“There is a FR member, an Australian who is a friend of Charles. Went to school with him & served in the military with him. He had a different view of Charles. He says Charles has been completely misrepresented by both the UK and our media. A lying media is not a strange concept to us.”
I will buy that answer. I’d love to talk to this freeper about that nonsense going on with Megan and Harry and know the real story. If I had been Elizabeth I would have put my Royal foot down and kept Harry far from her.
Well, he is in Australia not the UK. So how much he is up on Harry & Megan is probably not that much better than what we know. Also, he’ll defend the Charles he knows but he’s not going to tell tales out of school or gossip. If I remember this right, he hadn’t physically seen Charles in years. They do on occasion correspond. Probably like myself and old college chums exchange Christmas Cards and the odd email. In many respects he’s very ‘Old School’ - adheres to ‘gentlemen do not gossip about their friends’. He’ll sometimes join in on Charles discussions. It’s usually best to read his comments and decide on your own whether you believe his comments or not. Sometimes he’ll answer you directly if you have a question.
I rather doubt that he’s the sort to ‘dish dirt’ on the family; especially now.
For the record, yes, I did go to school with His Majesty - in 1966 he was sent to attend school in Australia, and I happened to be attending the same school, but our contact at that time was limited - we did speak, but he was one of the oldest boys in the school and I was one of the youngest so we didn't exactly move in the same circles. But later on, after I was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy, because senior officers knew I had a slight acquaintance with him, when he visited us as a Royal Navy officer, we were put in contact together, and he did me the great courtesy of helping convince my superiors we were much better acquainted than we were - which may have been a little career enhancing, whether it should have been or not. Later in my career, I found myself shifting into protocol related and diplomatic postings in London, and found myself in contact with the Duke of York who was still a serving officer at the time, and he reintroduced me to his older brother and we have developed a friendship. While the King only served a few years in the Navy, I think he enjoyed a life where being a Prince meant less than being a Lieutenant and he values those types of relationships where he can have closer to a normal life. And while I won't say that being a military officer is a lot like being a Prince, you do learn how to navigate friendships within a heirarchy so I think we also act a little more normally around him than he might be used to.
I hope I will still be able to call the new King my friend, but his life has changed immensely and he will put his duty ahead of things like any personal life and I'm just not sure what time he will have for all of his old friends and while I have called him a friend, he has closer ones than myself. We'll see. I'll remain his friend regardless.
But he is also now my liege lord - that may sound old fashioned, but I'm a conservative type of man and a constitutional monarchist. His mother was my sovereign lady - I was lucky enough to meet her a few times through him and his brother and she was a charming lady, but also a force I can't really describe. It's odd to think of him in that way now.
I will say very clearly that the man I know bears only a very limited resemblance to the man depicted in the media. For the most part, I would say he would fit in quite well here, if that type of thing was possible for him. He's generally conservative on most issues - he's a devout Christian, he believes very strongly in traditional rights - including gun rights, but in a rather British context where they really are primarily things for things like hunting (which he is - a hunter, I mean). He believes very strongly in religious freedom - he's one of the few prominent public figures to have quite regularly made speeches about the plight of Christians facing oppression in the Middle East. He believes in traditional values, although he is the first to acknowledge that he didn't always live up to his beliefs as well as he could have - I say he's a devout Christian and he is today, but I'm not sure I would have said that thirty years ago. He's learned, he's changed, he's repented for his sins, and he is confident that God has forgiven him as he forgives all of us who trespass and seek forgiveness.
He is an environmentalist and that is the one area where I do think he diverges from the mainstream of conservatism. But that's also why people know that about him - because it's also the one area that the mainstream media agree with him about, and so, it's the area they highlight - they ignore him when he says things they don't like and publicise to the high heavens whenever he says something that promotes their favourite causes. So, this leaves people with a false impression of the man, in my view. I wish his speeches about the service of war veterans, I wish his speeches about the oppression of Christians... I wish they got the same attention. But that's never likely to happen. And, now, in his new role, he will have to be very careful about what he says on political issue. His position must always be that of His Majesty's Government.
Even up until now, there have been many times when he has had to speak or undertake duties at the request of the government that didn't necessarily fully align with his own positions. He had a degree of freedom to refuse but it really had to be a very extreme situation for him to do so. He was a Prince in a constitutional monarchy where Parliament - the elected government - is supreme. And he is now the Constitutional Monarch himself. In private, he can advise his ministers, he can encourage them, he can warn them. But he cannot overrule them as long as they stay within the bounds of the constitution, and he will do as the constitution requires. He hasn't yet sworn his coronation oaths, but he is already living them.
As Supreme Governor of the Church of England, he can, again, exercise some degree of influence in private - but the constitution says his duty is to support the Bishops and their right to set Church policy - not to set it himself. I used to be a member of that Church and moved to Catholicism because I felt the Anglican faith was losing its way. This is an option he really doesn't have. I have personal views that while he is a Christian, if he was truly free to choose, his denomination might be different. But I'm sailing close to the wind in saying that so let me be clear that is my speculation. I am not repeating anything he has said directly.
On Harry and Meghan... we - that is, people who might have some 'inside' knowledge (which I will not say if I do or not) to not talk too much about that. I will say, I hope that things can be resolved in a better fashion than perhaps they currently stand, but that is all I will say, and it's a personal hope.
Even if I hadn't been asked, I've always tried to be fairly circumspect in discussing the King (it really still feels very odd to call him that). But I am his liege man of life and limb and earthly worship and I stand ready to defend him against all manner of folk. I don't expect to have to live and die at his command - but I'll speak in defence of the man when I can. I consider that my duty as a friend, as well as my duty to my King.
I suspect I may find myself having to defend him a bit here. He's worth it. I haven't been doing as much of that as I might have liked over the last few days. But - well, honestly, I am in mourning. I did not know Her Majesty well, but I knew her well enough that there is a personal grief, as well as grieving for her as my Queen. I am grateful that she remained in at least reasonable health until the last day or do of her life - in good health until the last few months. To go quickly, after ninety six years... we should all be that lucky. But it doesn't completely ameliorate the sorrow.
I think he will be a good King. Not a perfect one, but a good one. I can understand people being skeptical of him, especially given the way he has often appeared in the media - but I hope people will give him the chance to show himself to be the man I firmly believe him to be.
God save the King. And Gold help him to be a good King.