For the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953, all the members of the Royal Family were present, with one notable exception: her uncle, the former Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor. Although Edward had attempted to build civil relations with his niece after her accession to the throne the previous year, it was widely – and correctly – believed that his toadying to her was largely connected to his wishing to extract money from her, and besides his publication of a scandalous and revelatory memoir, A King’s Story, in 1951 had seen him cast out into outer darkness by his family. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, noted that the new queen was implacably opposed to the disgraced king; he wrote in his diary, of the Duke’s potential attendance at the coronation, ‘the Queen would be less willing than any one to have him there.’
Seven decades later, history has not repeated itself. For all the wild rumours that the publication of Prince Harry’s Spare had led to him forfeiting his invitation to his father’s coronation – and stories that his referring to the now-Queen Camilla as his ‘wicked stepmother’ in the book had mortally offended the royal couple – and the ambiguity as to whether he would, in fact, be appearing on the day, his actual presence at the service at Westminster Abbey was every bit as low-key and self-effacing as his appearance at the Queen’s funeral last September was. He turned up smartly dressed in a bespoke Dior suit, sat several rows back along with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and their husbands, was photographed laughing with Princess Anne, and left for his Californian home immediately when the service finished. He was in Britain for less than 30 hours; it is unclear as to whether he saw his father, brother or stepmother during his visit, but it seems unlikely.
He behaved, to my mind, impeccably
Those who have persistently criticised Harry since his quasi-abdication at the beginning of 2020 will continue to do so, describing his swift departure from the country as typically graceless and rude. Certainly, I have been one of his fiercer detractors, having missed no opportunity to rail against the Duke’s publicity-seeking, narcissism and reactionary personal politics. Yet I now must write in Harry’s defence. He turned up at the coronation knowing that, his father and stepmother aside, he would be the most scrutinised person there, and that every single detail of his behaviour would be analysed for giveaway clues as to his inner psyche; even his small talk with his neighbours would be passed over to lip readers, desperate to find some tiny crumb of gossip or revelation to tantalise the media with. And he behaved, to my mind, impeccably.
There would have been many options available to him. Not to attend the coronation and (as his great-great uncle did) sell his opinions on the day to the highest bidder; attend, and make sure that he was the centre of attention by various stories carefully fed to sympathetic media; or generally cause a nuisance and attempt to upstage his family before and after the ceremony, possibly even during it. He did none of these things, but instead behaved with grace, dignity and integrity. This would have been noted at the highest levels.
It is easy to speculate about how he must have felt, relegated to the third row while his elder brother had a vital ceremonial position. Yet his estrangement from the Royal Family is so well-known and familiar as to not need restating. Instead, his low-key and respectful actions at the coronation might be seen as an olive branch of sorts, after Spare’s publication threw the fox into the henhouse. It remains to be seen whether Harry wants any kind of place within his family again – or if they are willing to receive him once more in anything other than the most fleeting of terms – but he did his duty by both ‘the Firm’ and the wider country, in a situation which must have been hugely difficult for him personally.
We shall see if this is an anomaly – a brief armistice in an ongoing war – or the beginning of a rapprochement, but Harry can return to California and his family secure in the knowledge that his behaviour in this matter has been impeccable. Which makes a pleasant, and unexpected, change.
