British Royal Family Divided Over Palace Reforms
March 9, 1998 - 0:0
LONDON Queen Elizabeth II is caught in the middle of a profound disagreement between her husband and her three sons over the modernization of the British monarchy, a press report said on Sunday. The mid-market Mail on Sunday said that the queen was being advised by her conservatively-minded husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, that the royal family should hold onto its long-established traditions.
But the monarch faces strong pressure from her second son, Prince Andrew, and to a lesser extent, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and youngest son Prince Edward, to speed up the pace of reform to safeguard the monarchy by keeping it in step with public opinion, the weekly newspaper said. Pressure for reform has been spurred by the outpouring of grief and criticism of the royal family in the wake of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales last year in Paris. The split emerged at a recent meeting of the way ahead group of senior royals and their advisers, where a radical suggestion was made to restrict the title Royal Highness now held by 18 family members to the monarch and his (or her) immediate heir, the Mail on Sunday said.
It added that some factions in the royal family wanted that process of slimming down the monarchy to begin by stripping princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson, and others of their Royal Highness title. This chimes in with a report in the Sun mass-circulation daily on Saturday, which said the proposed reforms would include restricting the style His or Her Royal Highness to senior royals and making bowing and curtseying to royals voluntary.
Commenting on the Sun report, a palace spokeswoman said: There have been a number of issues under discussion, but nothing is confirmed. The Mail said that Andrew was the driving force behind the proposed changes, and he could well agree that his daughters should relinquish their HRH titles, making it difficult for other minor royals not to follow suit. The reported plans followed Friday's announcement that Queen Elizabeth II is to allow the British national flag, the Union Flag, to fly over Buckingham Palace at all times when she is not in residence.
When the queen is there, the royal standard will be flown as usual. Although ostensibly cosmetic, the move was seen as significant as the lack of a Union Flag at half mast became the focus of public criticism of a royal family seen as aloof and uncaring in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death. Eventually, at Diana's funeral, the Union Jack was flown at half mast over the palace for the first time in history.
In another more fundamental change, the queen in February agreed to drop the right of princes to take precedence over princesses in the line of succession to the throne, meaning succession would pass to the eldest child, whatever the sex. Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne only because George VI had no male heirs. Traditionally Andrew and Edward would have had precedence over their elder sister Anne. The way ahead group which has been meeting twice yearly since 1994, has stepped up its discussions of how to adapt the monarchy to the modern era in the wake of Diana's death and the results of confidential opinion polls which revealed public anger at the large numbers of royal hangers-on.
(AFP)
But the monarch faces strong pressure from her second son, Prince Andrew, and to a lesser extent, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and youngest son Prince Edward, to speed up the pace of reform to safeguard the monarchy by keeping it in step with public opinion, the weekly newspaper said. Pressure for reform has been spurred by the outpouring of grief and criticism of the royal family in the wake of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales last year in Paris. The split emerged at a recent meeting of the way ahead group of senior royals and their advisers, where a radical suggestion was made to restrict the title Royal Highness now held by 18 family members to the monarch and his (or her) immediate heir, the Mail on Sunday said.
It added that some factions in the royal family wanted that process of slimming down the monarchy to begin by stripping princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson, and others of their Royal Highness title. This chimes in with a report in the Sun mass-circulation daily on Saturday, which said the proposed reforms would include restricting the style His or Her Royal Highness to senior royals and making bowing and curtseying to royals voluntary.
Commenting on the Sun report, a palace spokeswoman said: There have been a number of issues under discussion, but nothing is confirmed. The Mail said that Andrew was the driving force behind the proposed changes, and he could well agree that his daughters should relinquish their HRH titles, making it difficult for other minor royals not to follow suit. The reported plans followed Friday's announcement that Queen Elizabeth II is to allow the British national flag, the Union Flag, to fly over Buckingham Palace at all times when she is not in residence.
When the queen is there, the royal standard will be flown as usual. Although ostensibly cosmetic, the move was seen as significant as the lack of a Union Flag at half mast became the focus of public criticism of a royal family seen as aloof and uncaring in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death. Eventually, at Diana's funeral, the Union Jack was flown at half mast over the palace for the first time in history.
In another more fundamental change, the queen in February agreed to drop the right of princes to take precedence over princesses in the line of succession to the throne, meaning succession would pass to the eldest child, whatever the sex. Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne only because George VI had no male heirs. Traditionally Andrew and Edward would have had precedence over their elder sister Anne. The way ahead group which has been meeting twice yearly since 1994, has stepped up its discussions of how to adapt the monarchy to the modern era in the wake of Diana's death and the results of confidential opinion polls which revealed public anger at the large numbers of royal hangers-on.
(AFP)