There are those who think that Prince Henry has little to do with the mythical Arthurian world and more to do with the satirical Monty Python and the unforgettable parody in search of the holy grail by Arthur and his knights of the square table.
This is what a good part of the British press seems to see, showing so little affection for the second son of King Charles III, the rebellious son, the exile in Montecito, that Californian corner exclusive to the mega-rich.
“Let them take away my bailao,” the Duke of Sussex must have thought, converted early Saturday morning in Beverly Hills (Los Angeles), into a “living legend of aviation” for his services during the decade in which he completed his military service. He was officially an Apache helicopter pilot, with two assignments on the Afghan front, in 2007 and 2012.
His contempt was partly fueled by confessing in his memoir In the Shadow that he killed a couple dozen jihadists and that Afghanistan was something like “God’s playground.” He later had to make amends in an interview with his neighborhood neighbor Oprah Winfrey.
Calling the recognition “bizarre” or “totally unjustified,” the slanderous tabloids claim that his grandfather Felipe is turning in his grave. The Duke of Edinburgh was in the Royal Air Force (RAF), in which he gained “his wings” in 1953, he piloted for 44 years, accumulating 6,000 flight hours in more than 60 types of aircraft. Instead, columnist Ephraim Hardcastle stated that “Enrique doesn’t know how to fly a helicopter, only sit there doing vroom, vroom.”
All the contempt that Enrique believes emanates from Buckingham Palace is transformed into congratulations at the Hollywood court. John Travolta, who proposed the name after him, played the role of a knight who, allegorically, put the sword on the duke’s shoulders and named him a member of that group of chosen ones, it is not clear if for glory.
This was Enrique’s first appearance in the dark week of the British crown, after his father was diagnosed with a prostate problem and his sister-in-law Catherine underwent surgery.
The protagonist of the evening, which he attended without his wife, Meghan of Sussex, paid honor to his supporter and recalled that the actor “took his mother”, Diana of Wales, to dance, and that quote gave rise to a scene that he evoked. “I was one year old when you danced with my mother. Now, we are not going to dance together, but to fly together,” he said. The dancer from Saturday Night Fever, Grease or Pulp Fiction asked him what he remembered about his first flight. “That’s classified material,” he joked.
To many it sounds exaggerated that he is a legend along with, for example, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, the first, lost his distinction when he died.
On the list of legends, which only lowers the distinction, are Travolta himself, billionaires Jezz Bezos and Elon Musk or actors such as Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer, maintained that the ceremony was just an act in which “speeders massage each other’s egos.”