One year after his coronation, the King is a man on a mission.
The Crown is no longer in transition, this is decidedly its reign, and King Charles wants to leave his mark.
This week, Her Majesty returns to business after a break from public duties due to cancer treatment and following recent good news about her progress.
Today, for example, the King will combine a meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with other medical appointments.
Tomorrow, the King and Queen Camilla will host Buckingham Palace’s first garden party of this year. It is encouraging to see Her Majesty so active again.
The King and Prince Harry once shared a special bond, but now every meeting between them seems burdened with the weight of previous disappointments.
The relationship between the King and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is overshadowed by tension and misunderstandings
However, in the midst of all this activity, it seems there will be no time to meet her youngest son, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
Harry is due to be in London ahead of Thursday’s service at St Paul’s Cathedral in honor of the Invictus Games, his project for wounded, injured and ill former service personnel.
But I have been told that father and son will not see each other on this occasion, that there has been no request for a meeting.
Understandably, both men are busy.
The prince, who no longer has a home in the UK, will make his own accommodation arrangements. He will not be staying at any of the Royal Residences and has not requested to do so.
Which means yet another opportunity for reconciliation has apparently slipped away. And who, you ask, can be surprised?
Trust between the King and his youngest son has evaporated since Harry published his best-selling memoir, Spare, last year.
The two men once shared a special bond, but now every encounter between them seems burdened with the weight of previous disappointments.
It is a delicate dance, in which every step (and every misstep) is examined under the watchful eye of an attentive audience.
Who could blame the King if he considered such encounters more a burden than a relief?
Today, in the extensive saga that is the recent history of the Royal Family, the relationship between the King and the Duke of Sussex is overshadowed by tension and misunderstanding.
We saw some of this earlier this year, when news of Charles’ cancer diagnosis became public.
As soon as it was announced, Harry arranged to take a ten-hour flight from his home in California to visit his father in what many saw as a well-intentioned gesture.
However, despite the significant effort involved, the eventual meeting between the two was awkward, to say the least, and lasted just a few minutes.
Harry was not invited to stay that night at Clarence House, the king’s main home in London, or any other royal residence. Meanwhile, his father headed almost immediately to Sandringham in Norfolk to rest and recover.
King Charles III leaves Windsor Castle as he heads to Clarence House in London this morning.
As sad as this may seem, the brevity was very understandable given previous behavioral patterns.
However, nothing changes this key fact: Her Majesty’s love for her youngest son is enduring.
Despite the chasms of miscommunication and the repercussions of a very public dispute, the family bond – at its core – remains intact.
The tragedy of the situation lies not in malice but in a series of unfortunate misunderstandings and external pressures that have calcified into an almost insurmountable barrier.
It’s also true that, with his well-documented impulsivity and naivety, Harry may not always understand the full implications of his actions.
Their desire for transparency and change, while noble, can sometimes clash with traditional real-life expectations and obligations.
His actions suggest a man desperately seeking a foothold but failing.
Harry’s naivety can be dangerous, and not just for him but for all parties involved, as it fuels the fires of speculation.
Therefore, if King Charles decides to forgo a meeting at this delicate moment, the decision will not be a new act of rejection or dismissal but will be rooted in a painful history.
And we should have the compassion to see it that way.
Why shouldn’t the King take a sensible protective measure that would protect him from both increased emotional stress and the rigorous demands of managing his health?
Ultimately, hope for reconciliation remains alive, albeit tempered by realism.
The path to healing is labyrinthine and riddled with potential setbacks. But it’s not closed yet.
We should expect understanding and peace between a father and his son, in the context of their public roles and their private pains.
Whether or not they meet in the coming days (and if they do, it will likely be last-minute and fleeting), their dilemma is a poignant reminder of the human emotions at work behind the grand façade of royalty.
Robert Jobson is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Our King: Charles III – The Man and Monarch.
