The British royal family has ended
Update, March 22, 2024. In a video released today Kate Middleton said that following recent surgery her doctors found cancer, and she’s now undergoing chemotherapy. I think a lot of what I wrote below still stands. But I have so much admiration and respect for Kate and that extends beyond my need to be right. So I’m posting this news, and I’m going to give her space, because that’s what she wants.
William is done being heir to the throne. Not completely surprising since ruling the royal roost destroyed the lives of everyone before him.
Maybe the throne would have been manageable for William if women he dated wanted to be royal. But only Kate would put up with it. Maybe the throne would have been manageable if Harry had played along. But that’s over. Now Charles has pancreatic cancer which means he’ll be dying imminently. And this is ruining all of William’s plans.
William’s affair with Rose Hanbury was intricately planned 7 years ago: she married Lord Rocksavage who is gay but needed an heir because he has one of the largest estates in England. Without having dated Rose or any other woman, Rocksavage and Hanbury married, conveniently living next door to William.
Hanbury’s twin boys are an heir and a spare. Her third child is widely thought to be William’s. Not just because she looks like him but also because Rocksavage was not in the country when she was conceived (his boyfriend is in France) and William was openly spending his time with Hanbury during that period when Kate was pregnant. (If you click one link in this post, click that one.)
But this isn’t enough for William. It’s not enough that he can have affairs, and extra children, and still keep his own family for show. We know already that William has a temper. He’s taken it out on Harry (who wrote about it) and Kate (leaked by household staff for years). This is all to say that people with unrestrained tempers expect to get what they want.
The British Press is a lame-duck extension of the royal family and kills stories about the affair. But the world’s now one big newspaper on this topic. The French report on Rocksavage (proximity), the Scottish report on news of Hanbury (a Daily Mail reporter lives there) and the Spanish are covering Kate’s disappearance because the long-time royal nanny was just fired (quit?) and she is Spanish.
The Americans play the role of media circus. Places like TMZ and late-night TV can tread where no other outlets would go. The result is that the royal family has made so many absurd announcements, filled with the kind of lies that only come from someone who doesn’t care anymore.
So what is really happening? Kate is on strike and refusing to make appearances so she can negotiate from a stronger position. This tactic has precedent in modern times: you need more than good lawyers to stand up to a crown prince. And look, I’m not a fan of Meghan Markle’s antics, but I do think she’s shined a bright light on the vapidity of life as a royal: the royal engagements are boorish, and a life of service is not exactly exciting either.
So maybe William will dissolve the monarchy. Kate will have agreed to look like she got a good deal, whatever that (surely very good) deal will be. And William will go live with Rose Hanbury on the Rocksavage estate. In a way, it would kind of be a happy ending: William gets rid of Kate and the monarchy, Kate gets to raise her kids the way she wants, Rocksavage gets to feel like he’s taken care of his line, and Hanbury gets rewarded for her impeccable silence over nearly a decade.
The only problem? The same problem in every divorce. Children lose a father figure. Moreover, the children receive the message that parents put their own happiness ahead of the children’s happiness. And this, at its core, is what’s wrong with the Royal Family: No matter how rich or important the parents are, there’s no reason for any family to think there’s something more important than the children.
Dear Penelope! I’m glad you’re back in sparkling form!
I like science fiction as much as the next person, and this blog post is entertaining and fun. However, Nevil Shute covered this idea 70 years ago, and despite the assassination attempts, the entire royal family got away safely in that story. Yours is a more modern take, with the salacious tidbits I’d expect from twitter/X pundits and New York magazine.
I have followed this current iteration of the royal family for many years. Diana didn’t have to work hard at being interesting; the media supported her at every turn. However, no royal now has anything like her nous although Kate and Megan do try. The secret to Kate is she’s brainy; so’s her whole family. My science fiction story would have her be a spy, planted at William’s university to keep an eye on him, and then the romance happens by mistake.
There’s much fun to be had, mulling over the British royal family and their choices. But I see a nefarious aspect to this. They’re used as a smokescreen, to distract from the actual news. Things are in turmoil here, like they are in the States and lowering your head below the parapet makes a lot of sense.
