Posted on 12/12/2009 4:02:00 PM PST by naturalman1975
The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday.
Secret papers reveal that plans to ease the strain on the 83-year-old monarch and her 88-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are at an advanced stage.
The disclosures come despite months of denials from the Palace that the Queen was planning to step back from her official work in favour of her 27-year-old grandson.
The information is contained in a briefing note written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials about new financial arrangements for Prince Charles and his sons.
Key paragraphs, disclosing the reason for the changes, are blacked out.
But this newspaper has obtained an uncensored version of the document which confirms that the Queen is grooming William as a ‘Shadow King’.
One blacked-out line states that ‘the Princes [William and Harry] will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen’.
Another censored section, stressing the key role for William, says that ‘from next year, it is expected that HRH The Prince William will spend a significant part of his time on official engagements . . . we need to put the necessary provisions in place in anticipation of that’.
The leak will add to speculation that the Queen believes William, rather than Charles, represents the best long-term interests of the monarchy, and will raise new questions about the timing of William’s long-anticipated engagement to his girlfriend Kate Middleton.
The breach of secrecy caused alarm at the Palace last night, with a senior Royal source expressing concern that the private details had been leaked in ‘unredacted’ - the official term for uncensored - form.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This article seeks to give the impression that Prince William is going to be given prominence over his father, and even speculates that there is a plan to bypass the Prince of Wales in terms of the succession.
In my view, those impressions are false.
Her Majesty is 83 years old. The Duke of Edinburgh is 86. While both seem healthy for their age, they are still in a situation where they need to slow down, and where their health could deteriorate quite rapidly.
They have to cut down on their official duties - and that means other in the Royal Family have to start taking up more.
The Prince of Wales already takes on a great many duties. He can't dramatically increase his current level - and certainly not to a level which can compensate for both his parents dramatically cutting back. His siblings can increase some of their duties - and are - but with the exception of the Earl of Wessex, there's not a lot of slack there, and he, as the designated heir to his father's title as Duke of Edinburgh, is tending to take on more and more responsibility for his father's duties.
It is the Queen who needs to be 'relieved' and unsurprisingly many of her official duties are those that are deemed to require a senior royal which means most of them can't be passed on to the minor royals (the Kents and the Gloucesters), although again, they are taking up responsibilities where they can (the Duke of Kent, for example, as a Field Marshal in the British Army can meaningfully substitute in some military ceremonies).
In essence, to relieve the Queen, they need to look for a senior Royal who currently doesn't have a large duty load. Prince William is the only person who meets this criteria.
That is why they are looking at him - not to bypass his father, but because his father is already carrying out a high level of commitments.
The reality of ages also needs to be considered. William is seen as the long term future of the monarchy - not because they intend to bypass his father, but because they anticipate his father's reign is likely to be short.
If Her Majesty reaches 100 (her mother was a centenarian), Charles would be around 80 at the time he became King. Even if he in turn reached 100, William would be 66 at the time he succeeded. Realistically, based on typical life expectancies, there is an assumption that William is likely to be King by the time he is fifty - his father will, I believe take the throne (unless so old and infirm he could not) simply to give William as much of a chance of a 'normal' life as possible.
Planning for the reality that William is likely to be the next 'long term' King isn't bypassing Charles. It's accepting the reality that long reigns are normally followed by short ones, and then by a longer one again.
William shows every sign that he will be a good King and do his duty. But the same is also true of his father.
It sounds like they’re preparing to throw Charles under the bus.
Good place for him
Abolish this monarch thing.
Well jolly good. I enjoyed the read. I do not understand the royals, but this planning ahead is a good trait I wish the whole Windsor clan well!!
Yes, under one of those London double decker busses.
Don’t bet on it. You will never hear about it; but Charles has a lot of power.
I find HRH the Prince of Wales a fascinating person. As you mention he is in many ways a conservative in the Burkean sense. He is very outspoken on how modern and post-modern architecture has defaced London and England’s other great cities. He does not follow the latest trends. There was a nice article about how he has had the same pair of shoes since he was a young man, albeit a very high quality hand mand pair. I think you are fortunate to know the man. Compared to how his relatively recent male ancestors have acted, for example the two Edwards, he is a decent man. I think how Harry and William turned out is a credit to the man.
Thanks you for the explanation. It’s very much appreciated, as we certainly wouldn’t get as good an understanding of the situation from the media.
Interesting, but does this necessarily guarantee William’s succession instead of Charles??
Very interesting to learn that you’re a personal friend of the Prince of Wales and I appreicate your take on both the article I’ve just read and of course on the man himself.
I had hoped Prince William would bypass his father, given the rather unpleasant past with his ongoing affair with Camilla whilst he was married to Princess Diana.
No doubt Prince Charles has been groomed for the job all of his life and since he’s the heir to the throne, I guess it’s his for the taking.
I will be sad to see Her Majesty step down and I hope she won’t. May God bless her with many more years.
Under the bus? Not possible... ears get in the way!
I couldn’t tell you. Outside of beheading contenders, having the Royal Physician administer a lethal injection, or locking them up in the Tower and burying them under the stairs, I don’t know how these things are handled.
Off with his head!
Actually, since the “Glorious Revolution”, the Commons has the right to change the line of succession to the Throne.
That did not stop Edward VII from assuming the throne. He was a notorious womanizer, more akin to Tiger than Charles. Of course back in the Victoria/Edwardian period as long as you were discreet you were left alone and they did not have the tabloid press you have today.
Thank you. I didn’t know that.
Yes, but he also gave up the throne for the divorced Wallace Simpson. Charles was allowed to marry the divorced Camilla Parker-Bowles.
I beg your pardon, but that was Edward VIII. The Edward I referred to just kept mistresses and visited brothels. LOL!!!
You are a friend of Prince Charles? Wow!!
The reason I assumed he was being passed over was for marrying his mistress after a divorce.
However most of us are a little irked with Prince Charles because of his holier than thou attitude on the Global Warming debacle. It’s so easy to preach to the rest of us when you yourself will feel NOTHING uncomfortable about a “sacrifice”. A family just getting by would be crippled by a $5,000 a year increase in various expenses due the Global Warming scam if Cap and Tax is passed. But Prince Charles will just have to let a few servants go.
Sorry, my sympathy for a hypocrite just isn’t there.
Prince Harry on the other hand seems like he is a strapping young man who is brave and proud asset to the respectable British military. And I believe Prince William be an absolutely magnificent king one day.
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