What you missed about Prince William’s incredible display at Euro 2024
The Prince of Wales’ extraordinary display as he watched the England soccer team win comes as he begins a major new push.
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Well, well, well. The UK has a new Prime Minister, stale vanilla wafer left out of the packet in human form Sir Keir Starmer, and a new King. Well, kinda, of the unanointed, un-coronated and uncrowned variety.
Arise Your Majesty King William, the UK’s newest ruler of hearts and minds.
Over the weekend Britain did something much more important than turf out the conservatives after 14 years of old Etonians buggering up the country with their austerity measures then tootling off to their clubs for port when England made it into the semifinals of the Euro 2024 soccer championship.
Prince William, as the President of the Football Association, flew to Germany for the match where he did his patriotic duty of enjoying a few hours of some very fancy on-field footwork. The Three Lions might have ultimately triumphed 5-3, beating Switzerland in a match that came down to a nail biting penalty shootout, but the royal is, I reckon, the much bigger winner.
The performance the Prince of Wales gave from the stands was nothing short of a barnstorming, corker of a display — the HRH expressing more raw emotion and deep feeling in public than England’s entire roster of 42 sovereigns combined. (To wit, someone once actually shot at the late Queen when she was riding during Trooping the Colour and her trademark deadpan expression barely budged.)
But no, throughout this weekend’s game, William grimaced, exultantly cheered, yelled, jumped to his feet, held his head in his hands and generally emoted like a Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts graduate trying out for a minor part in The Bill.
He was, in short, brillant.
Somehow a man in a suit — who has a certain vanilla wafer quality all of his own — has managed to make himself the face of England’s success in the Euros with his extreme, visceral joy standing in for a nation’s jubilation.
The punters positively loved it.
William’s Man of the People showing on Saturday, this incredible outpouring, him feeling the highest highs and the lowest lows along with the entire nation, was perfectly timed.
The UK has just emerged from an election campaign that came down to 65 million people venting their extreme frustration and anger with the Tories, including that time that 49-day prime minister Liz Truss managed to wipe £57 billion off the economy in less time than it takes Princess Anne to use a half pint of semi-skimmed.
Meanwhile doctors last month staged their 11th walk out over the foundering National Health Service and the prisons are so over-capacity that inmates are having to be released early. (If anyone at NATO has the time, it might not be a bad idea for someone to text the UK, RUOK?)
And then came the Euros! A bright, shining moment, a rare, unifying feelgood national experience against all of this soupy, miserable grey! And William? He has managed to make himself a star player in this bright, shining moment gainst all of this soupy, miserable grey.
It might have been Harry Kane’s squad on the field but the prince in the stands has just played a blinder.
This is just the beginning.
Also over the weekend came the announcement that the 41-year-old is set to appear on TV screens and will front a new two-part series called, humbly, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness. The show, which started filming 12 months ago, will offer viewers “access to the inner workings of this ambitious project and the work of Prince William and his team”.
So, let’s do the sums here huh? Football plus tele equals the fastest and most effective way to connect with an entire nation. What we are seeing is William making what looks like a concerted play for the affections and support of Mittel Britain.
Call it a Kingly soft-launch.
Since 2021, he has sold his polo ponies, now owns more navy jumpers than is advisable and there have been not one but two official pictures of him released in the last month wearing, gasp, shorts.
William’s namesake in 1066 bobbed across the Channel and made a successful play to take England for himself and now, all these years later, his namesake appears to be doing the same thing — despite being nowhere near the throne.
King Charles, back in his Prince of Wales days, never made such a discernible play to come across as even vaguely resembling an Average Joe.
Oh yes, he worked hard, charity-ed exceptionally well (just ask any of the one million young people he helped get into jobs or further education via his Trust) and only occasionally took an afternoon off to jot down his fears about the plight of the Patagonian toothfish to a government minister (yes, really). However, he never attempted or was willing to do anything that was geared to make him likeable and relatable.
The William sell is a whole other matter entirely.
Only last week he was in Edinburgh for the annual Order of the Thistle ceremony after which his Kensington Palace team put out a social media video that strayed dangerously close to the absurd. The slow-mo shots seemed more fitted to a Top Gun trailer than a grown man whose day job involves keeping a straight face while wearing the sort of velvet robes a weekend Wiccan could only dream about.
Whether this William PR push is something that the father-of-three actually enjoys or not, the unvarnished truth is that really, this is the job. If, in decades and centuries past, the monarchy endured out of some hodge podge of public respect and a certain lip-quivering awe at the gilded edifice, to make it in 2024 and 2034 and 2044, it will now require amiability and likeability.
If the number one goal of Crown Inc is sheer survival then, needs must. Buck up boyo, get on with things and sell, baby, sell.
Thursday this week will see Kane’s team take to the pitch to play the Netherlands in the semifinals and, I’d guess, will see William take to the stands.
Here’s hoping that HRH’s equerry Rob Dixon, the blonde dish who put on an equally passionate showing on Saturday behind William, will spend the flight putting his principal through his paces and warming up his cheering muscles and most excitable facial expressions. The Wales Conquest has only just begun.
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 What you missed about Prince William’s incredible display at Euro 2024
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