It’s still rather interesting that the Windsors’ D-Day commemoration plan was changed. Originally, King Charles was supposed to attend a tribute at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer AND then go on to Omaha Beach for the larger event with other world leaders. That was what Buckingham Palace briefed to reporters weeks ago. Then, rather suddenly, the plan changed this week and there was seemingly an effort to really minimize the change. Charles and Camilla skipped Omaha Beach and left William to do the heavy lifting as a “global statesman.” On June 5th, Becky English at the Mail made it sound like Charles is basically too weakened by cancer treatments to do much more than what he did:
Amid the sovereign’s slew of recent appearances, it is sometimes easy to forget that he still has cancer and continues to undergo a gruelling, weekly treatment programme. While I am told he is doing well and delighted that everything is very much ‘moving in the right direction’, he is still a patient facing a very current and serious health challenge. It would be utterly patronising to say that such public appearances require a Herculean effort on his behalf.
His Majesty has inherited his late mother’s great personal determination, energy and sense of duty. When I’ve seen him laughing, joking and charming his guests at recent events, you really wouldn’t know anything was wrong. Besides, he would insist on a word such as Herculean being reserved for those tens of thousands of brave men who stood contemplating that ‘terrible leap of faith’ for freedom 80 years ago, not knowing whether they would live to see the sun rise again.
But like every cancer patient, he has good days and bad ones: mornings that see him tramping across his estates, or evenings working on paperwork late into the night, but others that also leave him feeling tired and under the weather. All of which is perfectly normal and to be expected. Cancer treatment is, frankly, draining at times.
His staff work quietly to keep his worst work excesses in check, tweaking his diary appropriately (occasionally to His Majesty’s frustration).
While most onlookers wouldn’t have clocked it, he in fact arrived in Portsmouth to deliver his speech and meet veterans half-way through proceedings, whereas in a normal year he would have been there from beginning to end. And in Normandy has asked Prince William to deputise for him at the keynote international commemoration at Omaha Beach, alongside world leaders including Presidents Biden, Macron and Zelenskyy, while he will focus his energies on the British ceremonial event at Ver-sur-Mer for his first public visit abroad since his diagnosis.
‘Given his other commitments on the day, it was simply advised that the international event later in the afternoon could be a step too far at this stage,’ a source tells me. ‘His Majesty is, of course, delighted that the Prince of Wales will be attending to represent the nation in his place.’
It feels like some other narrative is being launched. The “where is Kate” issue has largely overshadowed the persistent murmurs that Charles’s health issues are much more dire than anyone has let on. I also sort of believe that barely-disguised “hypothetical” that Charles has bladder cancer. If true, there is genuine reason to believe that he will recover and yet… they also seem to be preparing for the worst. Incidentally, here’s a little excerpt of how CNN covered Charles’s absence on Omaha Beach:
The optics of seeing the Prince of Wales instead of his father [at Omaha Beach] will not be lost on those within the royal household, as well as royal-watchers. Nonetheless, CNN understands that it wasn’t a deliberate orchestration. Seeing the future monarch in the company of other heads of state is a powerful visual and speaks to the longer transition which will prepare the public for King William V’s reign.
So… CNN is just saying it outright, that there’s already a move to prepare the public for King William V’s reign of terror? I don’t know y’all. It feels like… something.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Portsmouth, UK, 05 June 2024: King Charles III speaks at a commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, UK with Queen Camilla by his side.,Image: 879072362, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dylan Martinez / Avalon
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- Portsmouth, UK, 05 June 2024: King Charles III and Queen Camilla are moved to tears as they attend a commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, UK.,Image: 879078188, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dylan Martinez / Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a D-Day national commemoration event in Portsmouth, England, Wednesday, June 5, 2024.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool),Image: 879078266, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: POOL PHOTO, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kin Cheung / Avalon
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla are welcomed by British cadets and French primary schoolchildren as they arrive for the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer Featuring: King Charles III, Queen Camilla Where: Ver-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer Featuring: King Charles III, Queen Camilla Where: Ver-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- (left to right) Queen Camilla, King Charles III, President of France Emmanual Macron, and Brigitte Macron walk through the memorial wall during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: Queen Camilla, King Charles III, President of France Emmanual Macron, Brigitte Macron Where: Ver-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales is greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ahead of the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Courseulles-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal at the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal Where: Courseulles-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales speaks to veterans at the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Courseulles-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the Prince of Wales at the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal Where: Courseulles-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales at the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Courseulles-sur-Mer, France When: 06 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I’d say it’s nothing. It shows how little importance the monarchy has to meetings of actual working heads of state. It doesn’t matter which of them attends because they are just there for show to try to justify their over-priced existence as royals.
