Кралски работи и клюки - януари 2020

It was, perhaps, the most significant announcement about the future of the Royal family for almost three decades.

And in a glimpse of the disaffection with tradition that partly lay behind their move, the public was informed of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to renounce their royal titles in a post on the couple’s Instagram page, at 6.30pm yesterday.

The post itself conveyed a heartfelt statement by the Queen that appeared to speak as much as a loving grandmother as a monarch concerned about the future of the Royal family.

The Queen said she was “pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family”, following their wish “for a more independent life”.

A separate statement from Buckingham Palace revealed that the Duke and Duchess – whom the Queen said had “so quickly become one of the family” – would step back from royal duties, including official military appointments, give up their His and Her Royal Highness titles, and no longer formally represent the monarch.

Here, The Telegraph details the key changes agreed as part of the deal between the couple and their family, and their significance to the Duke and Duchess:

Titles
The Sussexes, who will now go by Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will give up their HRH style – which Prince Harry has had since birth and Meghan since their marriage on May 19, 2018.

Some royal watchers had predicted that the couple may have been preparing to surrender the style after it emerged that their son Archie, born on May 6 last year, had been given no title.

Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine, said: “The fact Archie isn’t Earl of Dumbarton or styled HRH makes me wonder whether this wasn’t already part of a wider masterplan.”

Their home
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have indicated they will spend the majority of their time in North America, but retain Frogmore Cottage as a UK base, and that they will pay commercial rent on the home.

Taxpayers paid £2.4 million to renovate the cottage, which the couple moved into just nine months ago – leaving Kensington Palace, which only fanned rumours of a rift with the Cambridges.

The couple have agreed they will pay the Sovereign Grant cost of the refurbishment back to the public purse. Work on the property in the Berkshire property overran and it was reported that the couple made constant design changes, meaning the builders fell behind schedule.

Their new website sussexroyal.com says the Duke and Duchess moved to Windsor for “various reasons”, and that their previous residence of Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace “could not accommodate their growing family”.

There is now expected to be a short “transition period” during which the couple will divide their time between Britain and Canada, before spending the majority of time in North America.

The Duchess is on Vancouver Island with their eight-month-old son Archie, and the Duke is expected to join her there soon.


Military patronages
The announcement that the Duke of Sussex will lose his military patronages comes as a significant blow to the prestige that he has enjoyed until now.

Prince Harry’s military titles and patronages include that of Captain General of the Royal Marines, a position he was understood to have been particularly proud of, having been appointed in December 2017, when he succeeded his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the role.

He will now also lose the other military titles and patronages which he has been awarded since serving two tours of Afghanistan with the British Army, where he rose to the rank of Captain.

These are:  Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington; and Commodore- in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving.

Commonwealth
One of the major roles lost by the Duke of Sussex in his deal with Buckingham Palace is Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, which had been the focus of several overseas tours.

The Duke was appointed to the position by the Queen in 2018 with a view to helping young people use “Commonwealth platforms” to address social, economic and environmental challenges facing their generation.

It was work that the sixth in line to the throne pursued with zeal. Last year, he visited South Africa, Angola and Malawi on an official diplomatic engagement in the role.

Prince Harry had also seen it as part of his future work with his wife. In his first speech in April 2018, he said he was “incredibly grateful” the woman he was, at that point, about to marry, would join him in the job.

The role of youth ambassador – his most high-profile at the time – is considered particularly important because of the Commonwealth’s demographic, with 60 per cent of the population of its 53 member nations being under the age of 30.

Despite Harry stepping back from the position, he and Meghan will remain president and vice-president respectively of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.

Security
Buckingham Palace will not comment on the couple’s future security arrangements save to say these will be determined by well-established risk assessments carried out by the police and security services.

But experts have warned that taxpayers will need to fund police protection for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for years to come. They fear couples will continue to be at risk from terror groups, political fanatics and lone obsessives long after they separate from the Royal family.

Dai Davies, who was head of Royal Protection from 1994 to 1998, said: “We don’t want the situation where Harry and Meghan are being followed, without protection, by paparazzi or people with a fixation and we need to be sure that protection is of the highest level.”

