French president’s office confirms state visit off after mass strikes and demonstrations across the country
King Charles’s state visit to Paris has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests, the French president’s office has said.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
Continue reading...With uncollected rubbish lining Paris streets, critics are comparing the optics of the royal arrival to 1789
Striking workers in France are refusing to provide red carpets for King Charles’s first overseas trip as monarch amid protests over rises to the pension age.
French trade union CGT announced this week that its members at Mobilier National, the institution in charge of providing flags, red carpets and furniture for public buildings, would not help prepare a reception for the king upon his arrival in Paris on Sunday.
Continue reading...Special set with UK’s favourite flowers including the sunflower and purple iris to feature on collection of 10 stamps
The first stamps to bear King Charles’s silhouette are to be released on a special set celebrating the nation’s favourite flowers. The image of the king’s uncrowned profile, in silver and facing to the right, features on a collection of 10 stamps with images including the sweet pea, the sunflower and the purple iris.
Continue reading...Oil has been created using olives from two groves on Mount of Olives, and a formula dating back centuries
The fragrant chrism oil that will be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation in May was made sacred in Jerusalem on Friday.
A ceremony took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the holy oil was consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum.
Continue reading...Monarch will become first UK sovereign to address French senate and Bundestag on six-day trip
The king will make his first state visits to France and Germany, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to Paris and continue to Berlin during a six-day visit which begins on 26 March.
Continue reading...One-off dispensation for weekend celebrations will allow venues to screen events without a TV licence
The BBC is to suspend the licence fee as part of a one-off dispensation for the king’s coronation weekend.
The move will allow venues to screen the live coronation ceremony coverage on 6 May and the coronation concert on 7 May without needing to buy a TV licence.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen say ‘Windsor framework’ has been reached after four months of negotiations. This blog is now closed
Q: Why do you say you will back the PM’s deal when you have not seen the detail? And would you like to see Northern Ireland within the scope of the European court of justice, or outside it?
Starmer says he knows Northern Ireland well and knows the detail. Any deal will be an improvement on the status quo. That is why he is saying he would back it. He says the deal will not come as a surprise.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak accused of ‘dragging the king into a hugely controversial political issue’
The king will host the EU chief, Ursula von der Leyen, after the signing of the final Northern Ireland protocol agreement with Rishi Sunak, prompting a furious reaction from the Democratic Unionist party and Tory Brexiters, who accused the prime minister of dragging the monarch into politics.
The former DUP first minister Arlene Foster said she “cannot quite believe that No 10 would ask HM the king to become involved in the finalising of a deal as controversial as this one. It’s crass and will go down very badly in NI. We must remember this is not the king’s decision but the government, who it appears is tone deaf.”
Continue reading...Meeting between Charles and Ursula von de Leyen cancelled, reports say, as Varadkar says deal ‘inching towards conclusion’
Rishi Sunak is facing criticism after reports that a meeting between King Charles and the president of the European Commission was cancelled days before the announcement of an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.
According to reports, there had been plans for an in-person meeting between the king and Ursula von der Leyen, as part of a trip to the UK to seal the deal on the Brexit trading arrangements.
Continue reading...Ukraine president to meet King Charles and address parliament, as Sunak reveals training for Ukrainian jet pilots
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will make his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion, with Rishi Sunak promising additional military support.
The UK prime minister announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots, paving the way for them to fly sophisticated Nato-standard jets, a request from Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Former courtier says the King would still keep Duke of York at arm’s length as Charles prepares for coronation
Any attempt by Prince Andrew to try to row back an out-of-court deal with a woman with whom he is accused of having sex when she was a teenager is unlikely to rehabilitate him in the royal family, a former senior royal aide has warned.
The Duke of York was at the weekend urged to challenge his legal settlement with Virginia Giuffre by Alan Dershowitz, an American lawyer who himself was previously accused by her of sexual abuse.
Continue reading...People are being encouraged to ‘support their local areas’ in a drive to mark the three-day celebration in May
Britons will be encouraged to spend a day volunteering in their communities to mark the King’s coronation. The Big Help Out will take place on Monday 8 May and is intended to create a “lasting legacy” of the coronation weekend.
Buckingham Palace said it hoped to convince as many people as possible to “join the work being undertaken to support their local areas” on the day, which has been designated as an extra bank holiday.
Continue reading...Wind energy agreements have generated windfall that would normally go towards monarchy
The King has asked for profits from a £1bn-a-year crown estate windfarm deal to be used for the “wider public good” rather than as a funding boost for the monarchy.
Under the taxpayer-funded sovereign grant, which is currently £86.3m a year, the King receives 25% of the crown estate’s annual surplus, which includes an extra 10% for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
Continue reading...The government wrote to the then Prince of Wales in 2019, seeking approval for legislation that had implications for his estates
The government asked King Charles for permission to pass its post-Brexit “world-leading” Environment Act because laws requiring landowners to enhance conservation could affect his business interests.
Environment minister Rebecca Pow wrote to the then Prince of Wales in 2019 to ask if he would accept section seven of the environment bill, which became law in November 2021.
Continue reading...Views range from sympathy for the Sussexes in light of treatment by royals and tabloids, to regarding them as being ‘as entitled as the others’
Prince Harry’s tell-all autobiography has become the UK’s fastest-selling nonfiction book ever. The memoir has been controversial, with Harry making claims that Prince William physically attacked him and accusing his father of putting his own interests first.
The Guardian asked readers – some of whom had already begun reading the book – for their views on the memoir and the publicity around it. Many said their views on the royal family had been changed, while others said it strengthened existing positions. Other readers also made the point that the book was more balanced than had been presented by parts of the media.
Continue reading...Harry May, 21, threw object because he believed monarch’s visit to ‘poor area’ was in ‘bad taste’, court hears
A 21-year-old man has admitted throwing an egg towards King Charles during a walkabout in Luton because he thought the monarch’s visit to a “poor area” was in “bad taste”.
Harry May pleaded guilty at Westminster magistrates court in London on Friday to a public order offence relating to the incident on 6 December.
Continue reading...Catherine Mayer says anger over racism, misogyny and wealth in the royal family can undermine public consent for a monarchy
The “absolutely catastrophic” implications of attacks on the behaviour of the royal family in the new memoir from the Duke of Sussex are being ignored, according to Catherine Mayer, the royal analyst and biographer of King Charles.
Early publication of the Spanish edition of Spare has put the focus on personality clashes, some of it fed by the royal publicity machine, and this could threaten the constitutional monarchy, whether or not the British public is calling for such a change, Mayer believes.
Continue reading...Monarch pays tribute to the volunteers and charity workers helping those in financial difficulty
King Charles has highlighted the cost of living crisis and the “great anxiety and hardship” of many struggling to “pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm” in his first Christmas broadcast.
In the message, with the nation in the grip of economic woes and against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the king dedicated a major part of his broadcast to those helping to ease the plight of others.
Continue reading...Monarch reflects on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in first Christmas Day broadcast
I am standing here in this exquisite Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle, so close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen, is laid to rest with my dear father.
I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family.
Continue reading...Monarch expected to pay tribute to late mother during festive address from St George’s chapel
King Charles has chosen to broadcast his first Christmas message from St George’s chapel at Windsor Castle, where the committal service of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth, was held three months ago.
In a photograph released before the broadcast on Christmas Day, the king is seen standing in the quire for his inaugural festive address to the country and the rest of the Commonwealth.
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