Alexander Larman

There are some sights that nobody should ever be forced to see, lest they be forced into a lifetime of therapy-intensive PTSD. To this list should be added a video of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex twerking. For some unfathomable reason, Meghan and Harry decided to mark their daughter Lilibet’s fourth birthday by posting a video on Instagram that featured the heavily pregnant expectant mother gyrating wildly in a hospital room to a song called ‘Baby Mama’, in apparent recreation of a (checks notes) TikTok trend.  I assumed at first that it was an AI-created spoof, and that litigation from this never knowingly under-lawyered couple would be coming soon. But no.

As his younger son conducts an attention-seeking trip to China, it was King Charles, addressing Canada’s House of Commons and Senate, who showed how a calm, dignified approach to public life pays far greater dividends than empty point-scoring. The King has been a popular and welcome figure in Canada since he arrived with the Queen on a brief visit yesterday; the enthusiastic greetings from tens of thousands of Canadians was no mere piece of theatre. Charles's oft-forgotten status as King of Canada has been foremost in people’s minds, thanks to the carefully and adroitly handled pageantry surrounding him, but it was his set-piece speech in the Senate in Ottawa that was the most anticipated aspect of his appearance. It did not disappoint.

There is no such thing as a 'royal car'. Traditionally, the monarchy has been associated with various British manufacturers, such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce and (until their recent, breathtakingly misjudged advertising campaign, at least) Jaguar. But there is no equivalent of the Popemobile, brought out on every public occasion so that the King might be received by his adoring people. Instead, when one glimpses Charles, or the other major royals, in public, it is usually in the back of an extremely expensive and suitably petrol-guzzling vehicle, which sits at odds with the monarch’s avowed commitment to the environment. In private, at least, the King has now found a compromise.

The two years since the coronation of King Charles have been largely disappointing ones for the royal family. A great deal of this was due to factors that none of its senior members could have had any control over – Harry; the Duke of York; cancer. But, in these pages, I have also expressed doubts that the King has been fully in control of the public aspects of the role. Compared to his mother, he has often seemed a tentative, slightly querulous presence on the throne: a figure who had longed to rise to the highest level of responsibility for all his adult life, and was found wanting when he finally became attained it. But in a week in which the King has been very much on display during the country’s VE Day celebrations, he has been magnificent in two separate regards.

After Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022, it became of paramount national importance that a suitable memorial was constructed in memory of her and her unparalleled reign. Since it was announced that some of the leading architects in the country would be in competition to come up with something that would act as a fitting testament to her, there has been fevered speculation as to which design would be triumphant. Something suitably stately and reverential, perhaps, to remember the late Queen as a public figure? Or perhaps something brilliantly daring and unusual, which would have the artistic establishment in raptures at its encapsulation of the country’s greatest ever monarch? After all, if a terrible idea has come this far, what is to stop it going all the way? Alas.

Today marks the second anniversary of King Charles’s coronation, but celebrations are likely to be rather limited this time around. In truth, it is hard to call the past two years a particular success for the Royal Family. The king has suffered from cancer, for which his debilitating (and, it has to be said, ageing) treatment is still ongoing, as has his daughter-in-law. His younger brother has continued to bring shame upon the institution of the monarchy, most notably through shady financial dealings that have invited interest in his relationships with rumoured Chinese spies. His younger son has sold his birthright from his Montecito mansion, and complained vociferously about the privations that he has endured while counting the millions he made by betraying his family.