Of course, it’s a good idea to blame it all on a busy schedule. And at first glance, the King was very busy yesterday.
From Windsor Castle, where he had spent the bank holiday, he had an audience with the Prime Minister of Fiji at Buckingham Palace, followed by a meeting with senior military commanders and then medical appointments related to his ongoing cancer treatment. , the last of which was followed by an obligation to rest.
Today he promises more of the same, including a Palace garden party and his usual weekly meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who after last week’s drubbing of the Conservatives in local elections may need more reassurance than usual. .
What there was definitely no time for in the midst of all this coming and going was any kind of meeting with his youngest son. Prince Harry’s arrival in Britain had sparked speculation that father and son would meet.
Some had even boldly suggested that such a meeting could, at last, begin a process of reconciliation between the King and Harry. In fact, there was even a murmur of an olive branch being extended.
Far from Harry’s hope of reuniting with his father following the King’s cancer diagnosis, the illness has, if anything, contributed to their estrangement.
Instead, the harrowing excuses of the ‘complete diaries’ offer a different and, for Harry, a more sinister message. Unlike that dramatic quick visit in February, in which the Prince was granted a meeting of less than 30 minutes just after Charles’ cancer diagnosis was made public, the palace doors remained firmly closed.
Specifically, it was the Duke of Sussex’s team that came forward and a spokesperson explained that a meeting “unfortunately will not be possible due to Her Majesty’s full schedule.”
Even with the acknowledgment that Harry acknowledged his father’s “commitments and other priorities,” the nuance in the bulletin was clear: the failure was not Harry’s fault. So much for the olive branches.
Prince Harry’s arrival in Britain for the Invictus Games Foundation conversation had sparked speculation that father and son would meet.
What is happening then and what do events tell us about the state of relations between the exiled Harry, his father and the rest of the Royal Family?
One conclusion would suggest that, far from his hope of reuniting with his father following the King’s cancer diagnosis, the illness has, if anything, contributed to his estrangement.
But in fact, I understand that there was no formal request from either the King or his son to schedule a meeting. Because Harry also had a packed schedule. From his overnight flight from Los Angeles, he was whisked to an Invictus Games event, his project for wounded and former members of the armed forces, at Armory House in east London.
Although it was just over three miles from Buckingham Palace, he might as well have been on another continent when it came to meeting his family.
Charles met Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka yesterday as Harry arrived in the UK.
And today, as the King hosts the first garden party of the year, the Prince will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the games with a service at St Paul’s Cathedral. If Harry had been so determined to see his father, it’s tempting to wonder why he didn’t travel a day or two earlier, when Charles had no official duties. How meaningful that would have been if they had been together on the first anniversary of the King’s coronation. Inconveniently, that fell on Prince Archie’s fifth birthday and Harry decided to spend it with his family in California.
Harry’s once return visits to the UK meant he found it relatively easy to visit his father, but he no longer has royal accommodation. And interestingly, he did not request to stay at any royal residence for this two-night visit.
This alone suggests that the chances of a rapprochement are more remote than ever. Trust has also evaporated in the 16 months since Harry’s explosive memoir, Spare, with its excoriating attacks on Camilla, William and Kate.
Harry speaks on stage with Sir Keith Mills to mark ten years since the inaugural Invictus Games in London 2014.
The two men once shared a special bond, but each encounter between them was distracted by the weight of previous disappointments.
Some old friends were surprised that, given his Christian faith, a king who practices humility and empathy as a matter of course could not find time to see his son. Others argued that Charles surely couldn’t be blamed if he found these encounters with his son to be more of a burden than a pleasure.
What is certain is that, despite that intense workload, two figures would have found the prospect of a meeting between the King and Harry deeply disturbing: Queen Camilla, who was injured by Harry’s lacerating attacks, and the Prince William, who will not forgive his brother for his comments about Kate.
Last month, historian Tessa Dunlop suggested Harry was in a “painful place” following the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnosis and William’s comments.
“The opposition of Camilla and William would be formidable for Charles,” says a courtier. “Despite his affection for Harry, which he remains, and his sadness at the deep rift that has developed, his bonds with his wife and his eldest son run much deeper.” .
Perhaps the most telling observation about the fractured relationship between Harry and the royals came yesterday, not in off-the-record briefings, but in the publication of a future joint engagement between the King and his son, the other.
Next Monday, Charles, in the midst of a colorful ceremony, will formally hand over the position of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps to Prince William.
Harry, of course, enjoyed a distinguished career in the Army’s combat aviation arm, serving with considerable gallantry as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. This passing of the baton, however, speaks more eloquently of a united family. It’s getting harder and harder to see Harry fit back in.