Ministers and senior police officers are thought to be determined to avoid the mistakes made over Diana, Princess of Wales, who in 1993 turned down police protection except when she was with her sons or staying at Kensington Palace.

That left her relying on private security at other times, leading to her being in the hands of the Ritz Hotel’s head of security Henri Paul on the night she died when their car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma underpass as he tried to evade photographers.

What they can keep
As Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, the newly-independent couple will retain many of their patronages in a private capacity.

The Duchess, who has made clear her intention to continue to work on causes relating to female empowerment, remains as patron of SmartWorks, a charity which provides clothes and mentoring to disadvantaged women seeking employment.

She is also patron of the National Theatre, animal charity Mayhew and The Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Prince Harry will continue to work with his key charities, including the Invictus Games and Sentebale, which helps children affected by HIV in Lesotho and Botswana.

Others close to his heart include WellChild, which supports families caring for seriously ill children, and African Parks, a conservation charity.

He remains 6th in line to the throne, with Archie Mountbatten-Windsor at 7th. He is also expected to appear at several scheduled engagements in the UK before the new arrangement takes effect in spring 2020.

The future
What is to come for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remains uncertain, with many details still yet to be agreed.

The SussexRoyal branding, under which they operate their social media, has already been copyrighted, but aides were last night unable to say whether they would retain it as non-working members of the Royal family.

Experts have pointed out that their official branding could allow them to make millions as a direct result of their former status.

Buckingham Palace will no longer have influence or oversight of the Sussexes’ working lives, leaving serious questions about whether the couple can continue to operate as “SussexRoyal”.

A source said the couple have not yet secured any commercial deals.

The couple’s foundation, due to launch later this year, may also need to be renamed.

Although they will no longer automatically be part of official public events, they are likely to appear at family occasions at the invitation of the Queen.

Aides have not yet indicated whether they will appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour, at Remembrance events or occasions such as Royal Ascot.

Last night, the couple’s website, sussexroyal.com, published a promise to update “information on the roles and work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex...in due course”.

Make no mistake, Saturday night's statement represents the hardest Megxit possible for the Duke of Duchess of Sussex.

While insisting Harry, Meghan and Archie “will always be much loved members of my family”, the 93-year-old monarch could not be clearer on their on-going role in the Firm: it’s over.

The dual statement - both from the Queen as a grandmother and Buckingham Palace as an institution - appeared purposely designed to combine both the personal and the professional.

Since the monarchy isn’t just a family but a business - what other option was there when two of its major shareholders had declared their intention to start up a rival company in North America?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had handed in their notice - and this was the Queen giving them their P45.

In paying tribute to the couple and showing support for their wish for a more independent life, HM was speaking from the heart. It is no secret behind palace gates that she has been left devastated by their bombshell statement on January 8 - and by her own admission last Monday, she would have preferred her grandson and his wife to have remained full-time working members of the Royal Family.

Yet as only someone who has spent nearly 68 years on the throne knows, a monarchy cannot function on sentiment alone.

Having always insisted that the royals can only appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for as long as there are wellwishers in the Mall, the Queen’s head clearly told her that her subjects were never going to stomach letting Harry and Meghan have their cake and eat it. The mother of the nation had rightly read the mood.

Indeed after referencing the “intense scrutiny” they have faced over the last two years and their desire to start building a “happy” and most notably “peaceful” new life - there was really no way she could have let them carry on being ‘half in half out’ royals.

With Meghan already cheerfully carrying out her own engagements in Vancouver and some Frogmore Cottage staff now assigned to other duties - the idea of the couple spending a transitional period between Canada and the UK was not just starting to look optimistic but absurd. Yet in offering to pay back the £2.4 million spent on refurbishing their Grade II home in Windsor, the couple are at least committing to keeping a base in Blighty.

That is not to say that the statement did not contain some surprises. To strip Harry, a former Army Captain who has undertaken two tours of Afghanistan of his military appointments as well as royal duties may strike some as overly punitive.

Becoming a soldier was undoubtedly the making of the 35-year-old royal and the Invictus Games remains his finest achievement.

But with some in the Royal Marines, of which Harry is Captain General, said to be “disgusted” by his behaviour and threatening to refuse to raise a toast should he attempt to “commercialise” his royal role - the Sussexes quest for financial independence appeared at odds with such weighty royal responsibilities.

