Princess joy for royal fan who handed her bouquet
In the third of our special reports to mark St David’s Day, Ben Summer examines Wales’ long and complicated relationship with the monarchy
THE Princess of Wales delighted a seven-year-old girl who presented flowers to her when she visited the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards for their St David’s Day parade.
Little royal fan Elsi-Haf Cunningham presented Kate with the flowers during the parade at Combermere Barracks in Windsor on Wednesday.
Her mother, Krystal Cunningham, 59, said her daughter will remember the experience for the rest of her life.
She said: “It was a very proud moment. She absolutely loves the royal family but has only ever seen Kate on TV. It was a big moment for her, she was a bit nervous but she was very proud to do it.
“The flowers were a bit heavy, that’s why I carried them over initially.”
Kate attended the procession with her husband the Prince of Wales for the first time since he took over from the King as the regiment’s Colonel.
On arrival, the royal couple were greeted by marching bands before William gave a speech to rank and file soldiers where he said the Welsh Guards’ “banter” had helped him get through his own time in the regiment.
He told them: “I am both honoured and delighted to be standing here in front of you today as your new Colonel.
“At the same time, I’m sorry that my father couldn’t be here with us today to say farewell, but I know he would talk of his fierce pride and admiration for you all, and of his own sadness to be moving on from an appointment he held so dear since 1975. While they may not have been my easiest or driest days in the Army, my memories with the Welsh Guards Sniper Platoon Salisbury Plain are some of my best.
“Another key milestone in my life was also shared with the Welsh Guards, this time in the jungles of Belize as I received my A-level results over the Bowman Radio.
“Many of you will know the feeling of being in the jungle; you’re incredibly hot, continuously soaking wet and with nowhere to hide from potentially horrendous results, it could have been a really bad day! Ultimately though, it was the camaraderie, the togetherness, and of course the banter of the Welsh Guards that got me through that period, and it’s a time I look back on fondly.”
He finished the speech with the regiment’s motto, Cymru am byth, Welsh for Wales forever.
The couple then took part in the annual tradition of presenting handmade leeks to officers and soldiers to wear on their chests.
Officers and soldiers then distributed them among the ranks.
The parade finished with brass bands playing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, followed by God Save The King, before William took the royal salute.
The royal couple later sat for an official photo with the Prince of Wales’ company before they met families from the regiment as well as members of the 5th Royal Australian regiment who are in the UK helping to train the Ukrainian army.
Nine-year-old Thomas Lucas performed a back flip for Kate as she met families. He said: “It was actually quite nerve-wracking because I didn’t really land it but she was impressed”.
His father, Sergeant Gareth Lucas, said it was “typical” behaviour for his son who is “non-stop.”
Megan Davis, who travels from Swansea every year to attend the parade, said she was impressed Kate sang the Welsh national anthem in Welsh during the parade.
WALES’ relationship with kings and queens is long, troubled, and often uncomfortable. But despite it all, most people in Wales still want a monarchy.
That’s according to the latest findings from a poll by YouGov, which was commissioned by the Western Mail and WalesOnline to mark St David’s Day.
The majority of people in Wales aged 16 and over would still vote to keep the monarchy if there was a referendum. Only 28% of people in Wales said they’d abolish the monarchy if given a vote – and nearly double (52%) said they’d keep it.
But there’s one quite notable cloud hanging over the future of the monarchy in Wales – young people’s opinion. The only group that doesn’t want a monarchy are 16- to 24-yearolds. If this generational divide continues as Generation Z gets older, a larger proportion of Wales could become anti-monarchy.
Sir John Curtice, University of Strathclyde’s professor of politics and a familiar face from his polling analysis on the BBC, told the Western Mail: “Although the monarchy is still relatively popular in Wales, there is far from a consensus about its continuation. The institution is much less popular among younger than older people, a pattern that suggests its continued popularity is at risk in the long run.
“Meanwhile, the widespread grief and appreciation of the monarchy at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last year appears to have had relatively little impact on public opinion. A YouGov poll in March of last year found 55% backed keeping the monarchy while 28% preferred an elected head of state, very similar to the figures in today’s poll.”
Questions regarding the monarchy are inevitably tied up in all the other big issues facing Wales. If independence is on the horizon – although support has dipped – would an independent Wales be a republic? When the cost-of-living crisis is ever-present and the NHS is on its knees, can an expensive coronation be justified?
Conversely, at a time when morale is so low, could the monarchy be leveraged to improve the national mood?
Ultimately, the question is whether Wales’ enduring support for the monarchy can continue when the nation’s young people don’t want a king.
In the poll, people aged 16 and over in Wales were asked: “If there was a referendum tomorrow on whether the UK should remain a country with a monarchy or abolish the monarchy, how would you vote?”
