Chelsea Flower Show: Kate move shows King Charles has lost control

It’s hard to think of anything more quintessentially, entertainingly royal than a bit of biffo about a flower show.

This week the annual Chelsea Flower Show (CFS) kicked off with press day seeing the requisite number of society sorts done up in capital ‘F’ Frocks and more HRHs than you would usually ever see in one spot aside from a Kensington Palace fire drill.

So it’s press day. King Charles and Queen Camilla turn up to fulfil his God-given role as Defender of the Faith and Opener Of Gardening Events, taking over from Her late Majesty who pootled around last year’s outing in her custom high-end golf cart.

There was Charles, parading about the place with a twinkle in his eye like only new developments in composting technology can elicit, while Camilla looked like she was, for approximately the 76th time that week, rethinking the Queen gig.

It should have been a slam dunk bit of glowing PR for the King, except for one thing: his daughter-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales, unexpectedly and highly unusually turned up too.

The next day the newspapers were not extolling what a good job the 74-year-old rookie had done assuming Queen Elizabeth’s mantle, but instead breathlessly covered the appearance of Kate at the CFS.

This clash of schedules is a situation that has reportedly left courtiers “alarmed” (quick, someone fetch their tweed comfort blankets!)

But what this situation perfectly demonstrates is right now, it’s looking a lot like Charles has lost control of the unruly bunch of egos, titles, ambitions and rescue Jack Russells who make up the royal family.

So let’s start with Kate, a woman who for the first decade of her Palace tenure brought a certain depressing insipid pliancy to her role. (Betty Friedan who?)

However, according to the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden, Kate turning up to charm some schoolchildren on the same day as her father-in-law went down about as well as a microwaved, home brand sausage roll at a State dinner.

Eden writes that “some courtiers were alarmed” that the princess’ swanlike turn in a hot pink dress managed to gobble up all the media attention.

“With his love of horticulture, His Majesty’s appearance at Chelsea was an important engagement,” a royal source told Eden.

“It’s a shame that his visit with Her Majesty the Queen received less coverage than might have been expected. I hope they are not too disappointed.”

(I’m assuming Camilla could have cheered Charles up quick sticks with jugs of Harvey Wallbangers and her signature Borat impersonation).

Still, this snafu hardly bodes well for His Majesty at a time when his family is all haring off in different directions and causing no end of headaches.

Already Kate and other half Prince William have spent much of the month putting out slick videos on social media in a propaganda push only slightly less obvious than that of the North Korean regime.

Polished and professional, these clips are blatant Wales marketing, selling the prince and princess so forcefully to the Instagram and TikTok generations who have never touched one of those newspaper things

While it’s a smart play, taking their message and work directly to the yoof, William and Kate run the risk of putting some regal noses seriously out of joint.

The sovereign is meant to be the star of the show and everyone else supporting actors who orbit their majesty – not competing energetically for the limelight and winning every time.

As Prince Harry detailed in Spare, “Pa and Camilla didn’t like Willy and Kate drawing attention away from them or their causes. They’d openly scolded Willy about it many times.”

However, getting huffy about the hashtag-related manoeuvres coming out of Team Wales might be the lesser of the King’s worries.

In June, son Harry will be the first senior member of the royal family to take the stand in a court case since Queen Victoria ruled the roost, giving evidence in one of the three court cases he is currently pursuing against British publishers over their alleged past sins.

He is also, lest anyone is worried his legal bills aren’t significant enough, fighting another legal action against the Home Office over his security arrangements, having lost a second one this week.

Just what might pop out of Harry’s mouth when he is under oath and has a pulpit again?

The duke clearly has no compunction about dropping his family in it, embarrassing them or invading their own privacy as he engages in his ongoing offensive against the UK media.

The chance of Charles and Co emerging from these various cases unscathed, PR-wise, is about as likely as Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York joining a silent order of Trappist nuns.

But wait! There are even more family shenanigans which should have an increasingly frazzled His Majesty reaching for his lemon balm drops and favourite Enya tape. (I’m imagining him swaying in the Clarence House sitting room singing, “Sail away, sail away, sail away” with his eyes closed).

Like Prince Andrew who has been keeping busy making it clear that Queen Camilla will have to turn up in her gardening gloves to drag him out of his grace-and-favour 31-room home Royal Lodge.

Earlier this year, it was revealed His Majesty wants his brother out of his vast home and to move into the Sussexes’ now-empty place Frogmore Cottage, a downgrading that the disgraced Duke of York seems to be bluntly refusing.

“Prince Andrew has no intention of leaving his home at Royal Lodge, Windsor, and believes that the King has no power to turf him out,” the Times reported this week.

Andrew still has 55 years to go on his lease with the Crown Estate (which manages the majority of royal property) for Royal Lodge, with a source close to the duke having said: ​​“The lease is in the duke’s name so no one can take that away from him.” (Anyone else hear a ‘so there’ and a petulant foot stomp at the end of that quote?)

Charles is lucky here that Andrew is only slightly less liked by Brits than a new antibiotic-resistant strain of chlamydia, so the King can play as hardball as he might have to.

Even so, with the Duke of York digging his heels in and loudly, arm-wavingly signalling he has no plan to willingly pack up his dusty golf clubs and dented ego and move out, the King looks set to have another family fight on his hands.

The only people who would seem to be following the King’s directions right now are their rescue pups Beth and Bluebell, and even they are probably curling up on that one Colefax & Fowler lounge they are not allowed on when the King is not looking.

Charles is only nine months into his job as the head of both his family and The Firm and he, so far, has not shown a skerrick of any sort of iron fist or ability to corral and manage the competing personalities and agendas. (Idea: Get that golden rod from his coronation back out of the Crown Jewels to try and keep them all in line?)

While the late Queen engendered deep respect and fealty, her son’s accession does not seem to be producing such loyalty among the royal rank and file.

There’s only one solution as far as I’m concerned: Put Princess Anne in charge. There’s a woman who will get them all sorted, tout suite, and still have time left over to muck out the stables.

Andrew cowering as Anne gesticulates forcefully at moving boxes? Now that’s an image sure to improve anyone’s weekend.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience

working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.