Supporters of Charles III received welcome news this afternoon with Buckingham Palace’s announcement that “His Majesty The King will shortly return to public-facing duties after a period of treatment and recuperation following his recent cancer diagnosis.”
The BBC reports encouraging news on the status of Charles’s health. While it is too soon to say how long the cancer treatment will continue, his medical team is “encouraged by the progress made so far and remain positive about the King’s continued recovery.”
In the medium term, it remains unclear whether the King “will be attending some of the big events coming up in the calendar, such as Trooping the Color, the D-Day commemorations, summer garden parties, Royal Ascot, and overseas trips in the autumn,” the state broadcaster reports. “Decisions will be made according to medical advice nearer the time.”
However, in the short term, the royal couple are evidently going to make the most of the promising prognosis. “To help mark this milestone,” the Palace statement continues, “The King and Queen will make a joint visit to a cancer treatment center next Tuesday, where they will meet medical specialists and patients.
“This visit will be the first in a number of external engagements His Majesty will undertake in the weeks ahead.” And casting an eye to the summer, “The King and Queen will host Their Majesties The Emperor and Empress of Japan for a State Visit in June, at the request of HM Government.”
The news confirms what the “London Sun” reported three weeks ago, that “the King had told aides he was ‘raring to go’ and ordered staff to ‘supercharge’ his diary for the summer.”
Prime Minister Sunak summed up the general mood in the United Kingdom, exclaiming “Brilliant news to end the week.”
As the world witnessed in the demonstrations of public grief at news of Elizabeth II’s death two years ago, Charles’s public illness reminds us that, in Benjamin Disraeli’s words, the United Kingdom is “represented by a family — the Royal Family.”
Disraeli added that “if that family is educated with a sense of responsibility and a sentiment of public duty, it is difficult to exaggerate the salutary influence they may exercise over a nation.”
Too often politics is absorbed on rarified issues like obtuse economics or the intricacies of foreign conflicts. To many, politics is abstract and depersonalized. One of the benefits of constitutional monarchy is the “personal touch.”
The Royal Family affects “the heart as well as the intelligence of the people,” Disraeli believed. “In the hour of public adversity, or in the anxious conjuncture of public affairs, the nation rallies round the Family and the Throne, and its spirit is animated and sustained by the expression of public affection.”
None seem more aware — and appreciative — of this public affection than Charles and Camilla themselves. “As the first anniversary of The Coronation approaches,” the Buckingham Palace statement concludes, “Their Majesties remain deeply grateful for the many kindnesses and good wishes they have received from around the world throughout the joys and challenges of the past year.”