Some 52% said they’d keep it, 28% wanted to abolish it, 9% wouldn’t vote and 11% didn’t know which way they’d vote.
Among Conservative voters (89%), there was overwhelming support for the monarchy, but 16- to 24-year-olds would abolish it altogether.
Labour supporters were more divided – 51% said they’d keep the monarchy, 38% said they’d scrap it.
Meanwhile, 50% of Plaid voters said they’d abolish the monarchy, with 30% saying they’d keep it.
Overall, the poll suggests Wales’ voters would keep the monarchy if given a say on it.
Prof Curtice said: “As we might anticipate, Plaid Cymru supporters are a little more likely to want to abolish than keep the monarchy. That helps explain why support for keeping the monarchy is rather less than the 60% registered in Britainwide YouGov poll in December – though at the same time Labour voters in Wales appear less keen on the monarchy than their counterparts in England. In short, there is every good reason why King Charles should want to try and bolster public support for the Crown in Wales.”
There are some slim regional differences, with mid and west Wales more pro-monarchy than the rest of the nation, and Cardiff and south Wales central slimly the most in favour of abolishing, but arguably the biggest dividing line is age.
Younger people are more anti-monarchy, and a huge swathe of them are still undecided. Whether their views change over time, or harden against the monarchy, will be crucial to whether or not the institution survives.
Gwion Rhisiart, 18, is actively engaged in Plaid Cymru and a former Welsh Youth Parliament member. He’s opposed to a monarchy, and confident this is “definitely a generational thing” and not just a case of younger people being more radical or anti-establishment.
He said: “If I think about my grandparents, the older generation, there’s a sort of common theme of British institutionalism, which I’d say was brought on by the Second World War and the propaganda surrounding that, I think that translated into support for the monarchy.”
He’s right – at least about older people having more support for the monarchy. In Wales, the poll tells us, older people are more in favour of a monarchy, with 69% of over-65s saying they’d vote to keep it and 20% saying they’d vote to abolish. Compare that not just to the youngest group, but even to 25- to 49-year-olds, 43% of whom would keep the monarchy and 28% of whom would abolish it, and you can see the generation gap.
Also, the younger you get, the more likely you are to say you don’t know which way you’d vote on the monarchy. It would be easy to put this down to younger people being less politically engaged, but it’s not the case on every issue polled. Some 20% of 16- to 25-year-olds don’t know how they’d vote on the monarchy – and which side of the debate they land on will be crucial to not just Wales’ future but the UK’s.
Gwion thinks we’re witnessing a shift in opinion, which he puts down to “the innocence of the Royal Family dying out”. He continued: “The naked truth of what it actually means to have a hereditary, protected monarchy has come to light as the rest of the world becomes more democratic. We see that, especially across the Commonwealth. When Barbados became a republic, and seeing moves towards it in Australia, we’re seeing more trends towards democracy. Having a monarchy is exactly the opposite of being a democracy.”
He also cited scandals in the family – especially those surrounding Prince Andrew – and questions over the costs of King Charles’ coronation. Royal accounts show some eye-watering multi-million-pound sums given to the monarchy in the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant (although this amounted to £1.29 per person).
It’s difficult to quantify how much money the royals give back to the economy in tourism revenue, but that won’t prevent questions being asked about whether the exact amounts spent on royal travel and palace upkeep are justifiable. And of course, there’s the matter of the reported £12m Prince Andrew paid Virginia Giuffre to settle the sexual assault case.
Gwion’s not alone in his opinion – especially among peers. Ruben Kelman, a current Welsh Youth Parliament member, said: “If I was given the choice today, it would be gone. The reason for that, I think, is some of the scandals within the family – but the biggest thing is the cost of it, when we’re in this crisis right now, they’re going to be spending millions and millions on a pompous coronation… and the anti-democratic nature.”
Ruben admitted that opinions can change over time – “Liz Truss was a republican and a Lib Dem, then she got older and she’s not” – but thinks that after the Queen’s death, a lot of people have lost the part of the Royal Family they admired. He says King Charles isn’t “relatable” to younger people, and his peers are “definitely more republican”.
But not all young people are antimonarchy. Tomos Llewelyn, a 24-year-old Welsh Conservatives staffer, says the monarchy is a “vital institution” and that “most people recognise it provides stability and a net benefit to the economy through its tourism benefits”.
He puts the fact younger people’s responses were more anti-monarchy down to “most people of my age group being indifferent to the monarchy,” adding: “This poll could be a result of a more surface-level, general anti-traditional sentiment as opposed to deep-rooted republicanism.
“The fact there has not been a large event like the coronation for some time may also play a role. I certainly predict that royal support will rise post
King Charles III’s coronation.”
The coronation will be broadcast live on TV with a bank holiday to mark it. Protests against it have already begun, and no doubt it will be a chance for people to voice their distaste with the monarchy.
