Prince Charles will now become ‘quasi-king’ as it falls to him to ‘hold family together’, claim royal experts
‘Now he truly is the patriarch of the family because the Duke of Edinburgh is dead,’ says Robert Jobson
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Your support makes all the difference.Prince Charles will see his royal role develop over the coming weeks and months as he becomes a “quasi-King” alongside his mother, according to royal experts.
The Queen turns 95 on 21 April, and although there is no suggestion she will step down from her role, numerous royal experts have suggested that responsibilities in the family may shift.
On the ABC royal HeirPod podcast, biographer Robert Jobson said that there is “scope for change” for the 72-year-old Prince of Wales to take a step closer towards the role of the sovereign.
“The Prince of Wales will step up, in a way he’s already been doing that for the past five years, but now he truly is the patriarch of the family because the Duke of Edinburgh is dead,” Mr Jobson told host Omid Scobie.
He continued: “There’s no doubt the Queen will carry on…she’ll never ever abdicate the throne so there’s scope in there for the change because of course no one knows if she’s going to be mentally or physically ill or not.”
Scobie then described Charles as sitting “in an almost in between role now” following the death of his father.
Jobson responded: “I mean I say quasi-king, but they’d hate that of course, but you’ve got to try and spell it out to a wider audience.”
“The fact is the Queen doesn’t do state visits anymore, so when Prince Charles goes to America say, he’ll be representing the Queen – that’s pretty much a state visit even though it’s technically not.”
Elsewhere, royal commentator Penny Junor wrote in The Times that she thinks the Queen will “bounce back” and “put her grief to one side” and continue with her leadership.
Despite this, Ms Junor said: “It may well be that we see a slight shifting of the tectonic plates in the wake of the duke’s death.
“That role now officially falls to the Prince of Wales. As the new paterfamilias, it also falls to him to hold the family together, to make the tough decisions, to discipline where necessary and to steer The Firm in the right direction, as his father did so adeptly.”
Prince Charles led the procession behind his father’s coffin at the funeral on Saturday, alongside his sister, the Princess Royal.
The funeral was only permitted to have 30 guests inside St George’s Chapel at Windsor due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
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