The Prince of Wales’s anger will strengthen his resolve to modernise the Royal Family
Prince William’s anger and frustration about the chaos his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has brought to Buckingham Palace is likely to strengthen his desire to modernise the Royal Family, according to insiders.
William sparked surprise at the Baftas on Sunday night, when he announced that he was not in a “calm state” following a traumatic week after Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest at Sandringham on Thursday.
His declaration during a conversation with dignitaries appeared to be a deliberate effort to let the world know his current mood about the biggest scandal to hit the Royal Family for decades.
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Some insiders insist it was simply an off-the-cuff remark about needing to be in the right headspace to watch the film Hamnet, which William said had left the Princess of Wales “in floods of tears”. He told guests: “I need to be in quite a calm state and I’m not at the moment. I will save it.”
However, it would be surprising if the heir to the throne was not feeling stressed amid the damaging fallout for the House of Windsor of police investigating the eighth in line to the throne on suspicion of misconduct in public office for allegedly sharing sensitive official documents with Jeffrey Epstein.
William, 43, has sometimes been portrayed as the driving force behind efforts to banish his uncle but the reality, according to insiders, is that he has had to follow the lead set by his father, King Charles.
William said he was not in a ‘calm state’ while appearing at the Baftas on Sunday night (Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Robert Jobson, author of The Windsor Legacy and numerous other royal biographies, agrees that the King is in charge and, while William respects that, he is also frustrated because of how it might impact his reign. “He is pretty angry about it all. It could well go on for many years,” he said.
Royal sources say Charles is always open to change but after taking decisive action to strip Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles and honours, he has so far shown no signs of wanting to bring in wider reforms.
It may be left to William to pick up the pieces when he eventually succeeds his father, who is still undergoing cancer treatment but is increasingly positive about his health outlook.
That might, according to some courtiers, include William stripping minor royals, such as Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, of their royal status.
It could also include reducing the number of royal residences, cutting the costs of the monarchy, and creating greater transparency about the opaque royal finances – although William is often less transparent than his father about his own finances.
Some 15 or 20 years ago, journalists and biographers used to write about the radical changes that Charles would introduce, but now the hopes of modernisers lie mainly with William, who, in a television chat with the Canadian actor Eugene Levy aired in October, promised: “Change is on my agenda.”
Beatrice and Eugenie could be stripped of their royal status when William becomes King (Photo: Max Mumby/Getty)
One royal source said: “The King has had to face so many terrible things: Harry and Meghan leaving, his cancer, the Princess of Wales’s cancer.”
There is a sense from some courtiers that momentum has been lost. “The big changes will come with William,” the source said, but even then, that might be over a long period of time. “The challenge is bringing about gradual change in an institution that is supposed to represent continuity.”
The growing list of allegations about Mountbatten-Windsor, which is currently being assessed by various police forces, has created what some critics believe is an existential crisis for the monarchy or, at the very least, a huge reputational problem that will mar not only the reign of Charles but also that of his successor, who will become King William V.
Russell Myers, whose biography, William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, is published this week, believes it was no accident he let his feelings be known on Sunday evening. “William is an intelligent man and he would have known full well that his comment would be picked up by the attending media,” he said.
He has written about how William wanted Mountbatten-Windsor axed from the Firm as soon as he had given that infamous BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019 but was overruled by the late Queen and his father. “He wanted him gone before the rot set in. Well, the rot has really set in now,” Myers said.
Myers added that while his stance differed from his father’s, William knew he had to toe the line and respect the King’s leadership, especially after problems with his brother Harry undermining the hierarchy within the family.
One former royal aide always used to describe the monarchy as like a jar of Marmite: “You look at the label and you think it hasn’t changed at all over the decades but in fact it has changed subtly many times,” he would say.
The question for the King and William is whether a subtle change will do now.