Please flesh out your story and add some ghosts! That’s the mistake Hilary Mantel made in her story about Margaret Thatcher. The ghosts in The Crown were superb; Spencer not so much.
For instance, Rose Hanbury was at the last State Dinner, the one Megan refused to go to. How does that fit into your predicate? I look forward to you expanding on this idea. Please make Princess Anne the heroine of the whole shebang.
There has been no announcement of what type of cancer King Charles has.
Where are you getting the pancreatic diagnosis?
Exactly!! A reliable source for that statement is needed.
Yes. Good question. As you may know, I’ve been steeped in cancer research while I get tested for everything. So I noticed that the announcement of Charles’ problem is not “cancer” but “enlarged prostate”. There’s a reason that the Palace is not saying cancer, especially since early on Charles was making a point of saying he is going to be public about his sickness becuase public health is so important.
So Charles went into the hospital for an enlarged prostate and now Charles is being treated for some unknown cancer. Some unknown cancer that includes an enlarged prostate. And suddenly educating the public about prevention is not anywhere on his list. Also, when it was just enlarged prostate Camilla continued her duties. When it was something more serious, Camilla cut her daily schedule.
So, what could it be? Obviously the cancer is more serious than prostate cancer. Not as treatable. Very few cancers are seriously deadly any more – as in not really treatable. But probably, like his mother recently, Charles is thinking there’s no point in telling the public when it’s a death sentence.
Pancreatic cancer is my best guess, and when I googled, others were making the same guess. It could be a lot of different cancers, but it’s hard to find one where the prostate would be englarged before anyone caught it. Pancreatic cancer is almost always caught when looking for something else. This would have been the case when Charles went into the hospital.
Penelope
Talk about clickbait. After briefly seeing
article title I had to check BBC to see if there had been an update with the royal family. Turns out there hasn’t been, you’re just naming your articles as if they’re facts.
Secondly, I disagree about being in an unhappy relationship for the sake of children: My current partner (33 y/o) did this, and spent all of his 20s being very unhappy for the sake of his kid. At Christmas his mom thanked me for taking him to couples counselling as she and her husband (my partner’s dad) think “He’s still subconsciously traumatised” from his former 10 year relationship as it was very dysfunctional. His ex was 8 years senior and was/is extremely money driven. Not to mention she had 2x children closer in age to my partner than she was.
Secondly, my mom did the same thing -Endured a domestically and emotionally volatile relationship with my dad for the sake of me and my 2x sisters. Eventually they got divorced when I was 25, my middle sister was 18 and youngest sister 11. All three of us wished they had got divorced sooner. The household was much more calm and peaceful once their relationship came to an end. Most children would rather see their parents happy than in constant conflict and/or miserable.
Just . . . don’t write that someone has pancreatic cancer as if it’s a fact. That’s not asking too much.
What utter board teen girl nonsense…
Usually I’d delete a comment like this. But it seems so instructive. Not because the misspelling of bored itself, but in the context of using “teen girl” as a catch-all term for conveying misogyny.
Penelope
Good point.
Sad about Kate. Tonight on tv a cancer uk consultant said “I’ve never seen so many cancer diagnoses as I’m seeing these days. He’s baffled.
BTW: Rose and Harry, not William. That’s why she was invited to the state dinner. They didn’t trust Megan to be cool, so Rose was there as insurance.
So maybe check out the latest post by Kate herself? I’m thinking you may want to rethink your theory here.
I am very sure that video of Kate talking in the garden is fake, AI. So Penelope still has a horse in this race. Me…I think Kate has died by Williams hand. They concocted the cancer story to buy time and on a few months they will announce Kate has died. Cause =Cancer ND not domestic abuse, which is the actual reason.
Penelope I enjoyed this story so don’t even listen to these Debby downers. Some of us austicly brained people are SO literal that they don’t understand entertaining conjecture. Thank you!
Terry, you really think that Catherine’s parents and family would say nothing? And that the King would tolerate this? This is really BS and you should be a bit less paranoid about this.
I’ve just seen that Kate is supposed to have cancer.
