Description
That Charles would want to attend the Easter service comes as no surprise — both because of the occasion and his apparent desire to be doing more than he has been able to for the past few weeks."It was clear that he very much wants to show himself being out and about, and the Easter Sunday service was an ideal moment to do that," said Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, in an interview.
"It reflects how Easter is an important moment for the Royal Family. The King is head of the Church of England and … it ticks many boxes."
There has been video released of Charles meeting the chancellor of the exchequer — the British equivalent of Canada's federal finance minister — something Prescott says isn't ordinarily the case.
"Similarly, we've had video of him with the prime minister."
That's not unheard of, and certainly something that would happen when the monarch meets a new prime minister officially for the first time.
"But just having those clips is new in a way and … shows that they've been taking that approach of showing the King doing what he can do very seriously," Prescott said.
Perhaps, in an unexpected way, the past few weeks have made elements of Charles's role more obvious to the public.
"It has … counterintuitively … made some of the constitutional functions which take place behind closed doors more visible," Prescott said.
Quotation: But the royal calendar is also moving toward a busier time of year.
"I suppose that the big question is Trooping the Colour in June," said Prescott.
That recognition of the monarch's official birthday — on June 15 this year — includes a procession, sometimes with the monarch on horseback, and there has been speculation around how Charles might attend.
Quotation: Queen Camilla stood in for King Charles at the Maundy Thursday church service just before Easter, becoming the first consort to lead the occasion, which is steeped in royal history and significance.
It was just the latest moment in a royal evolution that has few — if any — precedents.
"If you wind back … to the mid-1990s and the idea that it would be Camilla who would be the leading royal as Queen doing all of this … it's a remarkable transformation over that broad sweep, and it shows just how accepted she has been as Queen," said Prescott.
Observers have been noting for several years now that Camilla has gradually gained more acceptance from a public that at one time held little warmth for her. Some saw her as a pariah before her marriage to Charles on April 9, 2005, given their ongoing relationship during his ultimately doomed marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Key to the evolution for Camilla, Prescott suggests, is a broader lesson of the monarchy itself: being slow and steady over decades will have its own reward.
"If you're slow and steady, then you know you can really establish yourself as a member of the Royal Family, and people get used to that over time," said Prescott.
"It's interesting as well — the nature of her work has been, I think, more interesting than people might have expected."
| Period | 7 Apr 2024 |
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| Held at | CBC, Canada |