King Charles is changing a major royal rule, and his timing is truly everything. England’s shiny new pen-hating monarch just put in a request to Parliament to switch up his Counsellors of State—aka the royals who can serve as official stand-ins if he’s ever “indisposed.”
Quick background: Under the 1937 Regency Act, the King’s spouse (aka Queen Camilla) and the four adults next in line to the throne (aka Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew, and Princess Beatrice) can serve as official stand-ins. But as Newsweek notes, Prince Harry or Prince Andrew stepping into the role would be a “crisis” for Charles considering Prince Harry lives in the United States (and is no longer a working royal) and Prince Andrew has been fully disgraced and stripped of his titles. So, Charles wants to add Princess Anne and Prince Edward to the list—essentially sidelining Prince Harry and Prince Andrew (and maybe Princess Beatrice, too).
According to royal reporter Richard Palmer in The Express, Charles is likely eager for the switch to happen ASAP given Prince William and Kate Middleton’s upcoming trip to New York City.
“What was quite interesting was that the King chose his birthday to write to Parliament to ask for legislation to be brought forward as quickly as possible to make this legal change,” Palmer said. “I was intrigued by that – it was clearly sending a signal that this an important matter that he would like to be sorted out. He is acutely aware that he needed to put this through quite quickly which shows the urgency of it.”
“Clearly, one factor may be that William and Kate are going to the US at the end of this month,” Palmer continued. “That may have affected the decision-making because if [the King] suddenly fell ill or was indisposed in some way, then William would have to come straight back from the US and cut short his visit. Or, there have to be two Counsellors of State, as we know, so [William] would have had to ask someone else to stand in.”
Sounds Avril levels of complicated, honestly.
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