William and Harry (33 page)

It had already been agreed that Charles and Camilla would represent the Queen on the visit to Canada in November 2009, and because the Prince of Wales would be away for Remembrance Sunday it was decided there and then that Harry would lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in his father’s place. This was entirely appropriate – it was after all nearly a year since Harry had served on the front line. The Queen and Philip were determined to go to Bermuda to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the island’s settlement by the British at the end of November, but the New Year trip to New Zealand and Australia was still undecided and now was an opportune moment to propose that William should go. The Foreign Office was in full agreement; now it was down to William. He had last been Down Under in 2005 after he graduated from St Andrews, and to his grandmother’s delight was enthusiastic about the idea of returning. There were some logistics to sort out because of his commitments with the RAF, but there was a break between him graduating from RAF Shawbury and going to RAF Anglesey in Wales after Christmas.

By October all the plans were in place. Clarence House was keen to keep the trip a secret as sending Prince William in place of the Queen was a momentous decision that needed to be carefully presented. The story had all sorts of implications. Prince Philip had started to cut down on his public engagements after his eightieth birthday; was the Queen now finally starting her retreat from public life? It was highly significant that she had asked William rather than one of her children to represent her. So was this the start of William’s career as a fully paid-up member of the firm? When the
Mail on Sunday
revealed the plans for
William to travel to New Zealand in the Queen’s place in October, Clarence House declined to comment such was the sensitivity of the scoop. William had already let it slip to an Australian tourist in July that he was heading to the southern hemisphere during an engagement at the Tower of London. ‘I’m visiting there soon,’ he told Camilla Doyle a fifteen-year-old from Melbourne.

When the Palace eventually confirmed the state visit there was much speculation on both sides of the globe about how William would be received. Opinion polls showed that 40 per cent of New Zealanders and 60 per cent of Australians were in favour of republics, and there were already stories in the local press about the £88,000 bill to taxpayers for William’s security. Sending William was a way of testing the water. Charles and Camilla’s reception in Canada had been lukewarm. Camilla had caused controversy by wearing a real rabbit fur stole, and when the prince and duchess toured the country’s oldest permanent English settlement they were greeted by a crowd of just fifty people. Although swine flu was blamed for the poor turnout, the suggestion seemed to be that the Canadian public had yet to embrace Camilla as their future queen.

Such a reception in New Zealand and Australia was potentially disastrous for the monarchy and it was forward thinking on the Queen’s part to send William. It was also a key step in a behind-the-scenes plan to move William to the centre of the public stage alongside his father. Although the Palace strenuously denied that the Queen was planning to cut back her public engagements, she had issued instructions to private secretary Christopher Geidt and trusted aide Robin Janvrin. According to
one of her key advisers, ‘She has two substitutes on the bench, Charles and William, and she wants to use both of them.’ It was not an unreasonable strategy, and plans were already being drawn up for William as well as Harry and other members of the family to be involved in the diamond jubilee celebrations of 2012, thus easing the pressure on the ageing royal couple. According to Her Majesty’s dedicated team of staff, the Queen’s brief in the run-up to her diamond jubilee is clear: ‘Do not overburden me.’

Then in December, just weeks ahead of William’s state visit, the
Mail on Sunday
obtained a confidential Treasury document which for the first time revealed plans for William and Harry to undertake engagements on behalf of the Queen. The papers referred to spring 2009 and had been submitted ahead of the April Budget, but the message was simple and clear: ‘from next year, it is expected that HRH Prince William will spend a significant part of his time on official engagements’. In another uncensored paragraph the document stated, ‘The Princes (William and Harry) will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen.’ The document had been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and essentially concerned tax arrangements in relation to Prince Charles and the new office that he had set up for William and Harry that year. The idea had been that Charles would receive tax relief worth hundreds of thousands of pounds by allowing him to deduct his sons’ official expenses from his tax return. The document, written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials, had been blacked out in certain sensitive parts, but the
Mail on Sunday
had been given an uncensored version.

