Royal rift separates Charles, father

Associated Press

LONDON – Prince Philip believes his eldest son, Prince Charles, is neither dedicated nor disciplined enough to take the throne after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, steps down, a new biographical account claims.

News reports say the heir to the British crown is so upset by this that he has dropped plans to pay tribute to his father when he turns 80 next month.

Buckingham Palace has denied author Graham Turner’s account of the prince’s view of his son. But Richard Kay, royal reporter on the staunchly monarchist Daily Mail tabloid, said Turner’s revelations – based on interviews with Philip’s aides and friends – have exacerbated a difficult relationship between the blunt-spoken duke and his often diffident son.

“Can they EVER be reconciled?” Kay mourned in Thursday’s edition, alongside a photograph of Charles and Philip ripped down the middle.

“Philip’s decision to permit some of the closest figures of his inner circle to ventilate his firmly held views about his son and his weaknesses and inadequacies as a future king has reopened the family rift,” Kay wrote.

Turner said he spoke to a number of Philip’s friends, admirers and former aides, with the tacit approval of Buckingham Palace, for the largely favorable 10,000-word account, published this week in the strongly royalist Daily Telegraph.

It maintains that the brusque Philip, still a ruggedly handsome figure as he approaches his 80th birthday on June 10, is “a man of great depth and complexity, by far the most intelligent member of the royal family,” who is devoted to duty and has a wicked sense of humor.

Among other anecdotes, Turner recounts how the famously gaffe-prone Philip once greeted a Nigerian Commonwealth official who arrived at the palace in full traditional dress with the words, “You look as if you’re ready for bed.”

Turner’s account also portrays Philip as a devoted family man.

But he quotes royal confidantes as saying the duke has doubts about the 52-year-old Charles, and that he regards his eldest son as “precious, extravagant and lacking in the dedication and discipline he will need if he is to make a good king.”

The Daily Mail reported Wednesday that the heir to the throne is “upset that his father allowed his closest confidantes to speak about their difficult relationship” and had decided not to pen the birthday tribute he had planned.

In a statement, Buckingham Palace said Turner’s views “certainly do not reflect the duke’s own view of the Prince of Wales.”

It pointed to an unusually personal speech that Philip made on his 50th wedding anniversary in November 1997, in which he praised his offspring.

“I am naturally somewhat biased, but I think our children have done rather well under very difficult and demanding circumstances, and I hope we can be forgiven for feeling proud of them,” he said.

Significantly, the palace did not deny Turner’s claim that Philip had allowed friends and courtiers to talk to him.

The differences between the gung-ho Philip and his more introverted son have been aired before.

In an authorized biography by Jonathan Dimbleby published in 1994, Charles indicated that as a timid child, he sometimes felt cowed by the force of his father’s personality, his mocking banter and strict rules – all designed to shape his son for the task of being king.

“Determined to prepare his son for the rigors that lay ahead, the Duke of Edinburgh … put the relationship between father and son severely to the test,” wrote Dimbleby.

Both he and Kay maintain that Philip made no secret of his preference for his tough-minded daughter Anne over the sensitive Charles.

Kay added that the two men have recently clashed repeatedly over plans to modernize the monarchy and Charles, who now rarely contacts Philip, has given up attending meetings of the so-called Way Ahead Group, which his father chairs.