Divided Attention: Part 1
Prince William, [Aspiring] Global Statesman
This week made one thing astonishingly clear: the Royals are BACK.
After a summer spent, presumably, soaking in quiet time at Balmoral and other family estates, the British Royals have now burst back onto the scene with a flurry of engagements. The only problem? I don’t know where to look.
Following the royals is sort of what I do these days. I make an income off of it, after all. (Not a huge income, but one that affords me the luxury of saying “I follow the royals" and having that be a not-absurd statement). But for the past two weeks, I’ve been feeling like I’ve got a case of whiplash from trying to keep up with all the pet projects, signature causes, and royal rebrands that are demanding my attention.
I guess I should be counting my blessings. At this point last year, one thing and one thing only was occupying my time: the funeral proceedings for Queen Elizabeth II. One year ago, almost to the day, we were collectively locked in on the United Kingdom as the Palace walked us through a 10-day mourning period for its longest-reigning monarch. There were no questions as to where our attention was going to be focused on any given day from September 8th-19th, 2023.
This year, the exact opposite is true. I don’t know where my attention should go.
Prince Harry is fresh off a triumphant return to the Invictus Games, where Meghan, Duchess of Sussex also dazzled in a whirlwind of appearances. Prince William is busily establishing himself as a hopeful “global statesman.” Catherine, Princess of Wales, is equally busy continuing to establish her own chosen brand, what I’ve termed a “Business Princess.” And of course, King Charles has embarked on a previously postponed State Visit to France (with Queen Camilla in tow) and is showing us all that he deserves his spot at the big boys’ table.
Not to mention, Sweden celebrated an entire Golden Jubilee over the weekend and I have yet even to scratch the surface there. And there were tiaras!
Let’s examine each appearance by a British Royal this week—and the probable goals at play—in turn, shall we?
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A New York Minute for Prince William
I might be making this up, but I could have sworn there was an episode of The Crown where Charles, as Prince of Wales, is cautioned against doing anything to grab media attention while the Queen is abroad on a tour. The guiding principle (if this scene really did happen and I’m not just imagining it) was that “all roads lead to the crown” in such a time, to help the public focus on the Palace’s key player. To reinforce that the Monarch is the reason that this entire system exists, and to support them in their mission to maintain the world’s favorable image of the Monarchy itself.
It seems that the real-life Palace, or someone within the firm, has thrown that principle out the window. Or, at least, is cutting it very close.
Despite King Charles’ mission to “celebrate the UK’s relationship with France” during this week’s State Visit (planned for Wednesday to Friday), Prince William squeezed in his own whistlestop tour of New York City on Monday afternoon and Tuesday. Upon arriving, William, in a statement issued by his office, said, “No one does optimism and ingenuity like the American people, so it’s only right we unveil this year's Earthshot finalists in New York City."
Not sure I’m following the logic there but…I guess?
It’s hardly a surprise that both Charles and William are looking to “grow international role[s] within the royal family.” Charles spent 70 years in the shadow of the throne, ready to put his own ideas into play. And William? CNN’s Max Foster reports that William is keen to “evolve” into a global statesman. Foster quotes a “close aide” as saying:
“You’ve started to see this evolution over the last six months, whether it be him sitting down with President Biden in Boston in November, or heading to the Ukrainian border to meet with British troops.”
Way to write the narrative for us, rather than letting your work speak for itself, Wills.
The job of being Prince of Wales is not an easy one, not least because of the immense amounts of patience and ability to bide one’s time that it seems to require. Famously frustrated Princes of Wales have included Edward VII, who turned to a “high society” lifestyle after being barred from either a meaningful military career or the ability to act as his mother, Queen Victoria’s, deputy. And of course, we’ve heard over the years that Prince Charles spent much of his adult life absolutely brimming with methods to modernize the monarchy that never got air time.
If I were William, I would certainly be hesitant to allow my father’s time as heir to dictate how my own would play out. The modern world does not look kindly on a grown man who has been born to privilege and does nothing with it. I absolutely understand Wills’ desire, then, to launch a “charm offensive” one-man tour, visiting heroic New York firefighters and dropping in on United Nations figureheads in turn. Such a visit does a lot of heavy lifting to grow William’s own profile…if not that of his Earthshot charity.
After all, Earthshot is the entire reason for his visit to America. In scope and scale, Earthshot itself is inspired by American President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot speech, in which he called upon Americans to “embrace and commit to the visionary goal of reaching the moon within a decade.” The Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, hosted in part by Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic organization, will ostensibly be held in New York at this time every year as a key stepping stone in Earthshot’s annual calendar. The Summit is where William unveils the latest crop of finalists in the running for the Earthshot Prize, which seeks to reward pioneers who are developing answers to the world’s environmental issues.
