Queen Elizabeth’s funeral: Palace reception fraught with risk of undiplomatic incidents

Harry and Meghan represented merely one invitational headache for King Charles at a pre-funeral reception at Buckingham Palace attended by hundreds of senior dignitaries.

Prince William, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry and wife Meghan after escorting the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II to Westminster Hall. The Sussexes were uninvited from a pre-funeral reception at Buckingham Palace.

They came from Africa and Asia, from America and Australasia. There were princes, princesses and presidents, emperors and emirs.

The president of Ireland shared a coach with the former king and queen of Spain. The present king and queen king of Spain — whose relations with their predecessor are more than a little strained — shared coaches with the king and queen of Sweden.

Friendly nations and less friendly ones met over drinks and canapes as Buckingham Palace hosted one of the biggest gatherings of heads of state in history — and hoped to avoid any diplomatic spats in the process. Between 200 and 250 heads of state and senior dignitaries were expected at the party, along with their spouses and partners, as Charles III welcomed them before his mother’s funeral today.

There was also controversy close to home, amid reports that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been “uninvited”, because Harry is not a working royal.

His son and daughter-in-law represented merely one invitational headache for Charles, however. The choreography over the wider guest list was such that the Foreign Office was last night still refusing to release a list of those in attendance. The key protocol problem was that the guests were free to mingle at the Buckingham Palace gathering. When world leaders can move unimpeded, there is both diplomatic opportunity and risk.

A woman waves as US President Joe Biden is driven past the Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace on September 18.

Sources confirmed at the last moment that one of the most divisive guests was not going to attend. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, blamed for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist, would be represented instead by Prince Turki bin Mohammed al-Saud, a member of the cabinet since 2018.

Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said his presence would “stain” the late Queen’s memory. However, the religious nature of the funeral might also have provided the prince with a get-out clause: Christian worship is banned in his kingdom.

One potential flashpoint concerned Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, who was embroiled in British court cases concerning the escape of two daughters and his wife, Princess Haya of Jordan. He was said to have arrived at Buckingham Palace to offer his condolences in a royal capacity last night. It raised the possibility of a meeting with Haya’s brother, King Abdullah, who was also expected to be present.

Madrid is furious at the attendance of the exiled king emeritus, Juan Carlos, who received a personal invitation in addition to that extended to his estranged son, King Felipe, the head of state, who will lead the Spanish delegation with Queen Letizia.

Juan Carlos fled Spain for the Gulf in 2020 under suspicion of fraud and has not seen his son since. While Felipe and Letizia will stay with the Spanish ambassador , Juan Carlos will be consigned to a hotel with his estranged wife.

Not all those invited respected the apolitical nature of the occasion. President Bolsonaro, facing a re-election fight in Brazil next month, held an impromptu rally at his embassy yesterday, railing from the balcony against gender ideology, drugs, abortion and his Latin American neighbours.

President Herzog, Israel’s largely ceremonial head of state, was to attend along with Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, who will represent the ailing President Abbas. Relations between the Israeli and Palestinian administrations remain icy, with Britain’s role in the century-old Balfour Declaration still a sensitive issue for the Palestinians. Charles infuriated Israel with his comments on his first visit to the Occupied Territories in 2020, where he said freedom for the Palestinians was “his dearest wish”.

The Times