The sight of Prince William kissing his cousin Princess Beatrice on the cheek at the wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling on Saturday has been downplayed by the traditional British media.
On social media, however, it is one of the main talking points from the nuptials. Rightly so, because it tells us an enormous amount about the shifting power dynamics within the Windsor family.
While rumors had been rife all week about who was and who wasn’t going to attend, it seemed clear by Friday evening that there was a determined effort by the royal family to do a classic “Keep Calm and Carry On” and brazen out the latest revelations from the National Audit Office, the U.K.’s independent public spending watchdog.
Those revelations showed that Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie had lived rent-free for almost 20 years in desirable apartments at Kensington Palace and St. James’s Palace, respectively.
It turned out (the information having finally been wrung out of the palace, although they claimed they loved the “transparency”) that the princesses’ rent was, in fact, being paid by the king.
And the king, let’s remember, is being paid from the Duchy of Lancaster, a huge body of land that he inherited on massively advantageous terms (no capital gains or inheritance tax), which makes the money, in part, the product of state aid.
It is certainly not “private money” in the sense that most people would understand it.
The properties are both within the Occupied Royal Palaces, which means their upkeep and maintenance are funded by the Crown Estate. The idea that the situation is somehow analogous to an individual owning a flat in London and renting it out to their niece for free is an insult.
Anyway, it was clearly decided by the king, undaunted by the crushing failure of his attempt to rehabilitate Andrew, that the York princesses should go to the ball.
So far, so insane—and so predictable.
But why did Prince William decide to make that little gesture, giving Beatrice that peck on the cheek, when he is very distrustful of the York princesses and nervous about their ability to contaminate the larger brand?
What we saw yesterday was a fascinating vision of the shifting power currents in the British royal family caused by Charles’s ongoing convalescence.
As The Royalist has reported, Charles’s cancer treatment is working very well, and his aides and his doctors are now confident that he may live something approaching a normal lifespan. He certainly seemed in excellent form yesterday at the wedding, before he flew off to a horse race, the Epsom Derby, in a helicopter.
After the panic triggered by the chaotic announcement that Charles had cancer, when power flowed into William’s court as people prepared for the next monarch, people are now starting to believe that the innovative immunotherapy shots and RNA vaccines he has been receiving have worked, and that he could be king for decades to come.
Yesterday was an expression of Charles pulling power back. This is what Charles wanted to see yesterday.
William was making it clear that he is a loyal servant and will ultimately go along with what his father wants, in line with the Royal Family’s military foundations.
The kiss on the cheek to Beatrice was a carefully judged symbol, showing more that he is a good company man than any great fondness for Beatrice.
It is worth noting, by the way, that William chose to kiss Beatrice, not Eugenie. She lived in Frogmore Cottage. She went out to California to visit Harry and Meghan. Harry and Meghan were notably absent from Peter and Harriet’s wedding, but I would say they will be greatly encouraged by Harry’s father’s conciliatory attitude and willingness to go against public opinion yesterday.
Just in case anyone should think that kissing Beatrice on the cheek equates to a massive change in William’s attitude toward the princesses, William’s team made sure that literally just as the photos started to do the rounds on social media, William’s staff were briefing Roya Nikkhah of London’s Sunday Times that he would essentially kick Beatrice and Eugenie out of their rent-free palaces.
The Sunday Times was told that he will “do things differently” when he is king (“When I am king” stories drive team Charles crackers) with the property portfolio, including “stopping those who do no official duties from living rent-free in palaces.”
That is very clearly targeting Beatrice and Eugenie, and it is making clear that this situation is not going to be allowed to carry on.
There is one very cynical quote in The Sunday Times, where one of the king’s team is cited saying of the princesses’ property deal: “In this, and more broadly, the king has attempted to deal with some of the challenges he inherited from his mother.”
The endless attempt of Charles’s office to blame everything on the late queen continues. The idea that five years after her death, it was somehow the queen’s fault that he is continuing to pay Beatrice and Eugenie’s rent is a classic of the genre. It’s almost as mad as the palace’s insistence that they welcome the report and are committed to transparency, when they resisted, and resisted, and resisted stating the terms of Beatrice and Eugenie’s leases.
William’s input into The Sunday Times piece spells out his own position with crystal clarity. The article is saying: Don’t read too much into a kiss on the cheek. It doesn’t mean they are going to be keeping all their privileges or their situations. Everything will change when I am king.
That is an important message in its own right. But I still think the royal family is making a huge mistake in bringing Beatrice and Eugenie so prominently back into the foreground. In the real world, people are very angry about the treatment these two sisters received. They regard them as grifters and freeloaders from a family with a long history of both.
Next up, what happens at the Trooping the Colour (the ceremony to mark the monarch’s official birthday) next weekend? And then, of course, Royal Ascot: what is going to happen on June 16/17?
Could they appear in the carriage procession?
It seems unlikely, but Charles’s arrogance is extraordinary, isn’t it?
Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack or listen to The Royalist podcast on YouTube.
