The King welcomes the harder side of royal duty and will keep being sent into politically sensitive situations, a senior palace aide said at the close of his nine-day Caribbean tour, according to the BBC. The trip took in the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, and the aide described the monarch as "a great secret weapon" for the government. The BBC reports that the question of whether the UK should apologise and pay reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade ran through the visit.
Why it matters
The tour put a spotlight on the constitutional boundary between the elected government and the monarchy. The aide said the government has been asking the King to enter "quite politically charged situations" and that a pattern is now emerging. He added that the palace sometimes has to balance government policy against the King's own role. Because the King acts on the advice of ministers, calls for an apology for slavery land at the door of Downing Street as much as the palace.
A tour shaped by reparations
The leaders of all three countries the King visited support reparatory justice, according to the BBC. Midway through the trip, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was open to the UK apologising for its part in the slave trade, which sharpened the conversation. The aide rejected any suggestion that Buckingham Palace was caught off guard by the shift, saying the palace had been informed in good time.
Asked directly whether the King would apologise, the aide pointed to how a constitutional monarchy works: the King embodies the crown, the crown is the state, and the state is directed by an elected government. He said the situation still has to play out. English authorities and the monarchy were major participants in the slave trade over centuries, in which millions of Africans were enslaved and forced to labour, particularly on plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas.
In his main speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, the King described the slave trade as a shameful chapter that filled his heart with sorrow, the BBC reports. In the Bahamas he also joined dancers at a Junkanoo, the traditional carnival that traces its roots to the era of slavery.
Statecraft, stamina and a drenched king
The aide called the visit complex, demanding and tiring, but said the overall result was a success and that the King showed his statecraft in both words and actions. The tour involved about 40 engagements, many of them in temperatures near 35C with heavy humidity. The King, who is still receiving cancer treatment, turns 78 next week, and the Queen turns 80 next July.
The aide said the King was made for this work and enjoys the response he gets from people while doing it. He credited the couple's bond after 20 years of marriage with helping them through the awkward moments. One came in Antigua and Barbuda, where a sudden downpour at an Independence Day rally left the King soaked and without an umbrella, briefly looking displeased. The aide said the matter was sorted out quickly and the King found it genuinely funny.
The BBC notes that most of the King's trips abroad have called for careful diplomacy on behalf of his government. In the US, he used an address to Congress to remind President Donald Trump of the UK's value as an ally. A year earlier he made a short visit to Canada to welcome new Prime Minister Mark Carney as the latter faced threats and insults from Trump. Early in the reign, trips to Germany and France were meant to build new UK alliances after Brexit.
The aide said the King is not only monarch for the easy parts of the job but for the difficult ones too, and that this is probably what he values most, whether the subject is the environment or refreshing relationships with countries where politics has been complicated. He added, with dry humour, that the King can reach places politicians might not.
Since his reign began in 2022, the King has worked with four prime ministers, a fast turnover that has required a fresh relationship each time, helped by their weekly meetings. Those close to him see his early dealings with Burnham as a good start. The aide said the two get along well and that he sees them together every week, adding that the same is true of the King's relationships with all his current and former prime ministers.
What to watch next is whether the UK government moves from openness to a formal apology, and whether the King is asked to carry that message on a future visit.