For the first time here was tangible proof that within the
corridors of Buckingham Palace a handover of power was beginning. The revelations suggested that William was being lined up as a ‘shadow king’, and fuelled speculation that the crown could skip a generation when the Queen dies, passing directly to William. It was certainly not the first time this theory had been aired, but the Palace seemed horrified and rebutted any such suggestion: ‘There are no plans for the Queen to carry out fewer engagements and there are no plans for the prince to take her place.’ Prince William’s press officer also waded into the row: ‘Prince William will not be “shadow king”. Over the next few years Prince William will be concentrating primarily on a military career while also slightly increasing his charity patronages and the other interests he pursues.’ The article had clearly rattled both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, and as is always the case with such stories, there was no smoke without fire. The document may have been a few months old, but the fact that William and Harry would be undertaking engagements on behalf of the Queen was there in black and white.

Privately William was worried. In the past he had made it clear that he did not want to be hurried into a life of royal duty. ‘There are obviously areas that I am being pushed in to do but I can be quite stubborn if I want to,’ he had said in his final year at St Andrews. ‘I’m very much the person who doesn’t want to rush into anything without really thinking it through. It’s not that I never want to do it, it’s just that I am reluctant at such a young age, I think anyway, to throw myself into the deep end.’ He may have made the comments six years before, but he felt the same way now. According to his aides he was also upset by the suggestion that he might in some way be trying to leapfrog
his father. William could not think of anything worse. While he was destined to be king, it was his father’s turn first, and William had more immediate concerns. He had set his heart on becoming a search and rescue pilot – it was his dream, and he was not prepared to give it up. He also had his charitable commitments to factor into his already packed timetable. He was happy to represent his grandmother and in no position to question her requests, but he was still not ready to become a fully fledged ribbon-cutting royal.

As the scheduled Air New Zealand flight taxied on the runway in Auckland, Prince William folded away his newspaper and took a deep breath. The coverage ahead of his arrival had divided editorial commentators, who were expectant, curious and pessimistic in equal measure. The
Sunday Star Times
had described the monarchy as rotten, with Charles labelled a ‘prat who cheated on his glamorous young wife from the start of his marriage’. William was not discouraged, but he was tired. It had been just forty-eight hours since he had graduated from RAF Shawbury, where once again Kate had been there to support him as he received his helicopter wings. Now he was on the other side of the world and had an intensive five-day tour ahead of him, which Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton had described as a chance for him to ‘learn the ropes’.

The prince had wanted the trip to be as informal as possible, and when he wasn’t required to be in a suit wore his favourite brown cords and an open-necked shirt. He didn’t want to be entertained at fussy state dinners; instead the emphasis was on barbecues washed down with bottles of beer. The state visit got
off to an auspicious start in Auckland, when William met the All Blacks at the Eden Park Stadium. After that he enjoyed beer and sausages with Prime Minister John Key. The next day he was in Wellington to carry out his first walkabout – at the new NZ$80.2 million (£36 million) Supreme Court building in Wellington. The excitable crowd of 2,000 that turned up to meet him was far bigger than William had expected, and as he shook hands and chatted happily to well-wishers it was hard not to think of Diana. The Prince of Wales’s fresh-faced bride had won over the New Zealanders the same way when she visited in 1983 with the baby William. As a grown man it was evident that William had inherited his mother’s empathy although he was loath to admit it. ‘I would not say I was anywhere near her level,’ he told locals at a children’s hospital in Wellington. With his thinning hair he was beginning to resemble his father more than his late mother, but his personality and warmth were winning assets, and his team of advisers knew it. He had all the humility of his father when he greeted Maoris with the hongi, the traditional pressing of noses, and he knew how to deal with awkward moments. When he landed in Sydney and visited a community centre, William handled with aplomb a six-year-old girl who asked if his mummy had died. ‘Yes, she did,’ he said bending down to her height. ‘It was pretty sad.’

