Neither King Charles III of Britain nor Queen Camilla would have expected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to publicly ask the King to return the Kohinoor to India, the country in which the priceless diamond correctly belongs. It is unlikely that Charles would oblige, even if he believed the NYC Mayor to be morally right. The System, Palace protocols and the officials ensuring them, would have vetoed it. Since becoming king, Charles has made his peace with the System, in the way his mother Queen Elizabeth had. Soon after coronation, Elizabeth wanted her favourite to be her personal secretary and not his senior. The decision was vetoed by seeming courtiers who in practice ran the life of the Queen. The senior of her personal choice became her personal secretary. The System has wreaked havoc in the lives of several British royals. The aunt of Charles, Princess Margaret, was in love with an ADC of the palace, a dashing military man. The queen vetoed that, and in the process, hurt her younger sister terribly. Princess Margaret subsequently did marry a commoner, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, a lowly photographer, but the spark of genuine love was absent in the marriage despite children being born of it, and the princess and the ennobled through marriage husband of hers separated and later divorced. Had Margaret married her choice, the man she loved, Group Captain Peter Townsend, both would have been happy. But that was not to be. Margaret was warned privately that she would meet the same fate as her uncle, who had to abdicate to marry the lady of his choice, and give up her royal title and privileges were she to wed the group captain. He was immediately posted far away from her and warned by his superiors not to contact Princess Margaret again. He obeyed, she obeyed, and two unhappy lives were the consequence. The king and queen are unlikely to be allowed by the System to return the Crown Jewels. It was not just for himself that Mamdani spoke, but for the billions of folks who believe that the proceeds of theft should be returned to their rightful owners.
There has been a lot of gushing commentary in the US media about the royal visit. President Trump, who daydreams of someday being the king of the United States, pulled out all the stops to make the visit a gala affair. Conspicuously missing was the youngest son of King Charles, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan. That so few noticed or publicly mentioned such an omission does not speak well of the US media. After all, 250 years ago the founders of the United States snapped ties with the very Crown now being celebrated. Absent from the guest list was also President Macron of France. It was France which assisted the founders of the US to overpower the British, so it would have been more logical in this anniversary to have Macron rather than Charles visit. But such details as the history of the US freedom struggle against Britain were forgotten, as ignored as Harry and Meghan were. It needs to be emphasised that the overwhelming majority of the population of the Commonwealth looks askance at Harry being shut out of the Palace the way his grand-uncle was after deciding to marry Wallis, just because he married a lady whom the faceless (in public) operators of the Monarchical System disliked her. As for the Kohinoor, no gesture would bring Britain and India closer were King Charles to listen to Mandani. After all, the jewels were in a sense stolen from India. However, the public in those parts of the Commonwealth that were dismayed by the ostracism of Harry and Meghan are unlikely to see any change in the present situation. The Kohinoor is going to remain as part of the crown jewels, no matter the manner in which they were procured. When younger, Charles mused about making the monarchy less an anachronism than a refurbished, modern construct. However, he seems to have overlooked the pain it caused him to marry Lady Diana Spencer rather than Camilla Parker-Bowles. Unfortunately for Diana, she fell in love with Charles, who was the first man in her life to whom she was physically close. The breakup destroyed something precious in her, and led her to the direction of Dodie Fayed. After his passing, King Charles is said to have said he wanted Harry and Meghan at his wake. Far better were he and Queen Camilla to have invited them to join in their US tour. Indeed Harry, who loved and therefore missed his mother Diana deeply, made several disparaging remarks about Queen Camilla, and blamed her for the hurt he saw his mother go through. However, “to forgive is divine”, and had Queen Camilla done so and embraced Meghan and Harry the way she does her own children, she would win the affection of much of the world. The fact that the king is not in the best of health is the right time for Queen Camilla to do so. She and her husband would have left behind in the US a feeling of admiration that none of the pomp in the royal visit to the US did.
