Prince Harry’s stripped rugby titles given to Kate Middleton
Several prestigious gifts given to the Duke of Sussex have been reallocated – and the big winner looks set to be Kate Middleton.
COMMENT
If there was one toe-tapping anthem that should be bouncing off the Gainsboroughs and Canalettos up and down the corridors of Buckingham Palace right now it would be the Eurythmics’ Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves.
Over the last 18 months it has been the house of Windsor’s female HRHs who have formed the vanguard to buck up a beleaguered Britain and to ensure that the monarchy played a blinder during the pandemic.
They zoomed, chatted and masked up proving that even stuck in the wilds of Norfolk or Scotland, all a Windsor girl needs to Do Her Bit is decent Wi-Fi, a beige wall and someone to restrain the Jack Russels from bursting into frame.
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Now, that hard work is being rewarded with reports that Kate is to be given two new roles as the patron of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Football League (RFL).
While the chance to be photographed giddily sandwiched between sweaty, hulking players on occasion does sound like a treat any duchess with a pulse would enjoy, what makes this news highly significant is that until late February, those very roles belonged to her brother-in-law Prince Harry.
In a year and a half of milestone moments, we’ve hit another one. Harry is reportedly about to be officially replaced.
As 2021 started, one of the biggest questions on the royal agenda was what was going to happen to Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s official roles and his honorary military titles, most notably Captain General of the Royal Marines.
The year before, as the couple’s split from the royal household was hashed out, it was decided that while Harry would technically retain his military roles, he would step back, something that is said to have “devastated” the former Army Captain.
That said, the roles would not be reassigned until the 12-month review period was up, a move which was interpreted as the Queen leaving the door open for the duo to return if they changed their minds. (Insert your own mirthless laugh here.)
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Keep in mind here how weighty both Harry’s official patronages and military roles are here. He took over the Rugby patronage from the Queen in 2017 and when the Duke of Edinburgh retired in 2017 he handed the prestigious Royal Marines role over to his grandson in a break from tradition. (Every other former Captain General has either been the sovereign or the husband of the sovereign.)
Harry being given these roles was a very clear sign of how highly his grandparents esteemed his work on behalf of the crown and was a show of very public support.
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In the early months of this year, as the review deadline approached, stories started popping up in the UK press reaffirming Harry’s commitment in what looked like an attempt to sway the palace’s decision. “His military work is one of the most important things to him,” a friend told The Telegraph. “Of course he wants to keep them.”
But no matter how much Harry might have treasured these official positions, the clock was ticking and with the Sussexes now living in California, on February 19 this year, the inevitable happened and Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan would lose their patronages.
Now this week, we have the first indication of how the palace intends to redistribute those roles with Kate, according to the Times, assuming Harry’s rugby positions and with Princess Anne mooted to take over the Royal Marines.
If there is one thing that Megxit has crudely introduced Harry to, besides the joys of sunshine and mortgage repayments, it is to the world of consequences.
“The reality of not being able to have their cake and eat it is finally dawning on him,” a source told The Times when the palace’s patronage decision was revealed. “I am sure it is really painful for him. He is very upset to be in this spot.”
Think about it: Prior to him quitting royal life and prior to his marriage, the young(ish) royal has never really paid any sort of serious price for his impetuous actions. In 2005, he chose to dress up as a Nazi for a party. Nothing really happened.
In 2009, video footage surfaced showing Harry calling fellow cadet at Sandhurst a “P***” and another a “r*ghead.” Nothing really happened.
In 2012, he became the first member of the royal house to end up naked on the front page after his now infamous strip billiards incident. Nothing really happened.
Yes, on each occasion Harry profusely apologised, he might have faced plenty of censure and had to suffer through the attendant public embarrassment in some instances, but did anything materially change for him? Nope. He still undertook royal tours, assumed more official roles and got invited back to Balmoral every year.
Let’s be clear here. I’m not suggesting the poor bloke, who we now know was suffering serious mental health issues during his 20s, should have been hung, drawn and quartered, no matter how much some of his forebears might have enjoyed meting out that particular punishment.
But having lived a life where for the first 35 years he was essentially shielded from having to ever truly face the consequences of his choices has not stood him in good stead.
Because what Megxit has meant for Harry, in part, is a brutal introduction to the world of having to actually deal with ramifications of one’s actions and choices.
Time and again, Harry and Meghan seem to have been taken aback to not get their own way.
When the news first broke that the Sussexes were done with being frontline HRHs, the duo’s Instagram post announcing the breathtaking news they were going “to carve out a progressive new role within this institution”.
Numerous biographies since then have reported that the couple jumped the gun on the revelation and there was no concrete plan in place for this “progressive new role.” Within days, the Queen quashed any notion of them being allowed to assume a sort of one foot in, one foot out model.
The couple also launched a very polished and no doubt expensive website, www.sussexroyal.com, only for the palace to rule they would not be allowed to continue to brand themselves as such. (Ditto being able to style themselves as HRHs, just one of the many awkward things they now have in common with Sarah, Duchess of York – aka Fergie.)
After leaving London, they briefly lived on Vancouver Island in Canada, where, as Harry later recounted to Oprah Winfrey during their bombshell interview, that he was told “at short notice” that they would be losing their British taxpayer-funded protection officers.
“I never thought that I would have my security removed,” the royal told Winfrey and TV audiences. That the British Metropolitan Police, which runs the specialist unit which protects the royal family, might not be willing to foot the multimillion-dollar bill for their bodyguards despite throwing the towel in, never seemed to have occurred to them.
Ditto that his father Prince Charles might not still pour millions of pounds in financial support into their pockets. “We didn’t have a plan … My family literally cut me off financially,” Harry explained to Oprah.
At each point, Harry and Meghan seem to have been caught unawares and flummoxed by the fact that their precipitous exit might have repercussions beyond simply a change of postcode.
That magical thinking extended to his patronages too.
Last year, Harry said during the Rugby Football League’s 125th birthday celebration, “I definitely plan on coming back … Don’t worry you guys and Rugby League Community will have my commitment for as long as I can give it to you.”
Enthusiasm and good intentions are one thing; cold hard reality is another entirely.
They not only still seem to want but to expect to have things both ways.
In July, the Daily Mail reported that Harry and Meghan want their newborn daughter Lilibet Diana to be christened at Windsor, a desire verging on the delusional given that the Duke and Duchess are responsible for the PR conflagration that has consumed the palace this year.
Then, late last month it was revealed that Harry is hard at work on a memoir which is set to be published in 2022. Time and again he has reaffirmed how much respect he has for the Queen and yet is choosing to release a tell-all in the same year as one of the biggest milestone moments in her reign.
Not to get all New Testament here but this week’s patronage move would appear to be a textbook example of reaping what you sow, both for Harry and Kate.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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