I agree. It just shows how interchangeable the royals are and that the public don’t care as long as someone is there to represent the country.
Exactly. This is so stupid. William’s been “preparing” ever since Elizabeth died, with all the talk about Charles abdicating in favor of William and how William is going to change things and blah, blah, blah. And what is there to prepare? Everybody on the planet knows he’s next in line, whether Charles drops dead tomorrow or in 20 years. That’s how it’s worked for the past 1,000 years.
Well more or less, Billy the conq. Stephen, Henry IV, Henry VII, etc. usurpers.
In the article about Camz shunning Brigitte Macron’s hand and turning away too soon from the memorial I mentioned that I do not believe that this woman is a diplomat at all. She’s rude.
I stand by that. However, if her husband took a massive downturn, it does mitigate a bit of what she did, especially if she has to honor the dead while funeral arrangements are being arranged for her husband.
Plenty have said it before, but Charles wearing a uniform for a branch of service he never served with, covered in “medals” earned for nothing more than showing up and kissing his mother’s ass throughout his life, should be an embarrassment. It makes him look like a tin-pot dictator from some backwater banana republic instead of the King of England. One of his beautiful suits would have served the situation much better.
The uniform and medals were a crass touch by both Chuck AND Willy. At least Willy was in a suit rather than a uniform. Who ever thought it was good to put him in that awful colour too is off their head. All other military personnel were wearing winter dress Uniforms. Neither he nor Willy were wearing medals given either in active service or combat …..
Charles Medals:
Order of Merit??,
Armed Forces Veteran,
British Legion Poppy,
Long Service & Good Conduct,
Queen’s Service Order,
Queen Elizabeth Coronation Medal (yeah he was 5 when she was crowned!),
Jubilee medals for Silver, Gold, Diamond & Platinum Jubilees,
Canadian Forces Decoration,
New Zealand Commemorative Medal,
New Zealand Armed Forces Medal,
Willy’s were Order of the Bath (around his neck), and 3 Jubilee medals, plus his Father’s Coronation Medal.
Sad nepo babies the both of them and nothing else
I got the vibe that he was trying to cosplay Charles de Gaulle a bit there. He should have left the entire uniform at home, he looked like a valour thieving potato.
His beige uniform is not too different than what the German’s wore during WWII. Oy!
Second verse, same as the first. Apart from “Where’s Kate?” I have no interest in this family.
Preparations for William V. should have included some kind of college education that would help a head of state be able to deal with diplomatic situations like war, drought, famine.
And being able to speak at least one foreign language at intermediate level or better. I know people who attended Eton who are fluent in two. And I know many people here in Europe who comfortably speak more.
Knowing the basics of how to master different social situations, like in William’s case not talking down to the veterans in wheelchairs. Leaving the plastic participation medals at home.
Please, fgs, stop pretending Bulliam cares for Keen. We all either have family members sick with cancer, or good friends, colleagues, or some of us are going through it themselves without all the fake news and brouhaha of school runs and shopping for luxury chocolate. This is embarrassing and the BaRF and the BM should be ashamed.
This is what absolutely shocks me about William. He doesn’t speak Welsh, when he should have been having Welsh lessons from the time he was a toddler. His French is absolutely abysmal. Spencer Matthews speaks better French on his podcast than William can muster. He went to St Andrews, fine, but was not made to take political science or other classes. What even is a geography major? At least with art history, he could have looked at his family’s collections. Geography sounds like he was just phoning it in. He’s been told his whole life how amazing he is, when really he is mediocre at best. He started life sliding into home, when he’d barely be on first base if left to his own devices. William is a disappointment as future head of state. I am far more impressed with the other crown princes and princesses around Europe, who have clearly been trained for their roles since birth and seem to appreciate their duty and treat it as an honor. William treats it like he is doing the world a favor and just wants to be a wealthy landowner.
I honestly hope Carole has stepped in and has influenced George’s education, as I can see her wanting him to tick all the boxes as opposed to just being pretty like William.
Carole did nothing for kates education. She was getting a degree in Mrs and did not even bother with a career
George’s school curriculum is online and it includes both modern languages and Latin. It looks like a good start.
