After displaying total transparency on the state of the royal prostate during a benign procedure last month, Buckingham Palace is returning to its traditional discretion, perhaps because this time it is a more worrying disease. We will therefore not know what “form of cancer” Charles III is suffering from or whether his stage is advanced. Only that his treatment started on Monday February 5, probably with chemotherapy, and that his doctors advised the monarch not to accept public commitments for the coming months.
In terms of the institutions and constitutional functioning of the United Kingdom, the essentials are for the moment assured. Buckingham Palace has confirmed that the sovereign will continue to read the government dispatches that reach him every day. He will also sit at meetings of the Privy Council, give royal assent to future legislation, receive the Prime Minister every week, declare the day of the next general election and invite the new Prime Minister to form his government.
The question of Charles’ succession
That being said, as in the last years of Elizabeth II’s reign, the other members of the royal family, first and foremost Queen Camilla and the Prince of Wales, were immediately brought to the forefront and represented the crown. instead of Charles. “For people to believe in us, they have to see us,” Queen Elizabeth liked to say. From this Wednesday February 7, William will represent his father, in his Royal Air Force uniform, at Windsor Castle during a decorations ceremony.
Beyond immediate affairs and a readjustment concerning the prerogatives of each within a royal family reduced to only active members, and whose number was considerably reduced by Charles III, the question of Charles’ succession emerges. , less than a year after his coronation. William, Prince of Wales, now 41, would be a young king if he succeeded his father sooner than expected. However, the British ultimately know very little about William. If he were to replace his father on official state visits planned to Australia and Canada this year, his future subjects would be entitled to know more. There is no doubt that the spotlight will quickly focus on this father of three young children and whose happy marriage, to Kate née Middleton, recently hospitalized for an abdominal operation, has long reassured his grandmother Elizabeth about the future of the British monarchy.
What do we know about this former student of the prestigious Eton College, who lost his mother, Princess Diana, at the age of 15? The bare minimum, ultimately. After a degree in geography obtained at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, he continued military studies, as he should, at the Royal Academy Sandhurst. He was notably a pilot of ambulance planes and rescue operations. Very involved, like his mother, in certain charitable organizations, the public has seen him wet his shirt with “homeless” people and in favor of the environment, notably through the Earthshot foundation which awards substantial grants to programs innovative scientists aiming to “repair the planet”.
The public also understood that William was the opposite of his brother Harry: more stable, less emotional, and above all more discreet. Unlike his father and grandmother, he speaks no foreign language and displays no particular affinity for Europe. It is never too late to evolve… In any case, there is no doubt that the coming months will put this future king of England to the test.