For most of the year, a car can be seen in the royal family every week, usually the Royal Bentley, carrying King Charles out of the gates of Clarence Palace. And he traveled to receive cancer treatment, and this was done with public knowledge, which has never been done in the history of the United Kingdom royal family.
Eight months have passed, and now news is coming out that Charles has decided to stop treatment for the time being.
Meanwhile, he and Queen Camilla will fly south this week for an 11-day trip. The fact that the king was able to make such a decision during the course of his treatment (and that his doctors agreed) reflects his efforts to keep the royal family stable and his difficult struggle to keep it.
The new situation shows that the fight has not been easy for him.
Last month, Kate, Princess of Wales, released a three-minute, soft-lit, idyllic video announcing that she had finished her chemotherapy. From this video, we may be able to see if the king's grip is waning. In this longest-ever video released by her and her husband, Prince William, not only are their three young children, but her parents, Mike and Carol · Middleton, also appear in it, which is very unusual.
The video presents a friendly picture - a bright smile, a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere, and a warm and close-knit family image.
In stark contrast to the appearance of the Middletons, William's father, the king, or the entire royal family, is not mentioned at all in the video. According to Tom · Sykes of The Daily Beast, the Welsh couple's video "was not approved by the King".
Over time, "executive power and influence are already tilting in William's favor". He wrote: "The fact that the Welsh couple were able to act so boldly shows that William and Kate instinctively understood that the power dynamics had changed since the King was diagnosed with cancer. ”
Meanwhile, while the Welsh couple is busy doing their own thing and preparing for their own image, King Charles is doing something different, and that is that he is conserving his energy. Normally, the 75-year-old king would increase his workload in October after a traditional Scottish holiday, but this year this was not the case.
A source told the Daily Mail: "Two weeks before the royal trip, the king's schedule was deliberately relaxed. He will still attend meetings, work on documents, and continue to receive treatment. The trip to Australia was a big one and he wanted to travel in the best possible condition. ”
Look again at the tour itself. Trips to New Zealand and Fiji have been cancelled and a full day off has been deliberately scheduled for the final trip.
Back in August, a source gave a fairly blunt assessment of King Charles to The Daily Beast: "I think there's been a lot of positive publicity about the king getting better, getting back to work, etc. But you have to know that he has cancer and is not in good health...... If you compare his photos now with those of a year ago, it will be clear that he has lost a lot of weight and has aged a lot. ”
However, the fact that the trip still has to be carried out shows that the trip carries too much meaning.
On the surface, the itinerary of the King and Queen's trip to Australia reads as tedious as Prince Edward's Tesco shopping receipt. Gone are the dashing Charles who surfed on Australia beaches in swim trunks and was photographed by the media, and his swim trunks will remain safely in a drawer at Clarence Palace.
Instead, what the king will do is be brave enough to maintain the status quo, as the late queen has done seemingly easily for the past 70 years. For decades, there has been a delicate balance between the United Kingdom royal family and dwindling Commonwealth kingdoms such as Australia.
The veneration of the late queen and the acquiescence to her distant but slightly maternal rule meant that a republic was never really on the agenda, except for the occasional resentment of Malcolm · Turnbull.
It has long been believed that the Queen's death could be the trigger for the division of the 14 Commonwealth kingdoms and United Kingdom, and could also lead to the collapse of the Commonwealth as an organization. Previously, a friend of the Queen's told The Daily Beast: "She wants Charles to slow down, she's worried he's working too hard." ”