Kate Hate

[MamoruHisaishi]

I came across some old threads in other forums and also articles where Catherine was being criticized for being lazy, dumb, overrated, a gold digger and called all sorts of names. There were even threads that questioned why people disliked her so much, and multiple pages of replies stating why she was so disliked. I am wondering why this seems to have now been forgotten, even if Meghan became the new media target, why is it hardly mentioned the amount of hate and vitriol that Catherine went through?

And the only reason Kate got protection is because William probably already made it clear that he would marry her at some point.

Harry and Chelsy started dating the same year W&K did , in 2004. They broke up around 2010 and Chelsy never got any royal protection despite being in a relationship with Harry for 6 years

Absolutely. Look at Queen Beatrix abdicating which is what I think QE should've done.
Charles and Camilla are tired and not that into it, it's hardly a revitalised Monarchy since she died is it...

If Elizabeth had abdicated in her 70s, let Charles have 10-20 years in the role and he'd passed on to William when he was 70 we'd be in a different position I think.

Here is what she said...
“I do not abdicate because the task has become an onerous one, but because I am convinced the responsibility for our country should now be placed in the hands of a new generation.”

A completely pointless post from me I know as it hasn't happened!

Why they can be forward thinking and revitalised now, goodness only knows.

Exactly! The monarch abdicating has become a tradition in the Netherlands. More Europeans monarchies should follow suit but i think, with Queen Elizabeth, she was 10 years old when her uncle abdicated and she saw how much that affected her monarchy and the family, especially her father who didn't want to be King and was planning to live a quiet life with his wife and daughters so I think there was a bit of trauma there but I absolutely believe she should've abdicated after the Golden (2002) or Diamond Jubilee (2012).

In 2002, she was already in her 70s. The 90s were tough years and this is the year she lost her mum and sister within months. 50 years is a good number. I don't like Charles very much but I totally believe that he revolutionized the role of Prince of Wales. His work with the Prince's Trust is admirable and I think him taking over then, in his 50s, for 20 years would've been perfect. Now, both he and Camilla are getting older. They're in their mid 70s. There's been rumours for a while that Camilla has health issues and back problems and often goes on a wellness retreat in India.

I remember watching an interview of Maria Teresa of Luxemburg on a French program where she said that she and her husband will definitely abdicate for their son because they deserve a nice retirement. Charles deserves that as well. I don't want to see him working until his last days like his mother was

I agree. Part of me thinks Charles doesn't want all this, he would make a good gentleman farmer, and pootling about at Highgrove which he loves. But then I think he must want all of this because of the massive Coronation extravaganza and no slimming down. If anything it's all a bit ramped up.

Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands all have a recent tradition of monarchs abdicating. Spain too, but that latter was because Juan Carlos’ position was probably untenable. I think it’s eminently sensible, but it does rather depend on culture, tradition, and the personal view of the Monarch. The Scandinavian monarchies seem to be off a piece with the British, and see it as a role for life.

Juan Carlos had to abdicate, he was mired in scandal. We think we've had our Monarchy problems but it pales into insignificance to Juan Carlos... mistresses, big game hunting, ties with Saudi and trousering £100million from them dodgy dealings, dodgy credit cards given to some wider family, corruption and more...
Fun fact he was introduced to his long term mistresss by the Duke of Westminster apparently.

He is exiled in the ME and cannot be prosecuted for his numerous crimes whilst Monarch. But he can be prosecuted for anything after his abdication which is why he's in exile.

Felipe and Letizia have somewhat revitalised the Spanish monarchy. Anything would be better than Juan Carlos though...

I think he must want all of this because of the massive Coronation extravaganza and no slimming down.

To be fair, I think for the longest time, his vision was: Himself and Camilla, William, Harry and their spouses as senior working royals while others were in the background, still doing some engagements but the monarchy ended up losing 6 working royals in less than 5 years: First, Prince Philip retired and he used to carry out 200+ engagements every year. Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals. Prince Andrew "retired" from public life (he used to carry out 300+ engagements per year, more than W&K combined, even today). The Duke of Kent then retired and the Queen passed away last year.

Now, out of the 11 remaining working royals, 7 are over the age of 75 (one getting close to 90).

So, in basically 15 years, it'll probably only be W, K, George and Charlotte

I totally agree with the idea of an early abdication.

Also with a planned abdication, you can still have a nice coronation but space it out from any other big events so the cost burden and disruption aren't all in the space of one year.

I like the pomp and ceremony of a coronation so I wouldn't want to go the Euro model of too pared down but it was crazy having the Jubilee, the State Funeral and the Coronation in the same 12-month time period.

