King Charles begins a nine-day tour of the Caribbean on Tuesday that the historian Sir Anthony Seldon has called “the biggest risk of his reign so far,” the BBC reported. The tour, planned for October 27 to November 4, takes the King to three countries: the Bahamas from October 27 to 29, a state visit to Guyana on October 29 and 30, and Antigua and Barbuda from November 1 to 4 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, according to the Buckingham Palace programme reported by Reuters and the BBC. Buckingham Palace said the tour will “celebrate the communities, cultures and nature within the Commonwealth family,” Hello Magazine reported.
Seldon, a historian of the modern monarchy, set out the stakes in his remarks to the BBC. “This is the biggest risk of his reign so far with so much just outside of his control,” he said. “Questions about slavery, reparations and apologies mean the moral integrity of the monarchy is being questioned.” The visit places the King at the centre of the continuing debate over reparations — compensation from countries that took part in the slave trade — and over whether he should apologise for Britain’s role in what he has previously called an “appalling atrocity” that left an “indelible stain” on history, the BBC reported.
The King will make three major speeches during the tour. In line with government advice, he is not expected to issue an official apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, the BBC reported. A senior royal aide told the BBC the King “will not shy away from the darkest days of our past,” but stressed that decisions on apologies and reparations are matters for government. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s administration, like those before it, will not pay reparations, the BBC reported. Buckingham Palace says acknowledging the wrongs of the past is built into the King’s programme in all three countries, and planners accept that protests are likely, treating them as part of open debate in the region.
Officials are mindful of the precedent set by the last senior royal tour of the Caribbean, in early 2022, when the Prince and Princess of Wales faced criticism over imagery that included shaking hands with Jamaican children through a wire fence, and protests forced the cancellation of part of their schedule, the BBC reported. Former foreign secretary David Lammy, whose father came from what was then British Guiana, said the validation of a state visit was “huge” for a small country like Guyana, but added: “These are lively democracies in which of course there will be some dissent.”
The Facts
- The tour runs October 27 to November 4: the Bahamas (October 27–29), a state visit to Guyana (October 29–30), and Antigua and Barbuda (November 1–4) for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Buckingham Palace programme, via Reuters and the BBC).
- Sir Anthony Seldon told the BBC: “This is the biggest risk of his reign so far” (BBC).
- The King will make three major speeches and is not expected, on government advice, to issue an official apology for the slave trade (BBC).
- The schedule holds about 36 engagements over nine days, and the King, closing in on 78 and still receiving cancer treatment, travels without Queen Camilla for the first two legs (BBC).
The schedule is a demanding one: three countries and about 36 engagements in nine days, undertaken as the King approaches his 78th birthday and continues regular cancer treatment, which Buckingham Palace has said is on a “positive trajectory,” the BBC reported. The King will carry out the Bahamas and Guyana legs on his own. Queen Camilla will join only for the final leg, in Antigua and Barbuda, where her engagements will include her own areas of interest — literacy and supporting efforts to end violence against women and girls, the BBC reported.
Reports differ on one point of the itinerary. Hello Magazine’s summary of the tour says that “on Tuesday, Charles and Queen Camilla will begin their tour,” language that places the Queen beside the King from the first day. The detailed itinerary reported by the BBC from the Palace programme has Camilla joining only in Antigua and Barbuda, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and a number of other engagements, and not travelling for the Bahamas and Guyana legs.
Seldon, for his part, told the BBC that the King “pulled off an extraordinary triumph” during President Trump’s state visit to Britain earlier this year, and that success in the Caribbean could be “an enormous success” for the monarchy and for the future of the Commonwealth. “The King can be an extraordinarily empathetic and in tune figure,” Seldon said. “He could play a blinder here.”
Sources: BBC; Hello Magazine; Reuters, reporting the Buckingham Palace programme.
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