I hope Charlotte and Louis get good educations too and learn languages. Princess Margaret was unhappy that she never got as good an education as her sister
In all fairness to William, it’s the responsibility of the parents to provide the opportunities to learn a foreign language. Having child carers who speak to them in a foreign language, or a summer abroad where they are surrounded by non English speakers are both great ways to become proficient.
William didn’t make those choices—his parents did.
Cali – to a certain extent i agree with you but as my mother always said, at age 18 you are an adult and as such, make your own decisions about how to live your life. William has seen how his counterparts in other Royal houses are educated to speak at least one other language. Did he never stop to think – yes this might be a very good idea, especially since I am planning to be an international statesman, not just King of England? Did his conscience never prick him to at least learn to speak Welsh, during all the years he waited around to be Prince of Wales? Perhaps its true, as has been written here many many times, that William has zero curiosity about the world outside William, which makes him a hollow man with, at least in my eyes, an empty life. How does he encourage his children to study at school, to strive to learn and understand the world around them? Or is he perpetuating the parental neglect he suffered from?
William could have majored in political science or history. I wonder why he initially chose art history.
I get what you are saying here about Willam specifically, but geography is a valid course of study. It is akin to majoring in International Relations or other interdisciplinary majors. But you only get out of learning what you put into it. And some majors have room for students to skate through. For example, business majors have the least amount of reading and writing assigned. But serious business majors will go the extra mile. I’ve seen no evidence that William is the kind of person who is curious enough to go that extra mile.
I’m going to guess that the CNN piece was written by it’s British royal correspondent Max Foster. I mean William’s role is to stand in for the King when he’s unable to, so all this fuss about this event shows that William is preparing to be King is over the top to me. Even if Charles didn’t have cancer, William is required to represent the King in his absence. Perhaps the real story should be that William make himself available to attend this event because he’s been mostly MIA since the news broke that Kate was having surgery.
A Brit, Mark Thompson, now runs CNN and it has been stacked with a bunch of British talent.
So their take will be whatever BP and KP want it to be from now on.
CNN is run by a Brit?!!!! Also, WP, WSJ…holy sht!! The oligarch’s really want to turn the U.S. media into the right-wing tabloid UK press! It’s all about the next election and taxes.
I’ll bet my bottom dollars that the puff piece was written by KP, and Foster, seeking access, penned his name to it.
I am sure Charles would love to hear that.
They’re doing everything they can, pulling every trick from their hat to try and deflect and distract from the “where is Kate” issue. Unfortunately, they’re failing miserably. They thought putting out the AI vid would buy them years to figure out how to lie more to the world, big mistake they made, it bought them days if not hours. Their tabloid machine and rota have churned out article after article, tried to shame people into submission, churned out polls after polls with questions like “are you ashamed Ket is being bullied”? “Are you ashamed William is being asked?” yadda, yadda, yadda. They also attempted to brand “trolls” or “Kate bullies” anyone and everyone, that dared to ask where Kate is. All has failed spectacularly and I’m here for it. The AI just added to more evidence that they’re hiding and are not telling us the reason why Kate and her 2 youngest children have never been seen or heard from since christmas 2023, they just vanished, and no one can tell us where they are. We still asking and will continue to ask and want to know, where the heck is Kate and her 2 youngest children?
@Lawrenceville
This exactly what I was going to try and say. You nailed it.
Spot on, @Lawrenceville.
What truly frightens me is that the two youngest Wales children are MIA, like their mother. I can’t help but think back to Spare, and Harry’s accounts of dealing with his mother’s death and his bereavement alone, with no support. No child should be subject to such heinous neglect. If Kate is truly that ill, who’s watching the children? Are they aware of what’s going on with their mum? Is anyone providing them with any sort of support or comfort? Are we going to see “Spare” X 2 in future years, with two horribly damaged adult royals?
Lets begin with the premise that the Machiavellians who run the palace believe it is their god-given right and duty to present the monarch as an infallible human being. Throughout history they have ALWAYS hidden or denied any frailty or character flaw in the monarch. Recall how persistently they pretended that there was nothing wrong with betty…..just feeling a little tired sometimes and of course, everyone-knows-that-at age-96-that-is-to-be-expected.
But I digress….
In making public such a massive health issue as “stricken with cancer,” chucky sealed his fate. In the eyes of the Machiavellians, he is done. Time now to polish the next turd.
And there is a certain urgency about getting some sheen on this particular turd, bulliam.
