Right Royal Good Riddance

Convivium, 09 January 2020

Bombshell abdications in Britain’s Royal Family affirm its members are the primary problem within the family, Father Raymond de Souza contends.

The Royal Family got a rude – but welcome – surprise on Wednesday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex want out of royal life. They dropped this particular bombshell consulting neither the Queen nor the Prince of Wales, which seems rude. On the other hand, they weren’t able to discuss it over Christmas when the family gathers at Sandringham; Harry and Meghan and lil’ Archie skipped family Christmas for a trip to Canada instead.

Buckingham Palace, having read the news of the de facto ducal abdication along with everyone else, responded with a masterly English understatement: “It’s complicated.”

The Sussexes will withdraw from royal life and become celebrities doing good works. They will gallantly pay for this on their own dime. It will not be cheap, as they intend to live a climate-offending life on both sides of the Atlantic. Unlike Greta Thunberg, Grand Duchess of Clean Energy, they will not be bobbing across the Atlantic for weeks at a time in carbon-friendly, toilet-free watercraft. They will commute the old-fashioned way, showering carbon all over the Atlantic as the Queen goes to Balmoral where she takes long walks.

Money will not be a problem. Harry intends to keep the inheritance that his royal life delivered to him, and Meghan could presumably go back to acting. Both are sufficiently famous to make a living out of their fame. Instead of royal warrants – Weetabix, By Appointment to HM The Queen, Manufacturers of Breakfast Cereals – the Sussexes could do straight up endorsements, perhaps for Burger King or GoDaddy.

Since 1936, the dark memory of abdication has hung over the royal family; so much so that even the idea that Queen Elizabeth II would abdicate has been rejected as unthinkable. Who would have thought the de facto abdication would come neither from Elizabeth nor the heir, the Prince of Wales, but from her grandson?

The royal family can survive the checking-out of the sixth in line to the throne, the Duke of Sussex. Indeed, the eighth in line, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, checked out last month after keeping bad company – like Bill Clinton, he liked to gad about with the late Jeffrey Epstein and his coterie of allegedly sex-trafficked teenagers. Perhaps he got up to some very bad things himself. He categorically denies that.

Actually, the royal family will not simply survive the departure of Harry and Meghan; it will be better off without them. Harry conceived of his role not as a supporter of the good works of Her Majesty’s subjects, but as a creative source himself, something he picked up from his father. In choosing to marry Meghan, he opted to bring celebrity and novelty into the family, a dangerous combination for an institution that conveys tradition and stability.

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