He has not been beheaded like Charles I, nor abdicated like Edward VIII, but he has been defenestrated. It’s not that he was thrown from the balcony in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace, it’s that he wasn’t even invited to go up, say hello and take a Polaroid for the story where Carles and Camila, Guillem and Catalina go out with their three children, Princess Anne with her husband Prince Edward and his wife Sophie. At that time Enric was already at Heathrow airport, had checked in and was waiting at the boarding gate.
Any theory that said the coronation would serve to lay the foundations for a reconciliation of the Windsors has been unfounded. In all, the schism is deeper than ever, to the point that The Daily Telegraph speculates, drawing blood, that Henry might not return on an official trip to the country, and not see his family again until his father’s funeral. It was a back and forth. He was only 28 hours in London, during which he did not exchange a word with either his parent or his brother.
Defenested symbolically, and also humiliated. Apart from not being invited out to wave from the balcony, he was relegated to the third row in the abbey, the same one where sat (at the opposite end) the other black sheep of the family, his Uncle Andreu, disgraced by accusations of sexual abuse of a minor, which he settled out of court and paid fifteen million euros to the alleged victim, and for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, convicted of prostitution.
While Guillem took part in the ceremony as heir and kissed his crowned father on the cheek, beneath the two and a half kilos of solid gold he wore on his head, the feathers of his aunt Anna’s hat obstructed the view of ‘ Henry, sitting between Jack Brooksbank, husband of his cousin Eugenia, and Princess Alexandra, 86, niece of Elizabeth II (if it had been a football field, the entrance would have cost half as much, with the warning that a column was blocking the goal). He arrived at the abbey in an escorted BMW twenty-two minutes before the start of the ceremony, without having seen anyone from the family, and entered with Beatriu (Andreu’s daughter) and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi , with whom he has always had a good friendship, to the point that they have visited him in his exile in Montecito, a luxury development in Santa Barbara (California). During the parade, he wished good luck to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the officiant, who married him and Meghan five years ago, and who persuaded him to park his pride and come to the coronation, however to be relegated.
Enric took the American plane on Thursday night at Los Angeles airport, and landed at Heathrow on Friday morning, the eve of the coronation, at eleven o’clock. The deal with his father is that he enjoys official protection during his visits to the country, so he was picked up by a vehicle that took him to Frogmore Cottage, the country house in Windsor that he and Meghan renovated with a millionaire cost with the intention of living there, before the abdication, the escape to California, the interview with Oprah Winfrey, the autobiography, the accusations of racism in the royal house, the criticism of Camilà for having – “sacrificed” them to improve their image, etc. All the things that neither their father, nor their brother, nor the conservative press nor most English monarchists forgive them. Nor will they forgive them.
Now, yet another humiliation, Enric has been subject to eviction and, since he has settled in California, his father has demanded that he return the keys to Frogmore, which will be left with Andreu, his partner alas, because he cannot pay the maintenance costs of his current residence (no one has said whether he will be reimbursed for the works or what financial arrangement he has reached). The Duke of Sussex was also unable to wear his military uniform at the ceremony (he wore a suit and lapel medals), as punishment for having renounced all official duties on behalf of the family.
Enric was not very eager to come, and it is understood that he ran to the airport after the coronation, without changing and with the medals still on his chest. She didn’t want to miss the 3.45pm British Airways flight to Los Angeles under any circumstances and hopefully make it in time to kiss her four-year-old son Archie. Meghan would be much more welcome there.
Henry became third in the line of succession to the throne. Now neither the king, nor the heir, nor his father nor his brother want to know anything about it. They threw him over the balcony.
