A mounted RCMP unit, in their crimson serge tunics, had pride of place in the recessional parade. There was still a procession to-and-from that extended for two kilometres, somehow kept in marching and band-playing sync, with upwards of 7,000 troops arrayed by regiment, in ceremonial dress: bearskin hats and gleaming helmets, plumes and feathers, sashes and garters. The Duchess of Sussex, fairly or unfairly, has been demonized in Britain for leading her husband by the nose to America and away from his duties, Harry converting himself into a “non-working” royal, an ersatz celeb whose currency cheapens by the hour.Ĭlearly, Meghan would not dared have shown her face and risked public scorn.Īnyway, that’s all an aside to the extravaganza, however lower-keyed - and shorter - Charles had deliberately orchestrated it. Which everybody knows is just so much bollocks. Unlike wife Meghan, who sent her regrets, remaining at the couple’s California estate with their children, Archie and Lilibet, ostensibly because it was Archie’s fourth birthday Saturday. This wasn’t an olive branch it was scarcely a twig.Īt least he was there, as the King had wished, albeit RSVP-ing after the deadline, leaving courtiers with no time to accommodate his inclusion, no idea really about Harry’s fly-by itinerary. It was the first time the second child of Charles and Diana - the child his mother hoped would be “wingman to William” - had been in the company of father and brother since his Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan,” aired in December and the subsequent publication of his body-slamming memoir, “Spare.” Rapprochement of the rift seems increasingly unlikely. Though most of the world’s inhabitants, spectators to the spectacle, cannot possibly identify with the hallowed rituals and ancient heraldry of coronation, plenty of us can empathize with a family riven by fraught relations, discord and bitterness. The rebellious, erstwhile, endlessly grousing son who abandoned country and clan in an act of stupendous self-ostracism.
Erased in so many ways from the pageantry and the historical record of the only coronation many of us will ever witness.
0 kommentar(er)
