If his new reign was developing in the manner that King Charles III must have hoped, the main royal news of the week would have been his visit to the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday. There, the king did the kinds of things that British monarchs do, and received the kind of tributes they are accustomed to receiving. He talked to staff, met political leaders and unveiled a bronze plaque commemorating Elizabeth II’s lying in state as well as two ornate beacons, gifts from the two Houses. In the words of the Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the new beacons symbolised “the enduring and guiding light [the queen] has been to our nation – and indeed, the whole world – for the past 70 years”.
Sadly for the king, this highly traditional visit to Westminster, with its deferential rhetoric of continuity and stability, was not the main royal news of the week at all. Instead, that was provided by Thursday’s release of the final three distinctly undeferential episodes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix documentary series.
