides the current case-in-point. Ever since he left the Royal Navy, Andrew’s status has been problematic.  Without even taking up the whole Epstein Scandal, Prince Andrew’s penchant for hobnobbing with dodgy oligarchs, allegedly with some private dealings on the side, has tainted him. His further insistence on pushing the “royal” status of his daughters, who are never going to be true “working royals” in The Firm, is not only problematic for his relationship with his elder brother, but also unfair to Beatrice and Eugenie.  Edward and Sophie recognized that for their own offspring, Louise and James, long since. Harry and Meghan also realized that from the get-go with wee Archie.

In the future, then, what I foresee is a stronger delineation between being a “working royal” on the one hand, and a private member of the extended “royal family” on the other, and it may fall to personal choice as to which route a young royal (other than the “heir” him- or herself) takes.  It may be that someday, down the way, young Charlotte opts for “In” while Louis opts for “Out”, or vice versa.  Time will tell.

This, I think, is the substantive piece of the Sussex drama of the last few weeks.  At the personal level, concerning the choices made by them, I admit to being puzzled, and somewhat concerned.  What particularly strikes me is how… whatever the merit, or not, of doing so… first Meghan distanced herself from her father and half-siblings, and now Harry is rather distancing himself from his father and brother in particular.  I find that puzzling and worrisome. But, in their stepping back publicly, it also seems to be none of the public’s business. (Although, inevitably, they will still be in the public eye.) I just hope that in moving onward they do so with discretion and wisdom, for their own sake and for that of the Mountbatten-Windsor clan.

Yours aye,

Ken Cuthbertson