Harry and Meghan fly off into the sunset (soon)

[PelicanPie]

New thread!

The children of the monarch are definitely senior royals.

What is the criteria for calling someone a senior royal that isn’t in the direct line of succession. This has puzzled me for years.

Yes the Wessexes have a lower public profile than the younger cooler ones but he is the Queen’s son, the next king’s brother, they both do a lot of engagements and a lot of work for the RF - and have for years.

Is Princess Anne senior? I can’t imagine daring to call her anything else! Why is Harry more senior than Edward? Or is he not technically? Just more fun and photogenic? (This is ignoring the last 18 months where he has largely been neither unless faced with children...) Edward is much closer to the throne. Is it just about profile?

Aha! Seneca will answer this for me!

The Queen can have whoever she likes in her procession

Not a surprise she didn’t want Harry and Megs the tension was palpable

Would have looked more odd if it had just been them left out and not Wessexes

Her Charles and William are the top three so that and their plus ones makes sense

Sophie looks like she is picking up a slew of interesting roles.

Sophie seems to be thriving by proxy. She's taking more care with her look and is finally gaining some kudos. Lol H&M have made the nation notice what they've been taking for granted. Bit like a woman who snubs the good guy for the hot bad boy, then after the bad guy dumps her realises boring good guy is a super catch!

I can see E&W becoming more prominent after 31st. All good in my opinion. I think BP could do more to highlight the work the other Royals are doing.

Yes I don't understand why E&W weren't also in the procession? But no sulkyness from Edward at all. He played peacemaker, complete humility.

Even if he was (I think somewhat justifiably if true) annoyed at the snub to him and his wife, he should have had respect enough to grit his teeth and put a good face on until it was over.

Could it be a reprimand for distracting from Camilla's engagement (future Queen and wife of future king after all) Sort of you're not playing team sports so go and do an individual event then.

"Senior" status isn't necessarily written in stone, but traditionally all of the monarch's children have been working royals and would be considered senior. I think "senior" is now taking on a definition that coincides with being a working royal. So Beatrice and Eugenie aren't working royals and aren't senior. Anne and Edward are both clearly working royals and Andrew was until a few weeks ago and they are the monarch's children so they are senior. I suppose there is a category of junior and working (Dukes of Kent and Gloucester and Princess Alexandra) but that category seems to be fading away.

When Harry and Meghan first announced that they wanted to step down as senior royals, it seemed to me that they were choosing to have a status similar to Beatrice and Eugenie, where they would still be HRHs, but no longer be working royals, at least for part of the time.

I thought the cape was a subtle ‘Trailer’ for up coming new series as allegedly reported that MM is looking for a super hero role.

Lots of villains in films wear capes ... I think she was having a laugh with this style.

I thought all along the reason W and K dropped out of the procession was because one or both H and M had made a scene. I suspect H because he has a perception that M is being humiliated by the family. I really don’t think he has understood the impact of their decision fully yet.
I agree M put her best foot forward for all these events . H looked like he had his arm up his back throughout. However in my view she is only thinking of Insta photos . I think the face in the car is her real face. The nicey nicey mask slipped just for a moment. H just doesn’t bother with a mask.

I thought I heard one of the commentators saying H is attending a marathon this week. Did I mishear?
It will be very interesting to see what transpires in the coming months.
I am sure the rest of the family feel great relief but also a measure of sadness . The old Harry has left the building.

Thank you Seneca, that all makes sense.

It’s reported Harry will be at the London marathon in April

Don’t know about any marathon this week

Oh okay, thanks Bishop

So on their future private patronage events, e.g. Invictus, would papers send royal reporters or just normal correspondents? 🤔

I’m thinking will there be any lessons learned or plans adjusted in raising ‘the spare’.

I don’t know if Charles and Andrew were raised as equals (I’m guessing not?), but Will and Harry were. Neither worked out long term.

I hope the RF come up with career paths for the spares too.

