The Battle of Frogmore
The King evicts Princes Harry, in the Game of Homes
In the Game of Homes, the new King is showing no mercy. This week, we learnt Charles has given Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex their notice to leave Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. According to reports, they must vacate their UK-base to make way for Prince Andrew, who, it’s said, must leave his home of the last 20 years, Royal Lodge, nearby.
Sussex spokesman and royal writer, Omid Scobie, said the cottage was the family’s “only sufficiently secure refuge in the country since their access to armed police protection was taken away in 2020” and they had not only re-paid the renovation costs, but rent on it for the foreseeable future.
The news “has left Harry and Meghan stunned, and at least two members of the Royal Family ‘appalled’,” he wrote, adding, a friend of the couple said, it feels “like a cruel punishment,” as though the family, “want to cut them out of the picture for good.”
It’s all part of cuts the King is making – he’s also reportedly ending Andrew’s £249,000 annual allowance, which would leave him unlikely to be able to fund the running costs of the 30-room mansion, which was previously the Queen Mother’s home.
Charles has long been vocal about his plans to slim and trim the monarchy, ending the practise of lots of family members living in grace-and-favour homes. And while nobody would disagree with that, Kerry had some thoughts for The Sunday Telegraph this week. Read them here.
While it’s right non-working royals fund their own way, you do have to wonder why Charles couldn’t let Harry continue to pay rent for Frogmore – after all, he has plenty of properties, both privately-owned and Crown-owned. There are also hundreds of properties on the royal estates, which are rented out to staff members – and even holiday-makers, as part of the Duchy of Cornwall. Now the vast Duchy of Cornwall has been bequeathed to Prince William, the monarch and the heir have multiple homes of their own. In other words, they have plenty to spare.
Waleses spin St David’s Day magic
It was St David’s Day on Wednesday, and a day ahead of Wales’s national saint’s day, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited the nation to celebrate and take in a few engagements in south Wales.
One was to a site near Pontyclun that will eventually be a mental health therapy garden, partially funded by the couple’s Royal Foundation. Amanda Berry, chief executive of Foundation, said that the Prince and Princess “continue to prioritise our society’s mental health” as well as show passion for “creating a lasting impact in the communities they visit”.
They certainly showed some competitive passion and kept spinning their magic with a visit to Aberavon Leisure and Fitness Centre in Port Talbot. Kate and William treated everyone to the pic of the week with Kate beating William at 45 seconds of the “Tour de Aberavon” spinning challenge. And in heels and Zara skirt too! Royal fitties forever.
On St David’s Day, William was in uniform at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, on his first visit to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards as their newly appointed Colonel of the Regiment. Taking over from King Charles, who held the position from 1975, William was joined by Kate, patriotically wearing a red Alexander McQueen coat and a replica of a leek brooch worn by the late Queen.
Camilla gets Grimm for World Book Day
We love World Book Day in The Royal List households and of course, so does Camilla, Queen Consort. She marked the occasion with a chat with Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho for BookTrust, during which she revealed she was scared by Grimms Fairytales, like all of us, when she was young. “They were seriously scary,” she said. “As children, half of you wants to be scared.”
She also revealed reading to her grand-children was “a wonderful way of getting to know them, of bonding. Sitting on the end of their bed and just reading. I think I read every children’s book. I could practically do them backwards. What’s lovely is… they are bookworms now,” she said.
For more book inspo, visit The Queen’s Reading Room. And you can catch more of the Queen on BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow today, 8pm. Turns out Camilla is a big fan of the show (we are too), and after being invited to appear by its host, Fiona Bruce, she did just that. We can’t wait!
Princess Eugenie returns to hospital
With her pregnancy bump growing bigger - her second baby is due this summer - Eugenie didn’t let that stop her getting to down to playing with two-year-old Posie-Aurora Sadler-Smith, a patient at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. The London hospital was also where the royal had corrective surgery for scoliosis (abnormal twisting of the spine) when she was 12.
On Tuesday, Eugenie visited its Prosthetic Rehabilitation Unit, where she met Posie and other children and staff, saying: “After everything I went through as a child with scoliosis, I know from my own experience how debilitating an orthopaedic condition can be.”
“I am so proud to be patron of the charity that looks after and supports all the patients at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital,” she later posted on Instagram. “I visited their Prosthetics unit yesterday and I met Posie, a 2 year old who has undergone elective bilateral amputations and has just had her first pair of prostheses, she’s a remarkably brave young girl and the staff and carers at RNOH are doing incredible work to provide a way for her to walk as she grows up.”
Post-haste for Queen’s last stamps
The last Special Stamps collection featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II silhouette are available to pre order on Royal Mail website before going on general sale this Thursday. The stamps, which were approved by Her Majesty, celebrate 100th anniversary of the famous steam train, Flying Scotsman, in conjunction with the National Railway Museum. The 12-stamp set will be the last to include the profile of the Queen, as new ones featuring King Charles will be available from 4 April.
And if you have a spare stamp, you’re not too late to send Prince Edward a birthday card. The Earl of Wessex celebrates his 59th birthday on Friday 10 March. Born in 1964 at Buckingham Palace, he was christened Edward Antony Richard Louis - which spells out EARL. Spooky royal fact of the week!