Prince Harry and Meghan Revolt as the Royal Family Faces a Crisis

The house of Windsor is the ruling dynasty in England. This is one of the oldest dynasties in the world. England is home to a monarchy. There are very few countries in the world that have a monarchy and only one other major power that has a monarchy is Japan. It will not be out of place to mention that monarchy is not the flavor of the 21st century, yet it thrives in England. The people are fairly enamored of it and the goings-on of the royal family hog a lot of limelight.

The latest developments where Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have decided to 'step back' from Royal activities and follow their own life is like a bombshell.

The English royal family which is now headed by Queen Elizabeth II is a respected institution in England but the latest decision by her younger grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan who have been given the title of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has vitiated the atmosphere in Buckingham Palace.

Prince Harry and Meghan are in the eye of the storm. The Prince is sixth in the line to become the King of England and the chance that he will ever become one is remote. Similarly, Prince Harry has married a woman who is not from royalty and to top it has black ancestry as her mother is black and her ancestors have had a very humble upbringing and position in life.

When all these things are added up the British gossip press published a lot of stories about this unique couple. The Prince and his wife were under tremendous tension to get out of this pressure. They decided to step back from the royal duties and strike out on the road. This has upset the Queen but there is no getting away from the fact that this incident is similar to the one that took place with King Edward VIII. He abdicated his throne in 1936 after he refused to stop his marriage to Mrs. Simpson.

The British tabloids and the gossip press follow the goings-on in the royal family with great interest. It is natural because the royal family is deeply entrenched in the British psyche. It is not like France or Germany where the royal families have gone into oblivion. In England, the royal family is part and parcel of the English psyche. There is a fringe who would like the royal family to step down but they are a microscopic minority.

Queen Elizabeth 2 who was crowned Queen of England and Wales in 1953 is still ruling. Her son, Prince of Wales Prince Charles is the waiting monarch for close to 50 years. He has two sons. The elder son is heir apparent and he has three children. The younger son, Prince Harry has married a model and actress Meghan Markle and has one son. the son was born in May 2019.

Prince Harry is thus sixth in the line of succession to the throne of England. His decision to step down from royal duties has come as a shock to the royal family and the Queen. Prince Philip is also upset. In this case, one is reminded of an incident way back in 1936 when Prince Albert VIII decided to abdicate the throne in favor of his younger brother. The reason was his decision to marry a divorcee. The British public could not countenance a queen who was divorced and had children from an earlier marriage.

This was a sort of brinkmanship but it did not work out the way the king thought. Unable to get out of the clutches of Mrs. Simpson, he decided to abdicate the throne and went into oblivion. There was a brief chance that in case, Adolf Hitler had defeated England he might have put King Albert back on the throne but again this did not happen and Hitler himself went into oblivion and death.

Prince Albert was appointed Governor of the Bahamas and passed the war years there. After the war, he has been an ignored man and has passed away into oblivion.

Prince Harry has taken a similar decision, though he is not the heir apparent. The prince has decided to step away from the royal family and also decided not to use the royal title HRH which stands for His Royal Highness. He has also said that he would like to strike out a life on his own with his wife Meghan Markle

The couple will no longer represent the Queen. The Duke and Duchess also intend to repay GBP 2 .4 million of taxpayer money for the refurbishment of their home Frogmore Cottage. They have said this cottage will remain their family home in England. The couple plan to spend a lot of time in Canada.

The new arrangement will come into effect in spring this year. This has been announced by Buckingham Palace and the Queen has said that she wishes all the best to her grandson. This was after a meeting held on Monday about the future of the prince

In all probability, the Prince and the Duchess felt constrained by two factors. Firstly, the prince had no chance of becoming the King of England and secondly, they were perturbed by what they thought was a hostile tabloid press which insisted on going into the past of Meghan. Her mother is black and her family came from very humble beginnings. In all probability, she felt out of place in the type of atmosphere prevalent in Buckingham Palace and the Royal Court

The prince has not helped matters by stating that he feared his wife would fall to the same forces of which his mother Princess Diana had fallen a victim that led to her death. Princess Diana had divorced Prince Charles and was reportedly dating a Muslim businessman. There is no point in going into the details now but definitely it did hurt the psyche of the British, that a royal princess should be dating a Muslim.

The Prince, however, does not become a commoner though he has said he will not use the title HRH. Yet he remains the Duke of Sussex and his wife the Duchess of Sussex and they will still continue to draw some money from palace funds though public funding of their activities will be stopped. Probably the prince had calculated all this and has decided to part company with a view that he could make some more money on his own but history records that people who break away from the royal family invariably going to oblivion. I have a gut feeling that Prince Harry may no longer be the subject of the tabloids.

Prince Harry's wedding looked like a fairytale but I have my doubts about it. Despite all the gloss of the pictures, trouble commenced in Camelot within a year of the wedding. Another point which the tabloids have brought out is that Meghan was already married to Trever Engelson for two years and divorced him in 2013. She was in a relationship with him since 2004. She was in a subsequent relationship with celebrity Hotelier Cory Vitiello for 3 years. She married Prince Harry in 2018. She is now 38 and I don't think the time is on her side. The Duke and the Duchess of Sussex have to replan their life and it will be a very different life from what they have been living. In the meantime, his brother will wait in line for the throne of England after Prince Charles becomes king.