HOW PRINCE DEALT OUT HIS OWN MAFIA KISS OF DEATH

AT HIGHGROVE and St James’s Palace, Prince Charles presided over what amounted to a feudal court. Long-term employees whom he valued were granted a home, to which Charles would then pay a visit — a welcome sign of their place in the hierarchy. Other favoured retainers were invited for dinner or to a garden party at Highgrove. Lesser mortals received gifts, graded by his opinion of their importance. These would range from whisky glasses engraved with his motif to designer salt and pepper grinders. A typed letter, signed by Charles, was viewed as a very good sign, but the greatest trophy of all was a handwritten message in black ink. What his employees feared the most was an expression of His Royal Highness’s displeasure. This was often signalled by the absence of a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. Worst of all was when the Prince blanked an employee. Everyone knew that — like a Mafia don’s kiss of death — this amounted to an overt threat to the courtier’s job, income, school fees and self-respect. After dismissal, there was nothing. And there were plenty of casualties — from the Prince’s assistant private secretary, Mark Bolland, to the head of his charity foundation in America, Robert Higdon — who found themselves cut off without even so much a Christmas card to acknowledge years of loyalty. Being blanked was ‘so hurtful’, I was told by many of them. It was Charles’s way of making it clear that they were no longer useful. For him, loyalty was a one-way street.