| Welcome to this week’s Royal Watch.
It’s been a turbulent time for the royals after last week’s race row. They are famously reticent to address controversies with public statements, but do they send their own coded messages, hiding in plain sight?
And in case you hadn’t noticed, Christmas is coming and the royal trees are getting decorated. If Fairytale of New York is a fixture in your own celebrations, you might be surprised by what the late, great Shane MacGowan liked to watch on television. |
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| | | Royal dress codes | How do you send a message if you can’t say anything? One of the contradictions about the Royal Family is that they are hugely visible, but despite that public presence they have to keep their views cryptically private.
While there was a media gale blowing about Omid Scobie’s book Endgameand the Dutch version’s allegations about a race row, the Royal Family at its epicentre said more or less nothing.
Instead the royals have become like figures in medieval court paintings, sending out their own coded visual messages.
So this week a photo was issued which seemed to deliberately show a display of royal unity, the King and Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales, shoulder to shoulder. |
|  | | Queen Camilla, King Charles III, Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, photographed on Tuesday. Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images |
| | The carefully crafted “white tie and tiaras” image from an annual reception for diplomats was all over the newspaper front pages. Even though not a word was said. |
| | Earlier in the day Prince William had appeared in an entirely different outfit, wearing the red tabard of a Big Issue seller at a Tesco in Hammersmith. Again sending a loud message without any words or straying into politics. |
| | But saying it with pictures can create its own guessing games. |
| | Last week the King was spotted wearing a tie with the unmistakable pattern of the Greek flag. |
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|  | | King Charles sported an eye-catching tie when speaking at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai. Credit: UN Press Office/ EPA- EFE/ REX/ Shutterstock |
|  | | The Greek national flag. Credit: BBC |
| | This was at a COP28 meeting with Rishi Sunak – who had recently cancelled a meeting with the Greek PM in an argument over the Elgin Marbles. Was this a cheeky Greek revenge drama? |
| There’s quite a history of these moments, where it’s never really clear what was intended.
In 2017, with arguments raging over Brexit, the late Queen Elizabeth opened Parliament wearing a hat that seemed to closely resemble the flag of the European Union. Was that deliberate? |
|  | | The late Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 during the State Opening of Parliament. Credit: AFP/Getty Images |
|  | | Queen Elizabeth very rarely shared any opinions in public, but occasionally dropped what were interpreted as hints. Credit: PA |
| And in 2022, soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the late Queen was seen in a photograph with an outsize flower arrangement in the blue and yellow national colours of Ukraine.
Is anything accidental in the royal world? |
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| | | | | Take a bough | This week Queen Camilla helped decorate the Christmas tree in Clarence House. It’s an annual seasonal tradition that children and their families help to give a bit more sparkle to the royal Christmas tree.
There were real-life reindeers there. And how do they get the baubles high up the tree? With a soldier using his sword, of course. Who doesn’t always keep one handy?
The royal cameraman, Duncan Stone, who gets to see behind the scenes at all these events, caught the atmosphere with these pictures. |  | | A soldier adds a bauble to the royal Christmas tree with his sword. Credit: Duncan Stone |
|  | | It wouldn't be Christmas without Santa on hand to give out some gifts. Credit: Duncan Stone |
| There are longstanding links between the royals and Christmas trees. Queen Victoria’s German-born husband Prince Albert has often been credited with popularising the seasonal decorations.
There are paintings of royal Christmas trees during Victoria’s reign decorated with artificial snow and candles.
|  | | Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, their children and Queen Victoria's mother appear in the London Illustrated News in 1848. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images |
| | Queen Charlotte, also from Germany and wife of George III, is claimed to have brought Britain’s first royal Christmas trees at the end of the 18th Century, although they were yews rather than pines. |
| | In the years since, the tree has been joined by more modern Christmas traditions. Like arguing over when is “too early” to put up the tree. Or even whether Prince Harry is going to come back to visit. |
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| | | | | | Unlikely royal fan | | | His widow Victoria Mary Clarke told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about his fascination for royalty, which she said was a “weird contradiction” considering his republican political views. |
| | “A lot of people wouldn’t expect this, but we both enjoyed watching programmes about royalty. |
| | “So we watched a lot of documentaries about the history of royalty and we watched the big funerals - he cried when Philip died, cried when the Queen died, cried when Diana died. |
| | “He thought a lot about the Royal Family, but he was an ardent republican,” she told the programme. |
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| | People can be full of contradictions. How many might be opposed to the monarchy in principle, but at the same time unable to resist reading stories about them? |
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