THE BRITISH MONARCHY: A Case against Charles III, is a Case for ‘Charles The Great’ and the Realm

by.

H.E. Professor Gilbert Morris* September 8th 2022

“Much used phrases” are much used phrases, however, there is a phrase – though overused – is poignant just today. Malcolm X was to have said words to the following effect:

“If you want to change a culture, first you need an act of integrity”.

This vacuum is indescribable, the loss of Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II; the most stable feature of this…our modern life., And now, Charles III is King of England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland, Head of the Church of England and the Commonwealth, and fountainhead of the British Constitutional system, 1200 years in the making. The King is patient or was made so, having waited – not without incident – these many decades to cleave the throne.

The British public and the world – no less – rose and fell with Charles through many a low moment, not least which was the unraveling of his first marriage straight through the tragic death of the once ‘future queen’, Diana, Princess of Wales; as she was then, so beloved by the peoples of the world.

And yet, King Charles III did wait and wait like a grail quest in which the golden chalice was found, familiar but untouchable. But what if King Charles III’s first act, was one of stupendous integrity? What if, just short of coronation, King Charles III said to a hushed, diffident world:

“Here is the crown of this realm for which duty, I have lived in limbo for these many decades, which gave my life focus, direction and meaning. But alas, upon my own judgement, I’ve not met the discriminating standard, set by our own late dear Queen Elizabeth II, and the crown of which she was steward, which I now inherit by right, cannot be maintained in the grace in which I found it, nor can I exceed the grace vested in it by one such as she – our gone Queen – who was in all things, selfless, duty-bound and the embodiment of restraint. As such, though I am King by right and law, I withdraw…and I shall let this cup pass from me…by which action implicitly, I present to you His Majesty William, King of this realm and Queen Kate withal, and by God’s grace, Long Live the King…as I repair to that quiet to which my wait has accustomed me”.

Alright, he needn’t speak in that Victorian judicial cadence, but you see the wisdom here:

• King Charles III is the oldest new monarch already
• The whispers of previous scandals flits about him still
• But a Monarch in old age must be – by having lived as – a symbol already, or must be young enough that his subjects grow with him
• King, Charles III can only keep from wrong-footing himself, which, if wrong-footing occurs would awaken the vitriol, which floats beneath the surface of the resigned regard he endures and which endures him without endearment
• It is therefore too late in the life-cycle of King Charles III to approach the distinction of his illustrious mother in a selfless dutifulness, which she exhibited before he had a sense of himself and surely after he gained too great a sense of himself for himself, the opposite of selflessness.

However, if this act of integrity aforementioned were to unfold, it would be one of the greatest acts of dignified unselfishness in the history of humanity in an organised polity. King Charles III would evolve and emerge into history acclaimed beyond being a relatively good man, to an assuredly great man.

And yet this act of integral grace would do more than enhance the standing of King Charles III and his consort: There is no leader alive today – save President Jimmy Carter – who’s moral discipline puts us to shame by sheer dint of its inspirational consistency and indubitable rightness. Queen Elizabeth II’s gift to civilisation and our moral imagination was our privilege to observe daily, years-in-and-out this indomitability; in duty, priority and propriety exercised in rectitude, without delay or complaint. Other royals, including King Charles III, seem to think they had/have the right to luxuriate both in the unearned privilege of being royals and the right to indulgence of their nethermost desires.

Elizabeth II was of a different purple: She seemed to believe serenely that the price of her unearned privileges, was to discipline her wants, wishes and desires, replaced with the satisfaction of duty as a demonstration of continuing gratitude. It is tiresome and striking vulgarity therefore – of the most outrageous sort – to witness junior royals – even less deserving of unearned privileges – weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, whining and complaining incontinently to people who pay taxes to fund a quality of life for these royals, which those people – subjects, citizens, taxpayers – will never experience or imagine.

An act of integrity by King Charles III would say to our human civilisations across a troubled world, there is a price to pay for privilege and a long wait alone is insufficient. In one move King Charles III and protocol would establish and confirm a standard of morality, place demands and parameters on William’s reign, whilst admonishing the loudest junior royals by active example. Such a move would return Elizabeth II’s prestige and Diana’s magic (in a tradition dating to ‘Alfred The Great’ of the 9th century), to a youthful ancient monarchy in a nation and a world that needs to believe again; ushering in a new dispensation with Charles III as dignified Regent.

Monarchies – when they are most useful – establish a protocol and so maintain the possibility of social shame; well, not so much the Spanish monarchy of late. I am convinced nonetheless that the recent resignation of a British Prime Minister was because there is a hard ceiling on poor political behaviour outside the bounds of decency, where one must, weekly, face a monarch who is the symbol of tradition and national grace.

Finally, be it resolved, that outside of this purposive act of integrity, there isn’t much else that a King Charles III could achieve within the near limits of his mother’s astonishing service. His act – as described above – would say to the world: here is one who lived in wait for the crown, and when it was his to accept by law and tradition, he deferred, not from fear, but with foresight, motivated by the courage to preserve the prestige of the monarchy for future generations, by his own sacrifice. King Charles III, (“Charles, the Great” by this sacrifice) puts the realm before himself and so places himself in the realm of a not much used phrase: to be in the true inheritor Elizabeth II…amongst the greatest of monarchs.

*H.E. Professor Gilbert Morris is a citizen of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (a member of the Commonwealth). He is also a citizen of Turks and Caicos Islands and the United Kingdom and is a scholar of English Jurisprudence and Constitutional law.