Here’s the 411 on Anne: Second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Former Olympian (Montreal 1976). Long considered her father’s favorite child. First of the late queen’s children to divorce (later remarried to retired naval officer Timothy Laurence — a former equerry to her mother — in the Church of Scotland). Has two kids, for whom she declined titles. Survived a 1974 kidnapping attempt in which her bodyguard was shot. Regularly logs more public duties than any other royal. Rewears decades-old clothes. Feeds chickens in full makeup.
When interviewer Adrienne Arsenault asked if conversations are emerging about royal relevance today, the princess said: “There will be, everywhere. It’s not a conversation that I would necessarily have. I think it’s perfectly true that it is a moment when you need to have that discussion. But I would just underline that the monarchy provides, with the constitution, a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by any other way.”
Will the king follow through on rumored plans to reduce the number of royals supported by taxpayers? “I think the ‘slimmed down’ was, was said in a day when there were a few more people around.” (Cough, Andrew.) (Cough, cough, Harry and Meghan.) “It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing.”
Told the king, in the wake of British media reports questioning the monarchy’s ties to the slave trade, offered “new” and “tacit support” into researching the affiliation, she replied: “Well you know more than I do. I rather suspect that was the media’s interpretation of that particular deal. Who knows who came up with that idea?”
When Arsenault said, “You don’t sound worried about the health or the longevity of the monarchy,” Anne parried: “I think you’re putting words into my mouth, as they say.”
Anne is honorary colonel of the Blues and Royals, the second most senior regiment of the British army. In that capacity she will perform the role of “Gold-Stick-in-Waiting,” now one of two symbolic positions, dating to medieval times, entrusted with the safety of the sovereign. This means she will ride on horseback, in uniform, behind the coronation coach. After she described the role, she acknowledged the symbolism of protecting the monarch, then quipped: “Not least of all, it solves my dress problem.”
Watch the interview for more:
In the wake of public backlash against the coronation “homage of the people,” officials at Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, clarified that the language in Saturday’s coronation service is an invitation, not an order, to swear allegiance to the king. A Sun poll found 53 percent of Britons do not plan to recite the pledge. (As we suspected, not very appealing.)
Security scare: Police arrested a man outside Buckingham Palace Tuesday night after he threw suspicious items onto the palace grounds, The Post reported. Metropolitan Police said the man tossed what they believe to be shotgun cartridges, which were examined at the scene. Police performed a “controlled explosion” of the items as a precaution, they said.
You asked; we answered! Post Opinions columnist Eugene Robinson turned his weekly Q&A with readers into a royal chat on Tuesday, and we co-hosted! An edited excerpt:
Q: What are the chances that the U.K. abolishes the monarchy within the next few decades?
Robinson: My opinion is that the British monarchy will be around for many decades to come. In Britain, at least. I believe fewer and fewer Commonwealth countries will recognize the British monarch as head of state. And I think the monarchy is objectively diminished after Elizabeth’s death. But it isn’t my sense that British royalty is in its last throes or anything. Certainly not yet.
Q: Does the fact that very, very few Britons can remember a coronation in their lifetimes make it harder for Charles III to justify why it is all necessary?
Robinson: I think it does. The whole thing of having a monarch who is not Elizabeth II is new to the great majority of British subjects. And the fact that hardly anyone remembers the last coronation gave Charles the opportunity to radically redesign and modernize the ceremony. This he did not do.
Read the rest of the chat here.
In addition to recycling thrones in his coronation service, Charles will wear vestments, or special garments, worn by past monarchs, including his grandfather and great-grandfather. Significant items include the supertunica (a full-length gold coat based on ecclesiastical vestments from medieval times) and the Imperial Mantle — akin to a robe — worn over the supertunica. The Imperial Mantle to be used Saturday was made for the coronation of George IV in 1821; it is the oldest vestment being used in Charles’s crowning ceremony.
🚨 BREAKING sartorial news!🚨 More pomp for the coronation! “After members of the aristocracy expressed horror at the prospect of attending the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Saturday in nothing more distinguished than a business suit,” Buckingham Palace relented and is allowing hereditary peers to wear robes, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday.
Coronets are still out. For now.
Coverage from around The Post
#NotMyKing protests have become the norm at Charles’s public events, reports London correspondent Karla Adam. On Saturday, more than 1,000 anti-monarchists plan to gather along the coronation procession route to advocate that Charles be replaced by an elected, democratic head of state. “The numbers of republicans spilling out onto the streets are not huge,” but their sentiment is amplified on social media, Adam writes. Republican activists hope to capitalize on moments of public pushback and longer-term softening of support for the monarchy.
King Charles built a town. From scratch. Although dismissed by the king’s critics as a feudal Disneyland for nostalgists, the town of Poundbury, England, is celebrated by its residents as livable and lovely, writes London bureau chief William Booth. It embodies the king’s worldview about more than architecture.
“Of all the causes he championed while Britain’s longest king-in-waiting, of all his hundreds of millions in assets, the town is perhaps his greatest obsession, his most fully realized vision,” Booth writes. “It is the physical manifestation of the way he thinks Britons — everyone, really (but maybe not him) — should live, work and commune with each other.”
King Charles is the monarch Britain needs right now, Matthew d’Ancona writes in a Post Opinions guest op-ed. At moment of national crisis, “the monarchy acts as an emotional support institution. Its very antiquity is its appeal; its rootedness in the past is the whole point. In an age of pulverizing volatility and low national self-esteem, the coronation will embody a mystical sense of continuity and a spirit of permanence upon which the British are more dependent than they might care to admit,” argues the British journalist. “The sight of the gilded coach drawn by horses through the center of London will give them permission to feel good about themselves and believe, somehow, in the greatness of their country.”
How does the British public feel about Camilla? When did she and Charles meet? And the four-legged question: How many dogs does she have? London-based breaking-news reporter Victoria Bisset answers FAQs about Britain’s queen consort.
Princess Charlotte of Wales turned 8 on Tuesday. Seen here with family pooch Orla.
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