One of those who will be protesting is Ben Gwalchmai.
The founder of Labour for an Independent Wales asked: “As he gets crowned this year, is the country getting better? Is the UK getting better? I don’t think so. We have a better future ahead of us but it’s far away from the monarchy.”
Ben’s strongly in favour of getting rid of the whole thing – and says there’s something “unique” to republicanism in Wales.
He said: “It’s unique in culture – if anyone knows their history, obviously the Prince of Wales is an invented title,” adding that “socialism never died in Wales”.
He continued: “When we see our villages, our towns, having the life sucked out of them, and when we see our communities losing the Welsh language, losing young people who are running away because they can’t get work or survive, but we also see our Prince living the high life, several homes, helicopter lifts whenever he likes, we know something is wrong.
“It’s about what’s fair. Welsh people – I know – have a sense of justice, and
the monarchy is a constant injustice.”
There’s already been a protest in Wales since Charles took the throne, though – but it was more about his son. The day after the Queen’s death, it was confirmed Prince William and Kate Middleton would become the new Prince and Princess of Wales, filling the seat vacated by Charles when he ascended the throne.
This might have seemed an obvious move. Someone needs to be the Prince of Wales, and historically it’s been the heir to the throne, so why not this time? But the way it was announced – one line in a speech, so soon after the Queen had died – made some feel that an opportunity to debate the title’s controversial history, and whether it should continue at all, had been passed up.
Ben can’t find a reason to celebrate the Prince: “There can be no celebration of either the title or the person that holds the title until that very Prince fixes the problems of Wales, and works towards fixing the problems of Wales. No monarch does that. Not now, and not since the invention of the title.
“I get the fun part, I get having a day off, don’t get me wrong, but make sure on your day off that you’re looking at these structures. Ask yourselves, ask everyone – what is the point of them, for ordinary people?”
When the King’s first visit to Wales came around, Bethan Sayed led the protests. The former Plaid Cymru MS and political campaigner knew people were angry (“and rightly so”) – not just at the King, or the new Prince, but the fact the visit coincided with Glyndŵr Day, a day for which some parades were cancelled due to the mourning period.
For some, the monarchy had asked for quiet and respectful mourning out of one corner of its mouth, and made a political decision on the Prince of Wales out of the other. The protest “wasn’t something we would’ve done with so much urgency had that new Prince of Wales not been declared,” Bethan said, “but we didn’t feel respected or heard, and that’s not surprising”.
She continued: “I know a lot of campaigners who were really concerned about coming out – one campaigner came with me and told me confidentially that she’d had a lot of abuse for being there. People say that wasn’t the time or place – but the world was looking.
“If we hadn’t been there at that time and place, we wouldn’t have been heard – people would’ve thought Wales had turned up [to the King’s visit] and decided not to have a view, when pockets of protesters had already started to turn up in Scotland earlier in the week.”
Bethan is uncompromising in her view: “We shouldn’t have a royal family and a monarchy, so I’d like to have seen Charles be the last Prince of Wales.” She’s “in two minds” about whether the protests in September affected the decision not to have a big investiture for Prince William, but added: “They’re probably happy with it having worked out because he still retains the role and does his visits... we’re just sleepwalking into another generation of princes and monarchy ruling over us in Wales.”
There is, of course, huge historical weight to the distaste some have for the Prince of Wales title. You only have to go as far back as 1969 – Charles’ provocative and old-fashioned investiture at Caernarfon Castle – to find a source of hurt, and it goes way further back than that.
But could the Prince of Wales title be used to heal political divides and promote Wales on the world stage? That’s the view of Professor John Hunt, an environmentalist and Labour activist from Blaenavon.
He describes himself as a “socialist monarchist,” and was also present when the King visited Cardiff – waving a Union Flag in front of the Senedd.
Being a monarchist, Prof Hunt is in the majority among people intending to vote Labour in Wales – but not by much, with 51% of prospective Labour voters saying they’d keep the monarchy and 38% saying they’d abolish it.
He says the role of Prince of Wales helps to promote Wales on the world stage: “It’s a brand identifier to Wales. OK, he might not be as Welsh as you would like, although the monarchy does have some Welsh blood. I think the King has proven himself committed to Wales [when he was Prince of Wales], he’s supported Welsh culture and the benefit that has come from the Royal Family’s intervention above politics to change people’s lives with the DofE scheme and the Prince’s Trust.”
The King speaking Welsh at his Senedd address in September divided opinion among people we spoke to. Some saw it as a token gesture – something anyone could do if they spent a couple of hours memorising the words. But Prof Hunt is more positive: “We know he studied Welsh in Aberystwyth,
we know he gave his address at Caernarfon Castle in Welsh. He’s not fluent but he’s shown an appreciation of the culture and the language. It’s not an easy language if you don’t speak it.
