The contrast simply couldn’t have been starker. In the rain-swept quadrangle at Windsor Castle, the King – flanked by Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales – stoically undertook a high-profile State Visit at the request of the Government.
The red carpet may have been slightly soggy thanks to that horrible seasonal drizzle that seeps into every pore, but the smiles couldn’t have been brighter, the vermillion of the uniforms more brilliant or the gold of carriages glossier.
Everything was designed to impress the visiting Sultan of Oman (an old friend and ally of the UK who is also known as one of the world’s ‘most discreet billionaires’), from the procession of State Coaches through the military-lined streets of Windsor, to the formal ceremonial welcome in the quadrangle – involving hundreds of soldiers both on foot and horseback – and the simultaneous gun-salutes at Windsor and the Tower of London.
Even the outfits of the royal ladies – a crimson wool crepe dress by Fiona Clare with a matching Philip Treacy hat plus rubies and diamonds for Queen Camilla, and a forest green Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen coat with matching accessories, including Juliette Botterill headwear, for Catherine – were deliberately designed to echo the colours of the Omani flag.
And yet as the pomp and the pageantry of the day unfolded, the former working royal known as Prince Harry was dropping another of his ‘truth bombs’ in what is fast becoming a rather repetitive one-man pity party.
Seemingly sticking a boot into his brother, Prince William, he somewhat disingenuously referred to ‘sibling disagreements’, a rather quaint way of describing the decidedly one-way volley of attacks in recent years.
The former working royal known as Prince Harry was dropping another of his ‘truth bombs’ in what is fast becoming a rather repetitive one-man pity party
The Prince and Princess of Wales undertook a high-profile State Visit at the request of the Government
‘Some people don’t want it to work it out… I want it to work out… with everything else that is going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile,’ Harry sighed, in what most people have interpreted as a sly dig at the future king.
Since sibling hostility is fast becoming one of his few remaining selling-points, might we be tempted to consider this to be a cunning double-bluff?
Perhaps. ‘There’s enough drama in the world and enough drama in people’s lives than to continue with issues with family,’ Harry went on to opine of the family implosion he created and continues to stoke on a depressingly regular basis.
Who knows whether he will ever see the irony of the situation. Many have fumed at the timing of the interview. He just couldn’t help himself, could he, they seethed.
The honest truth is that the prince probably had no idea that a State Visit was going on and, even if he had, wouldn’t have been minded to stop it. And that tells you a lot.
It’s worth noting, someone reminded me yesterday, that Harry never attended a full State Visit when he was a working royal (although, according to his pals, it’s patronising not to call him one now since he is, apparently, both working and a royal).
In 2019, he kept an awkward distance from US President Trump at only the private lunch at Buckingham Palace. (Meghan – who the Leader of the Free World previously described as ‘nasty’ – happily managed to swerve it as she was on maternity leave.)
Yesterday, Palace aides were once again keeping their counsel at the latest badly timed bombshell from the prince, with only the merest hint of a raised eyebrow at the news that it had been dropped smack bang in the middle of their State Visit.
To be fair, they are almost used to it now and, frankly, they had bigger fish to fry. The King, chipper and dapper in a morning suit, invited his guest to inspect a Guard of Honour before both national anthems were played, and then led the party inside for a private lunch.
Afterwards, in the elegant Green Drawing Room (a favourite of the late Queen as it overlooks the castle rose garden designed by Prince Philip) there was a display of priceless items from the historical Royal Collection designed to highlight the warm relations between Britain and Oman, one of our closest Arabian allies, over the years.
The by-now expanded royal party, with the addition of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, diplomatically included two of Charles’ own paintings from his 1995 trip to the country in the display, as well as a tiara given by Oman’s then-ruler to Queen Victoria for her coronation.
The Sultan of Oman and his retinue certainly looked more than impressed, with courtiers including the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps quietly satisfied that once again the legendary soft diplomacy of the Royal Family was quietly being utilised to such great effect.
But as a senior figure in royal circles said to me the other day after last week’s public appearance by the Sussexes (and yet another round of claims that all Harry wants is ‘peace’): ‘Does he really think everyone has collective amnesia after the last few years?’
And that’s the issue.
What Harry says is so very different from what he does.
Or as another source pithily put it: ‘If he really does want reconciliation, why doesn’t he just bloody shut up about it?’
Quite.