Because H&M’s departure from RF control and simultaneously – especially with the release of Spare, H’s court cases and the playing out in real time of H’s allegations about the whole rotten lot of them – the exposure of bulliam to public opprobrium is resulting in the seeping realization by ordinary folks that bulliam might not be capable of standing alone as monarch as all his ancestors have done before him, because of all this talk of “needing” his brother to help him when he becomes monarch, with folks seeing some of the evidence of this.
So theres a confluence of events:
– chucky, of necessity, (for the sake of the preservation of the image of the RF & institution) being relegated to has-been status;
– bulliam needing to be salvaged from himself;
– the realization that the American Sussex arm of the RF is on the ascendency, with the entire spotlight staying with them;
– and how to get rid of kitty without too much blow-back.
So yeah. The Machiavellians are juggling a lot more than theyve ever had to do in their 1000 year history. And theyre not managing too well.
Huevo was not the star the veterans were. Rather morbid talk about huevo being king. Charles was a better prince of Wales and for that matter Edward was very popular prince of Wales. Huevo is lazy and dull and has a mean streak
Tempted to just cosign Kingston’s comment because it is brilliant. And it is certainly true that part of the propaganda surrounding royals is that they are immortal, at least until, like Elizabeth, suddenly one day they are not. But I also want to say that while bladder cancer usually has a good prognosis, pancreatic cancer which has also been floated for Charles, most definitely does not have a good prognosis. So much depends on what type of cancer Charles actually has and I suspect that if it was bladder cancer, we would have been told simply because the prognosis is generally excellent. But there’s no way they would tell us he has pancreatic cancer.
My take is that it’s still all about Harry. Harry and Meghan mad a big splash on the wired stage in Nigeria, so of course William has to one up him on the biggest stage where all the world Leaders are
Bigger stage perhaps but what did William do, not a lot.
Money with Charles’ face on it did start circulating this week, surely they wouldn’t have approved this move if he was that close to death. It sounds like William is working his media connections to be bleak about his father again but that part coming from CNN is really weird.
Does Camilla wear ANY other type of dress?? This type of dress must be to Camilla, what coat-dresses are/were to Kate Middleton
I find it unseemly how quickly they are trying to get Charles to shuffle off this mortal coil. Huevo is going to be just as unexciting as King as he is Prince of Wales.
Huevo will be worse.
We took a taxi from our resort to Palma airport yesterday to fly home from Mallorca and I got to practice my Spanish (4+ years of Duolingo!) with our lovely taxi driver. He was asking about the UK and we got to talking about politics and the upcoming election and how we have a king and prime minister, not a president. I was doing my best to say that while Charles may only be king for a short time, he did do a ton of stuff as PoW (and took bags of cash), William however has done NOTHING with his life so far. Once he’s king it will me megalomania and nothing else. Trump with a crown.
The grey men sure aren’t doing Billy Idle any favors. When King Snubby is no longer around, how is Billy going to perform to the level of expectations that the bm are creating? This is going to be very interesting to watch from the US.
Will-not probably refused to go unless he got to play big boy statesman without Dad at certain events. (Remember the initial reports that Will-not wasn’t leaving Kate’s side and was skipping these events to be with his family?) BP/the men in grey manipulated Willy into attending because Willy skipping such an important event would cause an uproar, but capitulating and letting willy play global stateman all on his big boy own gives Willy tales of wails to spin to the rota. “Willy the global powerhouse” is the updated version of “The crown should skip Charles and go directly to Will-not” that has floated since the 1990s.
@ T N Democrat Rishi is rightly getting called out for leaving the D Day commemoration event early for selfish reasons and is an indication of the absolute roasting Willy would also have received if he’d just attended THAT wedding WITHOUT showing up for 6 June. BM have presented limited and somewhat muted criticism of Willy’s lack of effort and achievement at 41amd a half. He would have gotten a bucket load if he had not shown up . No one is going to call for KC to abdicate to make way for heir now it has become embarrassingly obvious that he can’t cut the mustard nor is he want to even try to be adequate,
Personally, I think Charles is very ill and now at a stage where he’s struggling with depleted energy and feeling miserable; trying to push through and maintain a façade of “all is well” is becoming more difficult.
I can believe that Charles is very sick and worse off the man we now. No freaking way would he concede that moment to William unless he had to. Charles waited his whole life to be king and almost his whole reign has been with cancer.
Poor Charles. I almost feel sorry for him.
Poor Diana Meghan and harry and archie and Meghan.