I think Meghan will be much better off outside the Royal Family. I cannot imagine coming from a country where in theory anyone can be anything and marry into such an old institution. It wouldn’t have mattered how much she tried, how well she did, she would always have to defer to Kate (and Camilla). She would also probably have been continuously criticised (for a period of time) for her fashion choices as they tend to be more Hollywood/fabulous and less Beautiful/traditional.

I do think that she would (like Kate) eventually have been universally loved also if she had hung in there and done all the low key royal engagements. I think her style eventually have been loved by everyone as “Meghan’s style” and that people would have smiled at all the quirks (including bananas) as “this is something Meghan does”.

I just think it was too culturally different from what she was used to, brought up to think and wanted for her life.

All the a Royal ladies went fairly muted and Meghan stood out, for the wrong reasons in terms of the RF.

so red is a muted colour

Shaded, I think a more traditional Royal choice for a day time service would be more of a bottle green, which would have looked fabulous as well. (Think the red of her dress two nights ago vs. The red in Kate’s dress, more muted). Also maybe not a cape as it is very high fashion.

But again, that is her style, less traditional. If you go traditional fewer people will have opinions ( Camilla’s dress was very Traditional and I think got very few comments. If you have a personal style and stand out, some will love it, some will like it less 🤷‍♀️

Andrew and Charles have a big age gap. On the other hand, Charles and Anne seem to be great friends. He snuck up on her on a reception last year and made her jump and she really laughed with him. Zara was very affectionate with him at Ascot and he seemed to be very much favourite uncle and close. They live near each other, their children played together a lot, Anne has worked her socks off, both at a Royal and also representing the country in the Olympics.

That is what would have been really good to achieve for William and Harry. I thought at one stage Harry was looking at houses in Norfolk but it was probably and unsubstantiated rumour - and it was pre-marriage.

Pelican ah did you? Great minds then

I don’t know if Charles and Andrew were raised as equals (I’m guessing not?), but Will and Harry were. Neither worked out long term.

I don't think William and Harry were brought up as equals. I think it must be impossible to do that in the RF where one child is destined for the "top job" as Diana called it. It's already happening with George. He is being singled out as the one destined for kingship. He was brought out for those cake making photos with William, Charles and HMQ. Perhaps Charlotte wondered why she was left out of that.

Even Princess Anne, who probably really likes the fact that she doesn't have the top job has made comments about how their nanny "treated senior child in a very different way to the junior child." Children pick up on these sorts of things pretty quickly.

@FiveTwoFaster

Edward is not “closer to the throne” than Harry. Once the heir apparent and his heir apparent have children, they knock everyone further back so currently it’s:

Charles
William
George
Charlotte
Louis
Harry
Archie
Andrew
Beatrice and Eugenie not sure who is older
Edward
His kids
Anne
Her kids

Etc.

Because the male preference primogeniture law changed only recently, Edward is still ahead of Anne though he is younger.

Seneca you’re up early!

At least the firstborn daughter has a flashy title, subsequent children don’t even have that.

Maybe we need the old order, second child joins military and eventually is the head (still reporting to the monarch), third child church, etc

I had no feelings either way about H&M, because I'm not interested in the royals generally – until they turned a non-story (leaving the royal family behind to do their own thing) into a soap opera, and that's when I admittedly got a bit over invested. But watching the latest pictures, with Harry's face like absolute thunder, and Meghan clutching his hand and rubbing his back all the time, I think he may be really struggling to function,

I really agree with this. The Royals incite many different emotions in people. On a personal level, we can all understand that they are anti-meritocratic, perpetuate hideous inequality, and we all can probably see very clearly that the sycophantic fulfilment of every whim without having to work for it is ruinous to them as people. I can't imagine that they are very pleasant or nice human beings. Conversely, I have grudgingly accepted their role in our society - societies with constitutional monarchies seem to be the best functioning in terms of quality of life for their citizens. They provide a national brand, etc..We are all, literally, 'invested' in them! Harry is an absolute mess, in terms of his mental health. I have no idea what they are all thinking if they actually believe it's ok to leave him just to get on with things. We are all watching someone who is not keeping it together at all and who needs genuine help.