Well. Wednesday was a crazy day. If you missed the drama, then you can catch up here on the initial wave of reporting. Today, we’re going to touch on some odds and ends that didn’t make it into my initial post because of all the information coming out, as well as weigh in on some of the reactions and narratives beginning to build.
Tag: Prince Charles
2019’s Engagement Numbers & What They Tell Us
[N.B. The below post was written before the Sussexes’ news yesterday. Since it’s not overly relevant to this topic, I haven’t edited it, save one little note at the end.]
Before we get started, Happy Birthday to the Duchess of Cambridge, who turns 38 today! The occasion was marked at Anmer Hall last weekend, but I’m sure there are some day-of festivities planned now that the family has returned to London. We’ll next see her out and about on Wednesday when she and the Duke visit Bradford for their first engagement of the new year.
With that, let’s turn to the matter at hand: last year’s engagement numbers. If you keep up with royal news then you may have seen the end-of-year articles tracking who the “hardest working” member of the Royal Family was in 2019. If you read more than one, then you may have noticed very different statistics get reported. There’s no exact science to these tallies – what constitutes an engagement is in the eye of the beholder, however the most traditional approach is to count it if it made it into the Court Circular.
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George & Charlotte Make Their Christmas Debut
Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a happy and relaxing holiday. As we speak, I am typing this next to my sleeping Cavalier King Charles, a roaring fire, and a very festive Christmas tree 🙂 With presents opened and an interlude before dinner, it seems like a good time to check in with the Royal Family. As many of you have no doubt seen, this was a big year over at Sandringham: Prince George and Princess Charlotte joined the Christmas Day walkabout.
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Four Generations, Three Heirs, One Monarch
Well, now we know why the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George traveled separately from the Duchess, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis last week: they had to be at Buckingham Palace early to make puddings in the Music Room. More specifically, the Queen gathered her three heirs to film footage that will be aired during her Christmas broadcast this year. The four Windsors agreed to join The Royal British Legion’s “Together at Christmas” initiative, which launches next year and will help service men and women and their families during the holidays.
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The BRF Hosts NATO Reception at BP
That’s a lot of acronyms in a title, but last night the Queen hosted a reception celebrating 70 years of NATO at Buckingham Palace. Guests included Presidents Trump and Macron, Canadian PM Trudeau, the UK’s Boris Johnson, among many others. And while the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Cornwall were in full host mode, the Duchess of Cambridge was the only representative of the “younger” royals thanks to the Duke of Cambridge’s visit to Kuwait and the Sussexes’ extended break from duties.
Bye, Andrew
Well. Let’s start at the end and work our way back, shall we? A couple of hours ago the Duke of York released a statement that the Queen gave her assent to a request that he be allowed to step down from royal duties for the foreseeable future. This news comes on the heels of several days’ worth of blistering coverage of his recent sit-down interview with the BBC on his former friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
My thought? Good.
Remembrance Sunday 2019
On Sunday, following the previous evening’s Festival of Remembrance, the British Royal Family turned out for the Remembrance service at The Cenotaph. This annual event is not only a hallmark of the royal calendar, but one that convenes the UK’s veterans, senior politicians, and members of the public for a somber recognition of those who lost their lives in service to the nation. Frankly, there are few countries who mark this occasion better.
Remembrance Festival 2019
On Saturday night, the Royal Family congregated at Royal Albert Hall for this year’s Festival of Remembrance, the prelude to Sunday’s formal ceremony. Like Trooping the Colour, it’s an event that nearly always draws the entire family, so high is its significance on the royal calendar.
The Palace Intrigue Continues
Well. We’re 10 days out from the Cambridges’ Pakistan tour and quite a bit has happened, none of it good. Before we dive in, apologies if you stumbled upon a partially-written post on the Richard III series over the weekend. I had high hopes for having it completed, but last week got away from me and I forgot to change its publication date on the back end of the site. So, cringe. Hopefully by next weekend we’ll be back on it.
As for our current Royal Family, they’ve really been giving the Plantagenets a run for their money of late. The biggest missile to launch was the broadcast of a documentary covering the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tour of Africa, of which the biggest takeaways have nothing to do with their work and everything to do with their role within the BRF.
Meghan Supports Serena Williams at U.S. Open
Yesterday morning the Duchess of Sussex made a last minute trip to New York to support her friend, Serena, Williams, in the U.S. Open. Royal reporters are noting that she’s due to return to London on Sunday, the Duke of Sussex and Baby Archie stayed home, and, yes, she flew commercial 😉
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