Royal trouble: King Charles hits new low

The British people have delivered King Charles a painful blow as he faces new money and, of course, new Sussex problems.

Vikings, the Welsh, the Scots, the Vikings, the Vikings, Napoleon, the Spanish armada,

gonorrhoea, an executioner’s axe, arrows, guns, horses, existential torpor: English Kings

have really been up against it since the days of Aethelstan.

Our King, Charles III? He has just been taken down by some globs of plasticine.

With 2025 officially here and us having finally taken all the NYE empties out, His Majesty’s

new year has started on quite the bum note having been roundly beaten in the Christmas

Day TV ratings by Wallace and Gromit.

Which would be a slightly galling start to January but then we also have the fact that the

King is facing growing pressure over the millions he pulls renting land back to the

government and charities; his son is about to pitch up in London for a long stint in the

courtroom witness box; and his daughter-in-law is gobbling up all of our few remaining

working brain cells with her attempt to spin aspirational post-feminist homemaking into

bags of cash. (And Harold Godwinson thought he had it bad with that arrow to the eyeball

sitch.)

Ai ai ai. Is it too late to request more holiday leave?

The King was beaten in the Christmas Day TV ratings. Picture: Mina Kim/ Pool/AFP

MORE: Charles addresses Andrew’s royal $57m feud

If Charles and Meghan are still speaking, at least they could do some trans-Atlantic

commiserating this weekend over the ungratefulness of the great unwashed when it comes

to the content they have been thoughtfully making for us.

For years the late Queen and then the King’s annual Christmas speeches were the number

one rating shows of the day, proving that no one knows what to do with those awkward

hours of indigestion between lunch and dinner on December 25.

Until this year that is, with Charles’ address having slumped to third spot, behind Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl andGavin & Stacey: The Finale, and only attracting 6.8

million viewers. (Back in the late 90s it was a news story when the late Queen’s speech

slipped below the ten million viewer mark and that was with a much smaller population.)

The King recorded his Christmas message at the Fitzrovia Chapel. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty

MORE: King Charles’ savvy $33bn side hustle

Pity, support, lingering, unexamined fealty to the monarchy – clearly none of this was

enough to motivate Britons to reach for their remotes.

At least we know why about 151,000 people didn’t tune in, having signed a petition calling

on the King and the Prince of Wales to stop charging the government and charities for the

use of land that the monarchy essentially nicked for itself back in the middle ages.

Last year it was revealed that the private estates controlled by Charles and Prince William,

the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, are pulling in millions of dollars from lucrative deals

with the outfits like the National Health Service, the Navy and various nonprofits, by

charging them rent to do public-minded things like parking ambulances and tying up nuclear

submarines.

Charles’ address slumped to third spot, behind Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Gavin & Stacey: The Finale. Picture: Netflix

It’s a truly rotten look. The King – whose whole job and life and identity is meant to be about

Duty and Service – is directly pulling in a fortune by leasing land back to the very people he is meant to serve. How positively feudal of him.

Polling done by the Mirror has now found that 50 per cent of people disagree with this

arrangement and think that the King and the Prince of Wales should be barred from making

money this way.

Elsewhere, another poll has found that three quarters of Brits think that Charles and William

should be forced to pay corporation and capital gains tax like every other person who does

not have their own crown and sceptre a home.

Still, no monarchy has ever been brought down by inequitable accounting arrangements

and these are hardly problems that should make the monarchy go all knock-kneed.

The UK has bigger fish to fry like Elon Musk having nonconsensually inserted himself into domestic politics and skipping around holding hands with the far right while millions of people are terrified of the cost of turning their two-bar heaters on.

What should be worrying the King’s aides is that five years on from Megxiting themselves

off to California to live their truth and take the recycling bins out themselves, Prince Harry

and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are gearing up for a barnstormer of a few

months of headline-dominating.

Three quarters of Brits think that Charles and William should be forced to pay corporation and capital gains tax. Picture: Jordan Peck/Getty

This week Meghan returned to Instagram with her solo personal account for the first time

since 2017, giving the world the content it desperately needs right now – a video of a

wealthy woman doing some pointless frolicking on a beach.

Then came the trailer for her new Netflix project, a lifestyle and entertaining show called

With Love, Meghan, the 110 second teaser the official sacrificing of Betty Frieden on the

altar of Betty Crocker.

The voiceover and marketing fluff promises the show will be all about joy and love and

seems to suggest that the path to true happiness lies in meticulously sculpting crudités,

never once mentioning who will do all the washing up.

Whether With Love storms up the charts or tanks, its January 15 will come roughly around

the time that His Majesty returns to public duties. Good look getting anyone to pay any

scant attention to the King, say, visiting a food bank in Hull if it happens at the same time as

the dawn of Meghan’s domestic do-over of a career.

Meghan Markle has returned to social media where she has plugged her new cooking show.

And Harry. Oh Harry. He will be back in London in late January or early February, nearly a

year on since father and son last saw one another. The duke will be there for his court case

against the owner of The Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN), over alleged hacking and

unlawful information gathering, with him set to take the stand for four days. (NGN is owned

by the same parent company as News Corp Australia, publisher of this masthead.)

The potential for the King’s loose-lipped, nothing-left-to-lose son really going for it and

unleashing would have to rank as horrifyingly high for the 76-year-old. The Almighty (AKA

Oprah Winfrey) only knows what might be about to come out of Harry mouth.

So it’s time for me to wrap this all up and to go back to Googling how long ham keeps for, a

search that I am exquisitely positive that His Majesty has never single finger tapped into his

iPad.

Happy new year to you and you and to any Kings in need of bucking ahead of a bumpy

month to come. And, if you are feeling a bit down about going back to work this week,

might I suggest a Meghan-approved beachy frolic or embracing the soul-soothing power of

the crudité. With love.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’

experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Royal trouble: King Charles hits new low