In mourning the Queen and the early days of Charles's reign, signs of a more open monarchy to come?
King and senior working members of Royal Family travelling and greeting members of the public
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In the days since Queen Elizabeth died, King Charles and other senior working members of the Royal Family have had their private moments mourning their mother and grandmother.
But Charles, along with Princess Anne and Prince Edward, and the newly named Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, have also been out and about, greeting people in walkabouts or looking at the many flowers left at gates and other royal locales across the U.K.
On Thursday at Sandringham, the royal estate in Norfolk, north of London, Prince William spoke about how walking behind his grandmother's coffin the day before had reminded him of the walk behind the coffin of his own mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.
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Live coverage of Queen Elizabeth's funeral will start on CBC-TV, CBC News Network, CBC Gem, CBCNews.ca and the CBC News app at 5 a.m. ET on Monday. CBC Radio One's coverage will start around 5:30 a.m. ET, which will also be available on the CBC Listen app.
"I mean the walk yesterday was challenging, it brought back a few memories," the BBC reported that William told a woman outside Sandringham House.
Earlier, there was also an unprecedented chance for a more public gaze into one of the more formal and ceremonial moments of any royal succession. The Accession Council, where Charles was formally proclaimed as King, was televised.
While all this comes in the very earliest moments of Charles's reign, it raises the possibility that he will guide a monarchy that is, at least in some small measure, trying to be more open and accessible than it has been before.
Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Bangor University in Wales, said he thinks there is more openness on display.
"I was quite surprised when Charles first went outside Buckingham Palace on Friday [the day after the Queen's death] and just how long he spent with the crowd. I thought that was again an indication of openness," Prescott said in an interview.
"All leading members of the Royal Family have gone out on walkabouts and seen flowers and things, which was perhaps to some extent expected, but also shows that they want to be open."
The fact that the Accession Council on Saturday was televised also caught Prescott's interest.
"I'm not sure when that was decided," he said, noting he remembers attending some academic discussions three or four years ago and "we were wondering whether it would be televised."
"It wasn't immediately obvious that it would be."
WATCH | Charles says he will follow his mother's example as he is officially proclaimed King:
But it was, as were speeches Charles has been making as he travelled around the U.K. in the days immediately after the Queen's death, and will most likely continue Friday as he visits Wales.
"He thought very carefully about this," Prescott said, "and thought very carefully about how the U.K. is now a union of four distinct nations and the need for the monarchy to be present in all the four nations."
Prescott called that "a very early signal" of how Charles sees his role in a "more open and more transparent monarchy."
Observers also took note of what Charles has been saying in these early days.
"The speeches keep on coming," author and historian Sarah Gristwood told Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio's The Current, earlier this week.
"We know he spoke in Westminster Hall [Monday morning], unusually, and of course, the address to the nation last Friday was a first. It's not something that, you know, monarchs normally have to do to jump up and immediately get on the media."
Time and again, Gristwood said, Charles made reference to the speech his mother had made on her 21st birthday, when she said her whole life would be devoted to service.
"And he said that he would serve with loyalty, respect and love, and that …. love is quite 21st-century. It's quite touchy-feely. It's not something you can really imagine earlier monarchs saying," Gristwood said.
Charles's early days are also under heavy scrutiny for any insight they may give into what kind of king he will be, and how he might balance his previous outspokenness with the new role he finds himself in.
"We've all been asking ourselves that. But he gave some clues there, too," Gristwood told Galloway.
"He mentioned in that Friday speech that as King, he would have to be stepping back from a number of his charities and by implication, causes, partly no doubt because he genuinely … won't have time. Partly, though, perhaps because it is no longer appropriate for him to be seen campaigning in quite the same way."
WATCH | King Charles and his role with politics:
Gristwood suggested there might be some exception to that on the question of the environment, an issue Charles has been discussing, and raising the alarm over, for several decades.
"I think that's one on which, you know, most of us would happily forgive him pressing ministers a little."
Prescott said the fact that there has been so much television coverage of Charles meeting and greeting people shows that perhaps the monarchy under him is "a bit more in tune with the modern age."
WATCH | The Queen lies in state in Westminster Hall:
He also sees further significance in the televising of the Accession Council.
"I think it is an indication that there's an acceptance that you can't rely on the mystique of monarchy in the same way," Prescott said. "It has to be seen, and so television is the best way to do it. The Queen worked it out herself, so it shouldn't be a surprise."
Prescott looks to one moment as also perhaps telegraphing how Charles will interact with people.
"Apparently when the King went to meet Liz Truss, the [U.K.] prime minister, he moved towards her as much as she moved towards him, which is a natural thing, whereas [with the Queen] … you went to her," Prescott said.
"Charles will be just a bit more out there, I think — you'll be able to engage with him a bit more, I think, than you could with the Queen."
Remembering the Queen
Long before the line started forming for those who wish to file by Queen Elizabeth's coffin as she lies in state, people were making their own journeys to places they associated with her, particularly the gates outside Buckingham Palace.
One Fascinator reader emailed to say he and his partner made their way there as soon as possible after hearing of her death, and left flowers and a Canadian flag on the gates.
"There was no hesitation that we both needed to go to Buckingham Palace as soon as we could to pay our respects and to celebrate her life and outstanding 70 years of public service," said Thomas Hill.