I don’t understand why the personal lives of public figures are of interest. The diagnosis of cancer is devastating. The dissolution of a marriage is painful and complicated. Having these situations examined at length, diagnosed, and speculated upon by a public who will not be affected is intrusive and frankly, a waste of time. Will it change our lives in any measurable way? No. It is simple gossip that benefits no one. I thought you were better than this, Penelope.
I actually think it will change our lives in measurable ways. Kate and William live entirely off the British taxpayer, and their job is to be public and a positive influence on the British image. Part of their job is to not lie. They are employees of the people. It’s one thing to say they want privacy, it’s another thing to lie and mislead the people who financially support them.
Additionally, I think this whole debacle will have influence on how we use AI. It’s very easy for writers to tell when AI has written something. It’s easy for digital artists to tell when AI has made a picture. This places many more limits on AI than we had previously suspected.
Penelope
This is untrue. William is now Prince of Wales and has inherited the Duchy of Cornwall which has revenues of around 20 millions £ per year and is estimated to be worth 1 billion. So they don’t need any public money and are in no way the people’s employee. They even pay taxes now.
It’s not like the royal family *earned* the Duchy. It was ill-begotten just like the rest of royal spoils.
Penelope
You might want to dig deaper into UK and European history, because it is much more complicated and less binary than the US-liberal decolonialist analysis grid…
Excerp from wiki: “The duchy was established on 17 March 1337 by the Royal Great Charter out of the former Earldom of Cornwall by Edward III for his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, the “Black Prince”, who became the first Duke of Cornwall.[14]
The charter established that the Duke of Cornwall is to be the eldest surviving son of the monarch and the heir to the throne. Additional charters were issued later by Edward III. The duchy consisted of the title and honour, and the land holdings that supported it financially.[15] The charter afforded the duke certain rights and responsibilities in the county, including the right to appoint the county’s sheriff and to the profits from the county courts, the stannaries and the ports.[16] The duchy estate, which was based on the holdings of the previous earls, did not comprise the whole of the county, and much of it lay outside Cornwall. The extent of the estate has varied as various holdings have been sold and others acquired over the years, both within Cornwall and in other counties.[15]”
Princess video is probably AI.
Totally agree. It’s just absurd what the royal family thinks they can do with the public. If they are not going to have Kate talk to us then fine. But the fact that the stripes on her shirt are continued onto the bench she’s sitting on is just absurd.
Penelope
The bench is shiny and it’s reflecting the pattern on her sweater.
Seriously. Anyone can see that bit is a reflection in shiny paint on the bench.
Are you not ashamed of yourself for posting this after Kate’s announcement? People like you forced the poor girl to tell the world she has cancer before she was ready to divulge that. This post is truly sickening.
You know what’s really sickening? That the Royal family still exist. They are an outdated, irrelevant institution that only exists as a result of centuries of oppression, land and resource theft, colonisation and genocide. No ‘good’ that they do, or appear to do in this lifetime or the next will ever make up for the tyranny they’ve led for CENTURIES. They exert their privelidge in every possible way, even today as they try to mould themselves into a more palatable modern institution. What’s baffling is that even while the world around us burns and falls apart, the public still seems to feel loyalty.
I wouldn’t wish a cancer diagnosis on anyone – but if anyone is going to have the resources and support to deal with it, it’s a member of the royal family. She doesn’t have to worry about where her income will come from while she is sick and off work, or how much she’ll have to pay for treatment. She won’t have to worry about who looks after her children while she is incapacitated. She’s definitely not a ‘poor’ person at all. I’m sure Penelope’s speculation would have no impact on her whatsoever. Penelope’s blog is her space to say what she likes – I doubt that Kate is reading it or would even care.
T
Tyranny? England is one of the oldest democracies in the world and the Royal Family has no big role outside of being the Chief of State. This with far fewer power than the President of France or USA.
You shouldn’t be spreading rumours, speculation and gossip as if they were facts. There has been no announcement on this. I appreciate you said your guess diagnosis was a guess in the comments, but that’s all it is. You present it as a fact in the article.
She “shouldn’t?” Why ever not? This is her personal blog. She has all kinds of opinions and thinking people can take them or reject them.
I did only click the one link and it made me laugh and remember the heady days when I was calling him the Pegger King. Still made me laugh.