The Australian press concluded that William had the common touch even though it occasionally meant he came in for criticism. When he chatted to four rappers in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, William said that he had ‘the piss taken out of me for my taste in music’. This colloquialism was viewed as a step too far by some, but despite the faux pas, William had more
admirers than detractors. Even the secretary of the Republican Movement Mike Smith declared, ‘He’s a nice chap.’ When he arrived at Government House in Melbourne at the end of his tour he was again swamped by female fans, one of who fainted when he arrived. Like his father, William has been kissed count-less times by female admirers. These ones waved ‘We Love Wills’ banners and cried out for the prince’s autograph. When one elderly woman asked when he planned to marry Kate, William coyly replied ‘As I keep saying, just wait and see.’ It was a surprisingly playful response – a tease from a young man who loves to keep the papers and his public waiting – but there would be little need to wait and see when it came to the verdict on his tour.

The tabloid
Herald Sun
printed a collector’s souvenir edition and a front page that said it all: M
UM
W
OULD
B
E
P
ROUD
. Back at St James’s Palace, the debrief could not have been better, according to one senior aide. ‘We were absolutely delighted with the tour: all the feedback we had was so positive. William did what he set out to do, which was to meet as many people as possible and, yes, they warmed to him more than we could have hoped.’ At Buckingham Palace the mood was one of delight, but the very fact that the trip had been such a success posed a problem. Might William’s charisma eclipse his father’s too soon? And with Kate by his side, might this royal couple overshadow one that has always been controversial but which remains next in line for the throne – or thrones? Male primogeniture dictates that Charles will be the next king, but while the public have warmed to Camilla over the years they have yet to accept her as their queen. Charles has still not been fully forgiven for his past mistakes,
and at sixty-one one wonders how much he can change. It is thirteen years since Diana’s death but the memory of the late Princess of Wales lives on, not least in her sons.

And as they move into adulthood those sons are forging their own lives and pushing at the boundaries of their royal birth. In New Zealand and Australia William was a breath of fresh air, just as the Queen expected. He was youthful and charming and, many argued, more appealing than his father. His presence and his words evoked thoughts of a future in which Charles already seems too old. William is a young man thinking of his future, thinking of his career, thinking of his responsiblities, thinking of holding on to what freedoms he can. Thinking, his comments suggested, of marriage. He had never publicly acknowledged his long-term girlfriend as openly as he did to that elderly fan in Australia. But the truth of the matter is that William wasn’t only being coy when pressed over his intentions. He just wasn’t sure.

When he returned from Australia in late January, William began an eight-month long Sea King Operational Conversion Unit course at RAF Anglesey in Wales. He spent several weeks completing the Sea King ground-school course at the Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose in Devon in March, which he passed, and in April Clarence House confirmed the prince would be posted to RAF Valley if he successfully completes his training in September. RAF Valley had been William’s first choice out of all six of the Search and Rescue units in the UK. It is his hope that he will pass the course in September and join Number 22 Squadron as a fully-qualified pilot flying the Sea King 3A helicopter. In June he will represent England at the World Cup in South Africa in his official capacity as president of the FA and
plans are currently being drawn up for him to visit Botswana to promote the work of the Tusk Trust and travel to the kingdom of Lesotho with Harry. For now Kate has little choice but to wait. Shortly before Christmas Kate’s mother, who is said to keep a picture of William on her mobile phone voiced concerns about William’s reluctance to propose. According to one source: ‘Carole felt like she was treading water as far as her daughter’s relationship was concerned. She put some pressure on William to let the family know where it was all leading. William spoke with her and assured her that the relationship was very much on track and that there will be an engagement soon. Carole has backed off for the time being.’ As far as Kate is concerned, William has assured her she is the one, but the headstrong prince has made it clear that he will not be hurried to the altar. ‘I really want to be in control of my own life,’ he once said. ‘If I don’t agree with what someone’s saying or someone’s pushing on me, then I won’t do it.’