King Charles is putting a ‘twist’ on his plans for the now ‘slimmed down’ Royal Family
King Charles' former butler makes predictions on what to expect from the monarch, based on prior conversations.
King Charles receives standing ovation in French Senate
King Charles has completed his first year as monarch, and all eyes are on him, with the world wondering what’s to come next. His former butler, Grant Harrold, has an idea. Harrold is seeing both similarities and differences between Charles and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Harrold worked on behalf of Charles for seven years, before he became the British monarch. Harrold has some ideas of what to expect in the near future, based on conversations he had with his former employer.
He said: "It’s been interesting, he has copied Queen Elizabeth’s footprint and done things the way she did them with all the official engagements.
"She stopped doing overseas visits a few years ago so Charles has been able to take that on quite easily but he has added his twist to it."
The word “twist” is quite intriguing and can have a number of meanings. Harrold is not shy to share his thoughts on the matter: “I think there are changes coming, a prime example is the balcony at Trooping the Colour earlier this year.
"If you look from the Queen’s time it looked like Piccadilly Circus, if you look at it now it looks like something after Armageddon, it’s completely different.”
Charles also has plans on how to manage roles internally with Harrold explaining: “He has very carefully and dignifiedly slimmed down the monarchy to what he classifies as the core family and that will only get smaller as sadly his royal cousins die off.”
Harrold was Charles’ butler for seven years and it seems this has been on the then-prince-now-king’s mind for a while: “They won’t pick people to step in, I think it will become a slimmed down monarchy as he has always wanted.” With Prince Harry taking a step back from his royal responsibilities, it may seem like the comments are directed at him, which is hard to avoid. But, according to Harrold, this comes across as business, tightening things up, and it’s not personal.
In May, Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, chimed in, giving her perspective on what “slimmed down” means to her: “I think ‘slimmed-down’ was said in a day when there were a few more people around to make that seem like a justifiable comment,” she said back in May. “It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing… I’m not quite sure what else we can do.”
Charles just returned from France, where he had a three-day visit, starting in Paris and traveling to Bordeaux. Now that he’s back in England, plans are underway for him and wife Queen Camilla to host a state dinner for South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, in November.
