Analysis of the Month: The Prince and Princess of Wales in Sync

William and Catherine's engagements this week: The Past and the Future of Royal Engagements (Plus: Why I didn't cover the Invictus Games)

Hello Readers!

Part of the reason why I created this Substack was because as a History Major, I felt Royal watching discourse had crated to shameless clickbait. And online personalities with little knowledge of history had high-jacked the conversation. So I’ve created a series called “Analysis of the Month” where I do an even greater deep dive on a topic. My hope is readers walk away with a greater understanding of the subject matter and grow their gossip knowledge. This is one of my longer my longest post as there’s a lot of Royal Tea to cover. Grab your favorite beverage and snack, get comfy, and keep scrolling (or listening)! If your hands are full or you have a long commute, there is also an option to “listen” to this post via the transcribing feature on Substack.

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Have I mentioned how ecstatic I am that Silly Season is finally done are over with? The Royals are out and about and I’m finding myself a wee bit overwhelmed with the amount of things going on. For this post, I’m going to focus on the Prince and Princess of Wales and provide some analysis to the two small (yet mighty!) changes I believe are being made on the back end by the Wales’s. I’m also going to talk about how they are learning from the past and provide an explanation for why I did not cover the Invictus Games.

For the Prince and Princess of Wales, this week was but a trial run for how things may shift in the future. And if that’s the case, we’ll have some wonderful Royal Watching to look forward to.

Timing and Communication

A significant reason why the last few days went off without a hitch comes down the surgical planning of each of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s events in relation to each other and the rest of the Royal Family. In the past, we’ve seen the Royals adhere to the adage of “if one set of Royals is doing something one day, others have to take care not to overshadow them.” As usual, we need to take a little historical detour to understand how vital this is in practice. If schedules are not synced, tempers can flare. We saw this recently when Prince William’s homelessness interview with The Sunday Times competed for front-page space with the King’s first Trooping the Colour, though this clash was down to the Times pushing to release it earlier than planned.

The most explosive example I can think of this practice going very wrong was on March 6th, 2020 when Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex sparked fury with Buckingham Palace by breaking a pledge not to overshadow a long-planned speech by then-Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla on domestic violence. It was the very definition of a cock-up and gave insight into how quickly things can of downhill when schedules are not synced and most importantly, adhered to.

Top: The Former Duchess of Cornwall at the Women of the World Festival. Bottom: Photo of the Duchess of Sussex during a private visit at the National Theatre

Queen Camilla’s speech was to be given on the 10th anniversary of the Women of the World Festival in London and had been planned for nearly a year. Highlighting the scourge of domestic violence at the 10th ­anniversary of the festival was a carefully thought-out plan and years in the making as Camilla had used her platform and personal experiences to highlight the issue and help those affected by abuse and sexual assault. The time of the year was not without its challenges.

Just two months prior, the Sussexes announced to great fanfare that they were “stepping back to forge a progressive role within the institution”. It was known by Buckingham Palace that Prince Harry and Meghan would be doing engagements that week as it was their last hurrah before they went back to the States after stepping down. Aides from all sides had synced internally and were in alignment: For that day, Camilla’s speech would take precedence. But someone in the Sussex camp had other ideas…