Four years have passed since Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral at the age of 96. Until that moment, she had seemed almost permanent.
She left behind a monarchy she had spent seven decades steadying, yet with no fully settled answer to what should follow. Elizabeth II had worn uniform during the war, serving in 1945 as a driver and mechanic with the Auxiliary Territorial Service — the last British monarch to have done so. She was also among the final public figures of that exceptional, tireless wartime generation.
Charles III’s accession was widely framed as the start of a new royal chapter. In practice, the transition has proved far more difficult. The late Queen could often close down controversy simply by refusing to be drawn into it, or with the faintest expression. Her son has not found that so easy — and this week underlined the point.
Acting on the King’s instruction, the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Benyon — the most senior official in the Royal Household — wrote to senior figures in government, the armed forces and the Lord Lieutenancies about the continuing issue of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The letter did not alter Harry and Meghan’s formal position, which had already been determined under the late Queen. But its message was direct: the Sussexes do not represent the Crown and should not be received as though they do.
Their HRH styles remain in “abeyance” and are not to be used. Their charitable activity, the letter made clear, is a private matter. Their status, it said, is “akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”
The response from the tabloids was predictably feverish. Yet the substance was not new — and that is precisely what makes the episode revealing. It says as much about the present condition of the Crown as it does about the Sussexes themselves.
Six years after leaving Britain in search of freedom and privacy, the Sussexes returned without warning and in markedly reduced circumstances. Whether the King was caught off guard remains disputed. What is clearer is that the episode quickly expanded beyond its original bounds.
Charles III’s accession was read as a new beginning. Instead, it has been a hard transition
Lord Benyon’s letter was blunt. The Sussexes do not represent the Crown and are not to be received as if they do
We were treated to a drip feed through their team of what the Sussexes intended to do publicly, as ‘private citizens’. Charities seemed pleased to have them back. Perhaps they could see the dollar signs. The Sussexes after all are a media magnet. We were told through anonymous sources Meghan was seeking a role, and not just in film, perhaps as a patron of charities too.
The briefings stopped just short of a hard claim. Whispers of links to the military for front-line veteran Harry were circulated too. No single item mattered. But six months of them would have.
A guard of honour here, a Lord Lieutenant who meets the car because it seems rude not to there. Eighteen months down the line, a precedent nobody agreed to would have been set – an alternative court operating on British soil.
The King, through Lord Benyon’s letter, has made his position clear. He is The Boss, as his staff call him.
In this Carolean age, his word is law. He ruled, as his late mother directed, you cannot commercialize the monarchy, you cannot be half in, half out.
In other words, ‘Megxit means Megxit.’
The King moved decisively because he had to. His directive was sent to those organizations at the heart of running the monarchy. They give it the bells and whistles. Those behind the scenes that make it function daily. Anyone expecting a war of words will be disappointed.
The Sussexes’ peevish response, via their overworked spokesman, that they were ‘a little surprised’ by the letter, was tedious and predictable.
Tit-for-tat rows played out in public are the last thing the King and Palace want. Now the line has been drawn, I would not expect anything further.
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Many believe William’s hand was in this too. Maybe it was. But this has been done in the King’s name, not his. William’s position has not shifted since 2020.
I am sure the Sussexes will not be lying awake in their Cotswold mansion over the displeasure of a 77-year-old father living with cancer. They know a King William will not be as forgiving as a King Charles.
That said, they will not be pushovers. The letter cannot do what the King and his circle believe it can. It is guidance. There is no sanction. All it kills is deniability.
Extend a courtesy to the Sussexes now and you have departed from the monarch’s instructions. In Whitehall, that is usually enough. The circulation list was British. The Governors General of the realms, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the rest, as I understand it, were not on the mailing list.
The Sussexes’ peevish response, via their overworked spokesman, that they were ‘a little surprised’ by the letter, was tedious and predictable
The King, through Lord Benyon’s letter, has made his position clear. He is The Boss, as his staff call him
Many believe William’s hand was in this too. Maybe it was. But this has been done in the King’s name, not his
They should have been.
Those overseas tours, commercially adjacent, staged in countries where Harry’s father is head of state and his brother the heir, are what unsettled the Crown most.
The charitable work is explicitly the couple’s own business. Abeyance is an odd word to build policy on. It does not mean removed. Things that are held can get handed back.
Then there is security. The Palace says it has nothing to do with the letter. The letter reached a Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) meeting at almost the same hour. RAVEC is the committee in the UK that makes the decisions on who gets security and who does not.
The two are officially unconnected. That I doubt. The guidance lets the King live with whatever decision comes and say, accurately, that status and safety were settled by others.
Back to that anniversary. The monarchy is undoubtedly facing challenges, not least the Harry, Meghan circus and the Andrew sick drama.
It may not be done for, far from it.
But it has lost the sense of invincibility it had under Elizabeth II, and it’s unlikely to get it back in this reign. The late Queen’s authority was assumed, and assumption is silent.
Charles III’s has to be asserted, and anything asserted can be argued with. The argument is public now and, it seems, no longer conducted on terms the Palace sets.
Robert Jobson is a New York Times bestselling author. His latest book is The Windsor Legacy, published by Pegasus in the US and Blink in the UK.
