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United Kingdom

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steve2470

(37,468 posts)
Sat Sep 16, 2017, 09:54 AM Sep 2017

Prince Charles spoke to Queen and said your man must go [View all]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/royal-investigation-prince-charles-spoke-to-queen-and-said-your-man-must-go-c6wsbhl76

With its chandeliers, organ and matching thrones, the red and gold ballroom of Buckingham Palace — an exuberant Victorian expression of what a royal residence should be — has hosted its fair share of historic moments since 1854. It is here that the Queen entertains visiting princes and presidents at State Banquets and confers honours on the great and the good.

At 10am on May 4 there was history of a different kind. More than 500 staff of the royal household, not just from the London palaces but from Sandringham and even Balmoral, filed in to hear Sir Christopher Geidt, the Queen’s private secretary, say that the Duke of Edinburgh was to retire from public life. The longest-serving royal consort this country has ever seen was bowing out.

It was indeed historic stuff. But as Sir Christopher stood beneath the velvet canopy of the throne dias, what no one in that room knew was that history of a different sort was also being made. A chain of events was being put in place that would lead to the ousting of a highly regarded man who most Palace insiders thought would serve the Queen as private secretary for all her days.

His removal has been more than a watershed in Palace affairs. Given that Sir Christopher has devoted the past decade to preparing the monarchy for a change of reign, it raises questions over the balance of power between the Queen’s household and that of Prince Charles, and uncertainty over the pace of change in the remaining years of his mother’s reign. The man who delivered the coup de grâce was Earl Peel who, as lord chamberlain, is head of the Queen’s household. But it was not a decision of his making.

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