Prince Harry just let loose the thinking in the current British royal family. As it turns out, no one wants to be king but they are willing to do it anyway, out of some warped sense of duty. Aren’t we lucky to be in the British empire and to have such dedicated members of the royal family?
Really I think Princes Charles and William are just doing the long con on Prince Harry. Blech! Power! It is such a dirty word and why would anyone ever want it.
Although the evolution of the British royal family has been toward less power, there is no guarantee they won’t reverse this trend. Or better yet, say they don’t want to be king as a negotiating strategy to get more power when they are to be kings.
Then with real power they can guarantee that the power stays in the “proper” bloodline, via direct eldest descendants. ie. QE II, Charles, William, George. And if 5th in line to the throne (Harry) ever objects, it is off with his head or whatever form of death the British royals favour.
Aha! Now I know why Harry just blindly accepts the word of his father and sibling. If he were to question it would look like he believes his father and brother would lie to him and thus have no qualms of offing him. So shhhh, Prince Harry, and keep yourself alive. It’s unfortunate that you have to look so gullible while doing it but that is the price of princedom.
In case you were wondering, Harry is fifth in line to the throne and the order of succession is: Charles, William, George, Charlotte, Harry. Then as George has children, Charlotte gets pushed back like Harry before her. Just in case you were wondering. It sucks to be the baby or middle children in the royal family. You never attain the power of the eldest in your family.
You suggest:
I think it sucks less than getting stock being the monarch. Frankly I think Liz (and her Dad, and her kids) would have been much happier if Edward had stayed the course.
There have been reforms as they’ve gone along and I think it sucks less to be a member of the royal family than it did. Look at William and Harry able to marry commoners. Yes you grow up in the public eye but it isn’t a surprise and your parents know how to handle it if you don’t at first. So I say it’s not that bad.