The Secret of the Crown by John Fraser

Author:John Fraser
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc.
Published: 2012-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

ON JANUARY 21, 1993, Prince Charles wrote to Tom Shebbeare, then the director of the Prince’s Trust, which oversees so many of the extraordinary institutions Prince Charles has founded, guided, and financed (through the funds generated by the Duchy of Cornwall and the various small- and medium-sized businesses he has built up).44 The note is included in the sensitive biography written by Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994, written and published during some of the lowest moments in the prince’s life, when his marriage had collapsed and the Murdoch brigade were going after him with hammer and tongs. It is as close to a raison d’être as I can find for the man and it seems a pretty good one, even if it was written during a period of some despair. It is focused on Britain in its specifics, but it speaks to the larger framework he tries to operate within:

For the past fifteen years I have been entirely motivated by a desperate desire to put the “Great” back into Great Britain. Everything I have tried to do — all the projects, speeches, schemes, etc. — have been with this end in mind. And none of it has worked, as you can see too obviously! In order to put the “great” back I have always felt it was vital to bring people together, and I begin to realize that the one advantage my position has over everyone else’s is that I can act as a catalyst to help produce a better and more balanced response to various problems. I have no “political” agenda — only a desire to see people achieve their potential; and to be decently housed in a decent, civilized environment that respects the cultural and vernacular character of the nation; to see this country’s real talents (especially inventiveness and engineering skills) put to the best use in the best interests of the country and the world (at present they are disgracefully wasted through lack of co-ordination and strategic thinking); to retain the value of the infrastructure and the cultural integrity of rural communities (where they still exist) because of the vital role they play in the very framework of the nation and the care and management of the countryside; to value and nurture the highest standards of military integrity and professionalism as displayed by our armed forces, because of the role they play in an insurance scheme in the case of disaster; and to value and retain our uniquely special broadcasting standards which are renowned throughout the world.

The other point is that I have always wanted to roll back some of the ludicrous frontiers of the sixties in terms of education, architecture, art, music, and literature, not to mention agriculture. Having read this through, no wonder they want to destroy me, or get rid of me . . .

Charles had written this somewhat despondent note to the head of his Trust to rally his closest associates after a series of setbacks, notably his failed marriage, which further fuelled the

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