Royal diplomacy hits the world stage on 2 fronts — Charles in France and William in New York
CBC
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On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean this past week, senior members of the Royal Family stepped onto the world stage — and put a prime concern they share front and centre.
In what appeared to be carefully co-ordinated timing, King Charles made his first state visit to France as monarch, landing in Paris the day after his eldest son and heir, Prince William, wrapped up a two-day trip to New York City.
"There has been speculation that King Charles III's reign was going to be more focused on the United Kingdom than on the world stage, because some of these longer tours weren't taking place," Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris said in an interview.
"But now we are seeing King Charles III and the Prince of Wales stepping onto the world stage and that is likely to continue in the months to come."
Charles's three-day visit, which wrapped up on Friday, was postponed from March, when there were mass protests over pension reform in France.
This week's trip is only the latest in a long line of royal visits to the country across the English Channel. Charles made 34 visits there as Prince of Wales.
This time, as monarch, there was also some high-level diplomacy at play.
"There's an important diplomatic element to this visit, as the United Kingdom is renegotiating its relationship with the rest of Europe in the aftermath of Brexit," said Harris.
As much as the trip could be looking to the future, there were also parallels to the past, and a new monarch setting out on the world stage after the death of his long-reigning mother.
"There's an interesting echo with the situation at the end of Victoria's reign," Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and visiting research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, said via email.
Victoria's successor, King Edward VII, made a visit to France early in his reign that was "a diplomatic triumph," Rowbotham said, and, among other things, saw Edward speaking in fluent French and "coming up with the soft diplomacy that enabled the Entente Cordiale."
That agreement in 1904 was a friendly understanding between Britain and France that aimed to settle territorial disputes, and it was on Charles's mind as he delivered the first speech by a British monarch to representatives of both houses of the French parliament.
"Together, our potential is limitless," Charles said in French.
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