Hill, 32, recalled watching the Queen's Christmas message on television with his family as he was growing up.
"At the end of every message, we would somehow all feel comforted and [it] gave us strength looking to the year ahead," Hill said Thursday night. "She was like the wise/warm family member (mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother) for ours and many households who although wasn't physically with us, felt like she was.
"I, like so many others, will dearly miss these messages."
WATCH | Why people are leaving flowers honour Elizabeth:
For the next three days, however, most attention is focused on Westminster Hall. People who have lined up for hours will have a brief moment of reflection as they file silently by the coffin.
Keith Smart, an engineer and British Army veteran, wiped away tears as he left the hall. He had waited more than 10 hours for the chance to say his goodbye.
"Everybody in the crowd was impeccably behaved. There was no malice, everybody was friends. It was fantastic," he said. "And then, to come into that room and see that, I just broke down inside. I didn't bow — I knelt to the floor, on my knees, bowed my head to the Queen."
While this is all unfolding in a Gothic building of deep political and historical significance dating back to 1097, the actual history of lying in state is more recent — relatively speaking.
Lying in state is a "modern invention — or reinvention," said Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and visiting research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, in an interview.
To read more about lying in state, please click here.
(With files from The Associated Press and CBC News)
Shifting titles and positions
Since Queen Elizabeth's death, there have been immediate changes of roles and responsibilities for some members of the Royal Family, and questions about others.
Charles's announcement that William and Kate would become Prince and Princess of Wales came the day after the Queen's death.
That speed caught Prescott off guard.
"I thought that would have been an announcement for a later day, perhaps with the coronation. I was surprised by that, but clearly it had been thought about."
Other positions remain a little less clear.
It has long been thought that Prince Edward will eventually become Duke of Edinburgh, assuming the title his father, Prince Philip, held until his death in April 2021.
"What's been rumoured is that Charles would grant Edward that dukedom," said Prescott.
Through rules that came into place a century ago, the children of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Archie and Lilibet, are a prince and princess because they are now grandchildren of the monarch, but there has been no indication if they will go by those titles.
"The issue is whether they choose to use that title or not," said Prescott.
The Queen's death also means a shift in who could serve as a counsellor of state, one of a select group of high-ranking royals who can carry out most of the official duties of the monarch if they are unable because of illness or absence abroad.
In the event of that, two or more counsellors can be appointed.
According to law, the counsellors are the monarch's spouse and the next four adults in the line of succession who have reached the age of 21.
"So now, when counsellors of state are required, the King will have to appoint Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice. In addition, now the Queen Consort is also a counsellor of state," said Prescott.
Two are required to act, Prescott said, and if you imagine a scenario where Charles and Camilla are travelling overseas but an official duty is required, "that leads you to think Prince William would act as a counsellor of state."
"But who else?"
Prince Harry is a possibility, but "we wouldn't necessarily want it to be Prince Andrew," Prescott said, so it might be that Princess Beatrice, Prince Andrew's elder daughter, would act alongside Prince William.
"Of course the problem with that is perhaps that Princess Beatrice has her own career; she's been encouraged to do something outside the Royal Family."
Prescott said this issue may be considered by Parliament, because this is outlined in the Regency Act 1937 to 1953.
WATCH | How Charles could slim down the monarchy:
He suggested it could follow the model of what happened in 1953, the year after the last death of a monarch, George VI, when his widow, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was added as an extra counsellor of state for the rest of her life.
"Maybe we do something similar with Princess Anne and Prince Edward," Prescott said. "Then you just have a bit more flexibility, and that might tide us over until Prince George [is old enough] and he's able to act as a counsellor of state."
Prescott said all this could be a part of a package of reforms around issues such as who holds the status of His or Her Royal Highness or who does or doesn't become a prince or princess.
"If Charles wants to slim down the Royal Family, then you formulate a set of rules to work that out."]
Royally quotable
"I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother's life. It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting."
— Princess Anne, in an official statement five days after Queen Elizabeth's death.
Royal reads and watches
- The Queen made 22 official visits to Canada, the first coming in 1957 and the last in 2010. [CBC]
- Do Canadians get a holiday to mourn the Queen? It depends. [CBC]
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Canadians may see a new face on the money in their pockets, but it's not a rule that it has to be a monarch. [CBC]
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With the death of Queen Elizabeth, Indigenous people reflect on an often difficult relationship with the Crown. [CBC]
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For many women, Queen Elizabeth was a role model, and while the constraints of her position wouldn't allow her to call herself a feminist, some point to the subtle ways that she was able to push the bar forward for women. [CBC]
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The Queen loved Scotland. Some worry her death could help the independence movement. [CBC]
- Britain pauses to mourn the Queen, but at the same time, its cost of living crisis is hitting hard. [CBC]
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Keeping London safe for Queen Elizabeth's funeral is an 'enormous' challenge, says a U.K. counter-terrorism expert. [CBC]
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In Britain's Jamaican community, there is a mix of reverence for the Queen and disdain for a colonial legacy. [CBC]
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As the Queen's official pageant master, Bruno Peek was responsible for organizing events surrounding her Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees, including the beacon-lighting ceremonies at all three celebrations. [CBC]
- Amid all the protocol surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth — including how and when the public was informed — who knew there was also a protocol of sorts around informing her bees? [CBC]
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