Prince Harry and his uncle Prince Andrew are set to be the losers in one of the Queen’s last monarchical moves. Photo / AP
Opinion:
It will be the year 2112 before there is even the most minuscule of legal chances that the world might ever get to see the contents of the late Queen Elizabeth’s will, given that the final testaments of the royal family are kept under lock and key in an undisclosed location.
But, still, some details about who got what have crept out. Son Charles got the throne, the keys to the Tower of London, and her entire commemorative collection of Songs of Praise egg cups; Prince Andrew and wife Sarah, Duchess of York got her two dogs Muick, a corgi and Sandy, a dorgi; and Princess Anne snagged various baubles including her mother’s iconic three-string set of pearls, which I’m sure will really liven up the taupe, canvas shirts she dons to muck out the stables in the pre-dawn light.
However, for some of her family members she had something much less palatable, and sparkly in mind, with it emerging late this week that Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his perma-disgraced Uncle Andrew are set to be at the losing end of one of her last monarchical moves.
See, even though Harry now lives within biking distance of the Pacific Ocean, having long since escaped grey winters and his royal birthright to brunch with Ellen, and Andrew, of course, is a man whose closest working relationship is with his overused TV remote, they are both still counsellors of state, meaning they could be called upon to stand in for the monarch and can undertake most of King Charles’ official duties.
Just let that sink in. Two defrocked dukes who engender various degrees of public dislike and disdain, and who, the way things are going, may never step foot on the Buckingham Palace balcony again, can be tasked with running parts of the regal show.
That’s because, even though both men are no longer working members of the royal family they are still two of the five counsellors, that is the select group of senior Windsors who, under the 1937 and the 1953 Letters Patent, can be called on to officially deputise for Charles.
As the Letters Patent stand right now, the counsellors are the four highest ranking members of the House of Windsor who are over the age of 21 (the Prince of Wales, Princess Beatrice, Andrew and Harry) and the sovereign’s spouse, so Queen Camilla.
However, London, we have a problem. A very big problem.
Image-wise, why should a princess best known for her questionable taste in hats and two private citizen dukes be even allowed to remain on the list of possible regal stand-ins? It’s preposterous that it is even theoretically possible that one day Beatrice could be in a position where she can sign official documents on behalf of her uncle or formally accept the credentials of new ambassadors and only highlights the often inherent ridiculousness of a hereditary monarchy.
And practically, given that the King and Queen, and William and his wife the Princess of Wales, will reportedly be spending chunks of next year trotting around the globe and charming babies, pensioners and the sorts of people who have the time to make signs out of glitter, that means that Andrew, Harry and Beatrice would technically be left holding the regal can.
Queen Elizabeth, it would now seem, had clocked that this particular situation was a PR disaster waiting to happen with two reports claiming that the palace is getting set to take action to sideline Andrew and Harry. (And you too, Beatrice, probably.)
According to both the Times and the Daily Mail, paperwork is set to land in British parliament in a matter of weeks which will amend the Letters Patent and expand the possible candidates, likely adding Princess Anne and Prince Edward to the number, thus ensuring Andrew and Harry will never be tapped as counsellors.
Moreover, respected royal biographer Robert Hardman wrote in the Mail: “These proposals were already being considered some months ago, with the approval of the late Queen.”
All of which is to say, in the final months of the Queen’s life, without the world being any the wiser, she was greenlighting plans for her grandson to lose his final official role. (Andrew is still a Vice-Admiral which is a deplorable state of affairs. Get on that please, Your Majesty.)
Sure, the chances of Harry ever, ever being asked to step in for his dad are about as slim as an Olsen twin on a juice cleanse but it’s the symbolism of the thing. (The Duke only ever really got one go at the counsellor gig, being among the counsellors appointed by the Queen before she made her final overseas trip to a Commonwealth summit in Malta in 2015).
There is something a tad toothless about the palace deciding, if this week’s reporting is correct, that the way to sort out this counsellor mess is to make the pool of possible counsellors bigger rather than specifically excluding the demoted dukes or deciding that only working members of the royal family could be appointed. Really, it’s a bit of a wimpy workaround. But it does come with the serious added benefit of going some way to protecting the two dukes.
The first sign that something was cooking behind the scenes came on Monday when peer Viscount Stansgate stood up in the House of Lords and raised the question of amending the Regency Act.
“Are the government happy to continue with a situation where the counsels of state and regency powers may be exercised by the Duke of York or the Duke of Sussex, one of whom has left public life and the other of whom has left the country?”
According to Hardman, Lord True, leader of the Lords, had been “forewarned” about the question and had a ready answer to hand “[suggesting] reform may be imminent,” with the peer saying: “The government will always consider what arrangements are needed to ensure resilience in our constitutional arrangements.”
Don’t let the torpor-inducing language here fool you. This exchange in the Lords was, according to Dr Craig Prescott of the UK Constitutional Law Association the first time the Andrew and Harry counsellor situation has been raised in Parliament.
For Harry, being a counsellor of state is the last vestige of his former life. Gone are his honorary military titles (Captain General of the Royal Marines, Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington and Commodore-in-Chief Small Ships and Diving), his presidency of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, his patronages of Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League and his ability to style himself as His Royal Highness.
Hopefully the late monarch actually left Harry something lovely in her will, perhaps a Rembrandt or her first edition copy of Black Velvet; something he can pass by every day and remember his venerable grandmother before he peddles off for huevos rancheros with fellow Montecito residents Rob Lowe and Ariana Grande.
Daniela Elser is a writer and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Tearless onions are now being grown in Auckland and sold nationwide.