By the looks of it, Prince Harry surprised Buckingham Palace’s courtiers when he showed up in London on Tuesday. Harry absolutely surprised the royal rota too, most of whom were traveling with King Charles and Camilla this week in Italy. The Telegraph and the Times both ran pieces in which courtiers were FUMING about Harry’s thunder-stealing. The Times’ royal sources even made it sound like this was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Harry and Charles’s relationship. Which is funny because the courtiers have also briefed for years that Charles refuses to speak to Harry because of Harry’s security fight and lawsuits, a situation which Charles could change but refuses to do so. So basically, father and son are estranged and Charles is mad that the son he never speaks to has stolen his thunder yet again. Well, you know what that means: it’s time for another weird royalist column about how Harry needs to come back to the Windsor fold. From Alan Cochrane’s Telegraph piece, “It might soon be time to welcome Harry back into the Royal family.”

By any measure he has behaved badly – very badly, even. All on his own he has made himself an outcast. Nobody else is really to blame for the situation in which he finds himself – separated from a loving father who would still welcome him back into the fold, even if his elder brother is highly unlikely to feel the same way.

However, as the chasm between Prince Harry and the family of King Charles yawns ever wider, could there be even the slightest chance of cutting him some slack and – who knows? – we might see the beginning of the end of Harry’s War. It will be difficult – such intense family reconciliations always are – but surely there is scope for the barrage of ill-feeling and wounded pride to peter out. That way, we might find a route towards a ceasefire. Can the guns not be silenced?

Harry is in London at present, while his father is on a state visit to Italy, and although both were in London before the King left for Rome, they didn’t see each other – a huge sadness in itself.
The prince, however, has time for only one thing while on a flying visit to Britain this week – his seemingly never-ending attempt to secure Royal-level protection for himself and his family. But doesn’t anyone see some of the words he used in this week’s Appeal Court hearing as a cri de cœur? He is suing the Home Secretary over a ruling by Ravec – the Royal and VIP executive committee – to withdraw his right to police protection.

But read again what he said: “The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.”

The many cynics among Harry-watchers will claim this is all an act, a phoney attempt to get his own way and score a point against all those, especially in his estranged family, who constantly oppose him and his wife Megan. Any number are prepared to blame Megan for much of the family’s ills. However, nobody should be in any doubt about Harry’s devotion to her. In another extract from his evidence to the court he said: “I cannot put my wife in danger … and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”

If he loses this case before the Appeal Court – and it will be some time before we hear the judgment – it’s expected that he will have to foot a substantial bill, which might suggest that the act of throwing himself on the mercy of the court in this way indicates that he’s now bored with what looks to many like the aimless life he leads in Los Angeles.

In the battle for public opinion, once upon a time, Harry reigned supreme, and was the rascal Royal that everyone loved. But that was then; the present Harry has lost out. He still has his supporters, especially among young people but there is no doubt that the “King’s party”, if such a description can be attached to the Royal family, has increased in popularity as Harry’s has disappeared.

Whatever the Appeal Court’s verdict in this case, angry words and bad behaviour will not be easily forgotten. But as Churchill insisted, let the victors be magnanimous. It is past time for a rapprochement in the House of Windsor. For that to happen, Harry must show he wants to be part of it.

[From The Telegraph]

Dude can’t even spell “Meghan” correctly, and I don’t understand why this guy is evoking Harry’s “devotion” to his wife, as if explaining it to a public who cannot understand how a man could love his wife and want his wife to be alive? Like, this is where we are with the House of Windsor. You mean a Windsor man does NOT despise his wife? We will have to explain this to the public gently. This is also extremely dumb: “which might suggest that the act of throwing himself on the mercy of the court in this way indicates that he’s now bored with what looks to many like the aimless life he leads in Los Angeles.” Harry doesn’t live in LA, nor is his life aimless. That’s definitely the new royalist talking point this year though: Harry doesn’t have a job, he’s aimless!

Anyway, these people are working themselves into a lather trying to royalsplain something which should be taken at face value: Harry would like to visit the UK sometimes and he would like his children to know his homeland, but he’s justifiably afraid for their safety if he ever brought them back for a visit. This issue has gotten even more important now that the Invictus Games will be staged in Birmingham in 2027, which should be a factor in this security issue (but hasn’t been mentioned, from what I’ve seen).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.