I want to underscore here that holding the Summit at a time and in a place that attracts more eyes for Earthshot is only a good thing. More eyes = more support, more donors, and more emphasis on the work that needs to happen to solve our planet’s various environmental emergencies.
But equally important to William, it seems, is the goal of making us aware of his own “evolution" as an international leader and his continued transformation “from Duke of Cambridge to Prince of Wales and future King.”
Why else would Kate be left at home? Fresh off a 6- to 8-week family holiday, with their children back in school, a two-day jaunt abroad would be nothing compared to the grueling weeks-long tours the Waleses have undertaken together in the past. And Kate gets the girls excited. She brings the crowds. The Daily Express reports that FDNY Lieutenant Drew Kane “asked him where Kate was,” telling the paper, “We wanted to know why Kate wasn’t here.” William, apparently “didn’t answer” that question.
I’m left to conclude that Earthshot (much like William’s other “signature royal cause” of combatting homelessness) is supposed to remain his thing. His problem to solve.
While looping Kate in for a visit, and presumably enjoying more attention as a result, might work for some short-term media ratings, William and his aides clearly envision a future in which he can separate his work from the #WillandKate realm and be an icon all on his own.
Does this qualify Earthshot as a vanity project? I’ll leave that to you to decide. But the timing and locations chosen to push it forward are intentional as methods of raising the profile of both the Prize and its founder. They just are! Why else hold the Summit during the week of the UN’s General Assembly meeting? Why else host the award ceremonies abroad, when doing so requires an immense amount of overhead costs and international travel of its participants?
And the choice to ramp this visit up into a “charm offensive” tour just before Wills would ostensibly be required back in England to hold down the fort during the King’s time abroad? That, to me, suggests that the role William is eyeing for himself in Palace 2.0 is not a supporting one.
What I’m not suggesting is that Prince William was trying to “upstage” his father with this blink-and-you-miss-it tour. But he did squeeze it in despite the King having his own moment in the spotlight on the horizon. In fact, he carried his New York City visit out with an added challenge because of Charles’ upcoming visit abroad: nearly the entire Royal Rota was already booked and couldn’t provide coverage of the Earthshot Summit.
Some, like noted royal photographer Chris Jackson and Emily Nash of Hello!, spent the week of September 11th covering William’s brother Prince Harry at the 2023 Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany. They then returned to the UK just in time to meet up with other royal journalists (such as Victoria Murphy and Richard Palmer) in Paris. The heavy hitters simply didn’t have room in their agendas for Prince William’s passion project this time around.
And that’s the thing about being the heir while the monarch is still carrying out normal royal duties: sometimes you get shuffled down the priority list. But William (and his team) clearly weighed the options and decided that the pros of visiting New York at this moment still outweighed the cons.
In a past era, I rather think that a different choice would have been made. The Prince of Wales aspiring to a “global statesman” image for himself at all would have been a bit unthinkable, presumptuous even, in a bygone era. After all, he is sworn to King Charles III as his liege man of life and limb.
There are other points of contrast. King Charles became the first monarch to address France’s Senate chamber on Thursday, and while speeches such as the one he delivered in alternate English and French are typically symbolic, they are nonetheless crucial for inserting one’s own voice into the historical record. Prince William is dipping his toes into these waters as Prince of Wales; he’s made an address to fellow world leaders at COP26, and smaller speeches to patronages and on stops along Commonwealth Tours.
But addresses that speak to his aspiration to international changemaker? He might be playing catch-up there. Even his own brother, Prince Harry, beat Wills to addressing the UN directly when he gave the keynote speech for Nelson Mandela Day at the General Assembly in 2022. Of course, Harry has now untethered himself of any obligations that come from living a life in service to the Crown. Might that be something that William will come to envy as he lives the next several years in the shadow of their father?
Unswerving loyalty and synchrony between father and son—monarch and heir—might have been the projected image sought by the Monarchy a century ago. But something has shifted at the Palace since we’ve entered the modern world, and that something has made it possible for William to develop a persona beyond the supporting role he was born to play.
It’s equally fascinating to me that William continues to turn to America as he carves out that persona for himself, but that’s a topic for another week’s musings entirely.
Next time…
If Prince William has to actively strive for that “global statesman” image, it’s because his father, Charles Philip Arthur George, King of the United Kingdom, is currently enjoying that exact status—without having to put in nearly the effort that William does.
Charles and Camilla’s much-hyped state visit to France (do you think Charles knows the colloquial meaning of “hype?”) is as much a “We made it” moment as anything we’ve witnessed throughout the past year. And yes, I’m including the Coronation here.
Amanda, great article! What do you think of the Gallup poll I keep reading about that named Prince William the most favorable person in the news by Americans? Notably, PW is not a political figure per se, while everyone else is (Biden, DeSantis, Putin), so there is bias that would reflect in lower scores for Biden, DeSantis, etc.