And the new monarch would still have the former monarch around for a few years (usually) to help and advise in what must be a very lonely role sometimes.

No one else understands it apart from your predecessor and you don't get to discuss it with them.

So, in basically 15 years, it'll probably only be W, K, George and Charlotte

And I think that's what it should be. The more elderly members were always going to be finishing up, yes there's Andrew and Harry non working, but a Monarchy can exist with just core members. Spain manages it. Will ours still have an inflated SG when that time comes though! Yes.

Spain manage it because they only have Spain but let's not forget that there are 15 Commonwealth Realms who have the UK monarch as their head of state. It is a lot.

I think in the near future, most, if not all, Realms will become republics but still remain in the Commonwealth of Nations and the working royals will only have to focus on the UK

Well, William chose Jean-Christophe Gray for his current private secretary and his reputation when he worked in the Treasury department was one of slashing budgets and cutting costs. So he might be preparing William for some serious changes to the way public money is used.

What we need is an open breakdown of the exact spending of at least the SG.

I'd hope that in the future the majority if not all the SG money would go to the maintenance of the nation's historical buildings and assets - and that could include staffing costs for those who look after the buildings and assets such as archives, art collections etc.

I think the working royals should pay for their living expenses including getting to and from engagements, the staff who look after their personal needs, and run their offices, and the costs of their personally owned properties (Sandringham, Balmoral) etc from the two main royal duchy funds. There's plenty of money to do that for a small slimmed-down core of working royals.

Great post @wordler . So agree.

It's going to be interesting to see what William does with the Duchy of Cornwall money - it used to have to cover all his family's living expenses, plus the Sussex pair for a while, plus all of Charles and Camilla's expenses.

I wonder if that's where some of the funding is going to come from to create more housing for the homeless across the Duchy holdings.

Yes great post @wordler, totally agree.

let's not forget that there are 15 Commonwealth Realms who have the UK monarch as their head of state. It is a lot.

Not really, at least not ‘a lot’ in my country,
(From wiki): “The King appoints the governor-general and governors on the advice of the respective state and federal executive councils. These are now almost the only constitutional functions of the monarch”

Our government(s) selects the governors and Governor General and Charles signs it into being.

So Charles is really not a ‘working royal’ here, just a figurehead.

The housing is being created through money from their charity foundation. They have already stated this.
The duchy money is just spends for Charles and camilla.

Charles now has the Duchy of Lancaster money and William as heir gets the Duchy of Cornwall money.

He can choose to funnel some of that money into the Foundation if he wants to use it for any of his preferred projects.

Except he hasn't so far. Why would he now?

Well this is the first year he’s had control of the duchy funds that his father was managing for 50 years before him so I imagine he’s going to take some time to assess the funding situation before making major changes.

He hasn’t even had full control of it for 12 months yet.

And considering it was covering both his own household plus Charles and Camilla’s expenses until Sept last year, he’s going to end up with quite a bit extra by the end of the year.

Oh I dunno, can you think of anything that's happened to the Duchy of Cornwall in the last 12 months? Any big organisational changes?

Indeed, why hasn't William done anything with these funds for the last 40yrs of his life? 🤔

Twelve months is a long time.
He stated that the new housing would be funded from the charity foundation, not from his own money. Why do you think he lied?

1. It hasn't been 12 months.

1. It's been hardly any time at all in the timescale of setting up such an endeavour with all the Charities he involved in it nationwide.

I don’t think he lied.

I was just speculating about whether he’d use some of the leftover duchy money - now that it’s funding fewer households (until the Wales kids grow up) for any of his projects.

Other options is it just gets invested back into the running of the Duchy. It’s going to be interesting to see what William does.

I agree. Why does it ' go with the territory' that women who marry into the Royal Family are treated this way, and with absolutely minimal protection from the Palace? The Royals are far from innocent victims of the Meghan and Harry drama. It is obvious what they think of women who they feel are lucky enough to nab their intellectually challenged spoilt sons. Brood mares and clothes horses who need to toe the line and shut up. They couldn't care less about them as people and would throw them to the wolves . I think Kate knows this, and has turned herself into a perfect Royal wife. Beatrice's husband ( and probably Eugenies) is a bit dodgy yet the press leave him alone, instead going after the woman he dumped with a small child as soon as Beatrice turned up.

Diana and Ferrgie were never criticised for the sort of things that Meghan.is criticised for, mainly because Diana and Fergie were never so nasty ad Meghan is.