If you were wondering whether the Prince of Wales has been keeping himself usefully busy during his summer break, look no further: he’s been growing a beard.
Prince William and Princess Catherine stepped out of their Norfolk residence over the weekend to post a video congratulating Team GB on their Olympic achievements. And they did a great job.
But… what the hell was that? He had a beard, or, as he probably wanted us to say, he “sported” a beard.
Why is he so grumpy? Maybe it’s his way of defiantly telling us that he’s on vacation with his family, enjoying some free time and relaxing.
Some have suggested it could be a dig at her estranged brother, Prince Harry.
William and Kate congratulate Team GB on final day of Olympics
In his memoirs, Spare, Harry recounts how the issue of beards came between them. William had apparently wanted a beard when he married Kate Middleton, and the Queen was adamant, insisting he go through the ceremony completely clean-shaven.
However, when Harry married Meghan Markle, he He was growing an ugly red beard and, according to him, the queen had given her blessing to his facial fungus. Apparently, this was one of the knock-on roles that ignited the feud between the two princes.
Regardless of whether this particular story is true or not, whether William is flaunting his mustache to spite his brother or not, we should expect him to shave it off soon.
William, of course, had already grown a beard before, during a ten-day training exercise with the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service in Barbados in 2008.
King Charles also had some experience as Prince of Wales in 1976. This was when he was given command of his own ship, the minesweeper HMS Bronington, after completing a lieutenant’s course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Harry and Meghan on their wedding day
Brothers at war, Harry and William
It is also true that several royal ancestors – Edward VII and George V, for example – proudly wore unshaven beards.
Edward VII belonged to that mysterious generation of European men who, from about 1860 to 1910, grew facial hair. In Western Europe, men had been clean-shaven since the time of the Roman Caesars, but this generation went all out: figures such as scientist Charles Darwin, novelist Anthony Trollope and others sported not only beards but also facial hair that was very Father Christmas-like.
Queen Victoria loved beards, especially after falling in love with her bearded Highland ghillie, John Brown, during the 1860s. According to Julian Farrance, senior curator at the National Army Museum, she considered the beards grown by Crimean War heroes to be “very masculine”.
But in the decade following his death in 1901, the fashion for beards was gradually falling out of fashion. After that, beards were restricted, on the one hand, to artists and the like, who wore them to distinguish themselves from the respectable suburban types who had to catch the 8.15 train every morning in a starched collar, smart suit and bowler hat, and, on the other hand, to naval officers.
King George V was first and foremost a naval officer, and his beard made him virtually indistinguishable from his cousin, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II.
No one complains about royals sporting beards while serving in the Navy, as Charles and William did when they started growing them. It is perfectly reasonable for sailors not to shave at sea, where the rocking of the ship in stormy waves would make wielding a straight razor a dangerous task.
But this is not the kind of beard William is sporting. It is more of a style statement, an attempt to look a little modern. Is it a coincidence that in the video in which he congratulates the British team, the other two men sporting carefully outlined stubble on their chins are David Beckham and Snoop Dogg?
We’re not complaining about David Beckham sporting such unattractive facial adornment, as a meteorsexual is what he deliberately and wilfully defines himself to be. isBut we don’t want the Prince of Wales to be that figure.
No one is insisting that Prince William follow his father’s fashion instincts. Charles, arguably the best-dressed and most stylish man on the planet, set out to be a grumpy old man from the age of 11 and has defied fashion ever since. We want William to look like a middle-aged young man of his generation, and there is no need for him to be an old-fashioned man.
But the type of beard he sports – like that of his brother Harry – conveys the wrong image: it is an urban chic style.
Royals must always be well dressed, whether in formal attire or on occasions where casual dress is required. But they must not be elegant, but must be above fashion.
And that’s what makes me cringe at Prince William’s efforts. He’s trying to be the David Beckham of the Royal Family, and he’s not going to succeed. Please, sir, shave.