“It’s important to him – whether he’s good at it doesn’t matter, so don’t knock the guy for trying.”
Prof Hunt acknowledges that the royals could “make more frequent visits” to Wales, and says there are opportunities in “Brand Prince of Wales” – the idea the role’s main advantage is its international recognition.
He explained: “One of the King’s great projects is Dumfries House in Scotland. If [William] could invest in a Welsh version and start an entrepreneur crafts movement to reinvigorate learning and crafts in the Valleys, that would be a great thing he could do, and it’s very much aligned with his beliefs. Certainly in Blaenavon, we have somewhere that’s ideal for him to restore – Ty Mawr. There’s lots of things he could do.
“I would say the monarchy, and I passionately believe it, are above politics, which is their virtue. If the Senedd could set out a cross-party group on ‘Brand Prince of Wales’ and liaise on how it could be used to the advantage of Welsh society, that would depoliticise it even further and have elected representatives, have Labour, Plaid Cymru and Tories working together, without being politically partisan.”
You can look at individual examples where a simple act from the monarch has made a huge symbolic impact.
When Roma Taylor, who moved from Antigua to Cardiff in 1959 and later founded the Windrush Cymru Elders, met the King in September, she was impressed. The story of Windrush is the story of a generation being ignored, disrespected and mistreated – and respect can go a long way in repairing relations.
She explained: “June 22 is our celebration day, when we celebrate the Windrush Cymru Elders. When I met the King last year, I told him about the Windrush and he said: ‘Oh yes, you’ve got a very big celebration coming up next year,’ and I said ‘yes, it’s our 75th anniversary’.
“He told me it’s gonna be lovely. He knows about the Windrush and he knew this year’s going to be our 75th anniversary, so he’s well-equipped with that. The Windrush elders who are 90 and older – he’s taken photos with them and they’re going to meet him in the castle. That’s lovely.”
Roma admits this recognition “doesn’t heal the hurt, what our ancestors have been through,” but added: “Thank God he recognised that we are people. It doesn’t compensate, but it’s something.” And Tom Giffard, a Conservative MS, is optimistic about the new King and Prince being “more engaged and hands on”.
Of course, 89% of people who’d vote Tory in Wales want to keep the monarchy, so he’s channelling his voters’ views, but has clear examples of how a Prince of Wales could be a vehicle for good PR.
He explained: “What it does is put Wales on the map in an international sense. William and Catherine have got a real connection to Wales, they lived on Anglesey for a number of years, their patronage to the WRU is really important as well.”
But the monarchy’s importance in Wales extends beyond rugby and tourism for Tom, who added: “I was here when the Queen opened the sixth Senedd just after the election, then when Charles came here just after he was made King.
“It’s really important actually – this place wasn’t elected with an outright landslide majority, it had a doubt as to whether it would exist and the early years of the Senedd were very rocky. One of the things that made it look as though it was built to last was that the Queen made a real effort to embrace it early on, and treated it as not only equal to the parliaments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but equal to Westminster. It’s important that that process still takes place.”
Say the younger generation in Wales grow up continuing to oppose a monarchy. Say the next generation continues that trend. In 50 years, Wales may well want to get rid of the Crown altogether. If we reach that point, how does Wales get rid of the monarchy – especially if England still wants it to continue?
Many, especially the 50% of Plaid voters who would abolish the monarchy, see Welsh independence as a means of ditching the Crown – or see republicanism as a step on the way to an independent Wales.
But Dafydd Wigley, Baron Wigley – former Plaid Cymru MP, party leader and Assembly Member – sees it as a case of making a decision on independence first, and worrying about the monarchy after.
He explained: “A decision regarding a relationship between Wales and the Crown is a decision that could only be made by Wales if Wales is an independent country. It is not a relevant question until we’ve got the power to do something about it.
“The people of Wales, including the young people, have to be clinical about it… rather than just kicking against the institution. There are times I would kick against institutions as well, but what age has taught me is that politics is the art of the possible.”
Of course, the major bump in the road is a lack of support for independence. As part of the same YouGov poll, and as reported yesterday, it was revealed that support for an independent Wales was at its lowest level since before the pandemic
Lord Wigley, who is planning to retire from the House of Lords, looks to Scotland. The SNP’s policy in the runup to the 2014 referendum was to keep the monarchy, and Lord Wigley explained why he backs this for Wales.
He explained: “There will be many people in Wales at the time of a referendum on independence who are uncertain, because they as individuals and as families have strong links with other parts of the UK. Some of those people would value having the continuity of the monarchy… an assurance for them that Wales becoming independent means they don’t lose one aspect of their own identity that they value.
“I think that is the intention of the SNP taking the line that they do, and I think it is a hard-headed reason. They are much closer to getting independence than Wales is.”