A rare royal double act from King Charles and Prince William as rift with Prince Harry drags on

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When King Charles handed over a senior military title to Prince William the other day, it was more than a symbolic passing on of a role.

As the Prince of Wales became colonel-in-chief of the Army Air Corps, it was also a personal moment rife with symbolism for the monarch and his heir, and hinted at the family dynamics at play right now in the House of Windsor.

Such transitions are routine from one generation to the next, although there is a sense that for Charles and William, they are unfolding at a faster pace. 

"We're seeing some of the kinds of transitional activities that we associate with the last decade of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II … happening quite quickly during the reign of Charles III," Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris said in an interview. 

For Charles, Harris suggested, there is a sense his reign is a period of transition between the long reign of his mother and the next one of his son.

"Especially with King Charles III's health, his cancer diagnosis, even though [he] has been determined to remain in the public eye as much as possible, there has been a lot of looking to the future," said Harris.

Seeing Charles and William together as they were at the Army Aviation Centre in Hampshire, southwest of London, was unusual.

"It's relatively rare to have joint engagements with members of the Royal Family," said Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, in an interview.

"It is even rarer to have the King and the Prince of Wales together, because normally they fan out and do their own engagements."

There is also a feeling that the engagement reflected a closeness between the two that perhaps has grown in recent years.

"It shows the strength of their relationship and that this was something they genuinely wanted to do together," said Prescott. "It also shows perhaps a bit of common interest between the two."

It's something of a change from headlines of a few years ago, when attention focused, among other things, on how much time William seemed to be spending with his in-laws, and that they saw more of their grandchildren than Charles did.

As much as Charles and William may have grown closer, there is no public sense the rift with Prince Harry has lessened in any way.