Hence why they will no longer receive public funds - although whether the Prince of Wales will continue to slip them Duchy of Cornwall cash remains to be seen, amid reports the heir to the throne has been dipping into his private reserves to keep his sons and their families afloat.

The Sussexes had hoped to continue “fully supporting” the Queen while mobilising Sussex Royal as a global brand - but the instruction for them to neither continue officially representing the Queen nor using their HRH titles suggests they may need to come up with a new moniker.

As the statement states in the starkest possible terms: “They are no longer working members of the Royal Family.”

The underlying message was clear: Keep the Sussex by all means, but don’t count on the royal part. Only time will tell if they are able to retain any publicly-funded security, although with the decree absolute having just been granted on their divorce from one of Britain’s most historic and highly respected institutions - it seems unlikely.  

One cannot help but be left with the feeling that there are no winners here. The Queen and the Royal Family have not only lost one of their most popular figures but a prince whose marriage to a mixed-race American divorcee had heralded the dawn of a new progressive era for the House of Windsor. Now that dream is over.

Yes, the Sussexes have got their freedom but at what cost?

Meghan Markle has worked 72 days as a senior member of the Royal Family since marrying Prince Harry - and visiting military families in Windsor could be among her last official engagements in the UK.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared baby stories with families from the Welsh Guards, Coldstream Guards and Household Cavalry on an Army housing estate in the Berkshire town on November 6.

Giving a fleeting glimpse behind the scenes of her life a new mother, the Duchess spoke adoringly about her infant son Archie's teething and how he had so far grown two little incisors.

Meghan then cut a sombre figure on Remembrance Sunday as she joined Kate Middleton and the rest of the Royal Family at the traditional wreath-laying service at The Cenotaph.

Her and Harry's bombshell announcement just two months later that they would be stepping back as senior royals, beginning an unprecedented reshaping of their future role in the monarchy, has now thrown into question whether this will be the last time we ever see her at a royal engagement in the UK.

Since the Duchess walked down the aisle in May 2018, she has spent most days of royal duties accompanied by her husband (69 per cent), according to Court Circular records.

While the Duke of Sussex has worked almost double the days of his wife (153), Meghan's maternity leave while pregnant with son Archie takes her total to 122.

She also undertook several private meeting for projects, including with British Vogue when she became the first person to guest edit the magazine's September issue last year.

The couple's first royal tour was their 16-day visit to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. It was there that they announced they were expecting Archie.

The Telegraph revealed in November last year that the Sussexes were so hardworking that close confidantes had been urging them to "slow down" for months.

Meghan in particular had been so keen to get on top of the launch of her and Harry's charitable organisation that she was ringing aides at 8am with questions and ideas.


However, experts are now questioning whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will ever be seen chatting to primary school children or swapping baby stories with the public as they young son grows up.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Telegraph: "I always saw them as a dynamic charitable duo following in Diana's footsteps and using their influence with the Sussex Royal brand to further their charitable aims.

"There was also Meghanmania, the enormous enthusiasm which she was greeted with on visits at home and abroad, her influence as a fashion icon, inclusion on various power lists and her and Harry's Instagram account with over 10 million followers. Her global reach was huge.

"But Meghan and Harry's stepping back may well eventually lead to them stepping down as royals. The royal family have lost a meteor - though one who, it has transpired, needed total independence to thrive not just survive."

But royal biographer Penny Junor said she is optimistic about the couple's future and that we only have to look at the Duchess's wardrobe to realise that stepping back from royal duties was the right decision.

"My suspicion is that Meghan will carry on with the sort of work which interests her," she said.

"She is looking so much happier in photos and wearing the sort of clothes she feels comfortable in now.

"When we first saw photos of her with Harry before they got engaged, she was very relaxed in the way she was dressed - torn jeans, open shirts, beanie hats. She just looked an actress, quite chic.

"She then got engaged and suddenly that style changed completely. She was wearing camel coats, high necklines and skirts below the knee. She just looked rather awkward and never like she was enjoying it, like she was putting on a uniform that was suitably tasteful and modest, and what you'd expect a royal to wear.

"Now she looks as if she's been set free."