‘Raised eyebrows’: Bold move by Prince William ’causing tensions’ behind Palace walls

As the Prince of Wales marks his 41st birthday, “tensions” are rising behind Palace doors after he pulled a swift one over the King.

Here’s one thing you and I will never do – shop for a pressie for a prince.

If that job wasn’t hard enough already, imagine how much trickier things have gotten this year for Kate, the Princess of Wales when it comes to finding something shiny for Prince William, who turned 41 on Wednesday.

In the last year, since becoming the Prince of Wales, he has gotten his own archipelago of 10 islands, a 52,450-acre real estate portfolio, a trust worth about $1.8 billion on a good day and the legal right to any whale carcass that washes up in Cornwall. Score.

So, a Neil Gaiman paperback or some socks just isn’t going to cut it.

But, as Willy celebrates his first birthday as holder of the 12th century title, the reality is that he has actually also inherited something that few royals have ever wanted and which really is a bit of a sh*t sandwich.

Now, what this all means would be an interesting enough story in and of itself, but something is afoot in London. Something which is unprecedented and “causing … tensions” in the royal world.

William, a man who looks like the human personification of middle-of-the-road plodding, the number one good boy, is in fact staging a bit of stealthy rebellion against his dear old dad, King Charles.

To understand what is happening, you have to know one simple thing: being Prince of Wales is a crap job.

Being the Prince of Wales is no cakewalk. Picture: Susannah Ireland – WPA Pool/Getty Images

A heartbeat away from the throne, the Wales title is a stonkingly heavy lodestone that has been making English royal blokes’ lives that much harder since about 1284. (That’s when Edward I aka Edward Longshanks properly got his hands on the fiefdom of Wales).

To be the Prince of Wales is to be trapped in limbo for decades on end.

It confers seniority, but no extra power; carries with it added responsibility for the crown, but also demands a certain fealty to the sovereign. One is meant to know one’s place like a sort of princely geisha.

For someone raised to be a King, it can be a galling, frustrating, wing-clipping, swallow-your-pride experience.

However, William seems intent on doing it his own way, adios precedent, no matter that he is starting to look like something of a diet usurper.

In the late 70s, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, was at a dinner party with the cabinet of the former British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

He recounted how a Qantas flight attendant had once said to him, “God, what a rotten, boring job you’ve got”. Everyone at the dinner, according to famed writer Anthony Holden, then tittered appropriately.

“But no,’” Charles reportedly stressed to the great and the good sitting around the table, “you don’t understand what I mean. She was right.”.

What he was really saying, to me anyway, was that holding the 720-year-old role is no cakewalk.

There is no job description or guidelines for how the heir to the throne is meant to amuse themselves in the years they are waiting and waiting – always the bridesmaid – for their regal parent to pop their clogs.

In centuries past, being the Prince of Wales generally meant having hot and cold running mistresses, several venereal diseases and a serious taste for quails’ eggs. The biggest issue for these princes was gout, falling off a horse after several bottles of port at lunch or running out of spending cash after buying up too many Canalettos.

Unfortunately for Charles, who loves art and as we all know, had a thing for a certain mistress, that paradigm shifted dramatically in the 20th century.

Prince William overshadowed the King after Trooping the Colour. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Goodbye gallivanting around Paris with floozies, hello decades of pliantly hanging about the palace and waiting for a hospital wing to need to be opened.

It was in 1958 at age nine that Charles heard the news on the telly in his boarding school master’s study that his mother was elevating him to the Prince of Wales.

Then, for the next 50-plus years, he was left to figure out what the heck to do with himself. Idleness, dissipated living and getting the clap were out, but what exactly was in? He was expected to work, but not to work too much to show up the Queen; meant to be a senior royal, but also a loyal foot soldier.

While Charles’ Prince’s Trust was, and is, a hugely impressive operation (since its inception it has supported one million young people to gain job opportunities or skills), he still spent decades in a certain palace purgatory.

Now it’s William’s turn, and he clearly has no plans to play the same game.

In fact, something pretty extraordinary has been going on in London that at any other time would have been much bigger news.

Our man Willy looks dangerously like he is staging a far-from-subtle mutiny and has no intention of playing by his father’s rules.

Last weekend was Trooping the Colour, the sovereign’s official birthday parade. It was Charles’ first as King and saw him actually ride in the grand event, the first monarch to do so since 1986.

His Majesty should have woken up on Sunday to see his whopping bearskin-clad head and his horse Noble on all of the British front pages plus lots of column inches celebrating his horsey turn.

Charles was nowhere to be seen on the front page of the Mail.

William also dominated the Times.

Did this happen? Neiighhhhhhh. (There are never too many horse jokes).

Rather, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph and Mail on Sunday all lead with a new photo of William and his three adoring children, released for UK Father’s Day, thus relegating Charles’ first Trooping to the ignominious inside pages.

Knocking the King off the front page? On a landmark occasion? And for which he had been practising for weeks?

It was the same story for the Telegraph.

While Kate and Louis took over Sunday People.

The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden has reported that William’s move “caused … tensions”.

But wait, it gets worse. Not only had the Waleses’ Kensington Palace office put out this new sweet family snapshot on the same weekend as the King’s big bash, but William had chosen that exact moment in time to give his first interview since assuming his new title.

Speaking to the Sunday Times’ Roya Nikkhah, William got busy setting out his stall, saying he wanted to end homelessness and would build social housing on his vast Duchy lands.

“The timing of the interview will certainly have raised eyebrows at Buckingham Palace,” a senior former palace official told Eden.

“The interview and the Father’s Day picture have blown His Majesty off the front pages on the weekend of his first King’s Birthday Parade. It could have been sequenced better, especially given that the Duchy social housing initiative isn’t being launched for a while yet.”

Nikkhah also reported that: “William recently met Michael Gove, the housing secretary, and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, to brief them on his plans”.

A member of the royal family “briefing” government leaders? That sounds markedly … kingly.

Tensions are reportedly building. Picture: Alex Pantling/Getty Images

The thing here is that William is not so much stepping on Charles’ toes as clog dancing all over them. Nor would he seem to care just how much he has aggravated the King.

Rather, as My Way plays in the background, the prince seems intent on ignoring his father’s Wales MO and looks like he is refusing to patiently wait for his turn. This photo and interview seem like strategic – and pretty blatant – plays at starting to establish himself in the minds of the people as a proactive, engaged, campaigning King-in-waiting.

This is personal brand building, no matter the possible overall expense to the monarchy, where unity is meant to be the name of the very well-bred game.

Really, what we have just seen William do is stage a PR slash power grab.

An antsy, restless prince with big ambitions and little patience? It’s nearly enough to make a King consider shunting the lad off to one of his 10 islands for a spell.

He could even take a Neil Gaiman or two.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and freelance writer with 15 years’ experience who has written for some of Australia’s best print and digital media brands.

Originally published as ‘Raised eyebrows’: Bold move by Prince William ’causing tensions’ behind Palace walls