From The Australian article which I linked upthread and is behind a paywall.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wo...s/news-story/ff08ab595202552c0b3e05d1c20dfced
Robert Lacey’s latest book on the British monarchy is still four days from publication, but already he’s getting hate mail from furious Prince William fans. “There is such anger that the book has dared to suggest Prince William is not perfect,” says the historian, 76, who has been writing about royal matters for more than 40 years. He is also consultant on The Crown, whose fourth series comes to Netflix next month.
“Portraits of William are always so idealised because he is our future king. Charles III and Queen Camilla is not an appealing prospect, but there is William and his wonderful wife - and that’s what everybody has their hopes set on.”
Not an appealing prospect? Now Prince Charles fans will be reaching for their organic quills.
Lacey’s book, Battle of Brothers, is an account of the uneasy relationship between William and Prince Harry. Until he began his research, Lacey had thought this feud was a newspaper invention. He says he has spoken to dozens of people who know the princes and now believes the rift is even more serious than reports have claimed.
Lacey suggests, among other things, that William has a formidable temper and that - perhaps more wounding - he has gained his reputation for steadiness and sense of duty at the expense of his younger brother.
The brothers race during a Marathon Training Day with Team Heads Together at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on February 5, 2017 in London. Picture: Getty
The brothers race during a Marathon Training Day with Team Heads Together at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on February 5, 2017 in London. Picture: Getty
Yet this was not the book he had been hoping to write. The heir and the spare he originally had in mind were Charles and Prince Andrew, but he dropped that plan after talking to his friend Peter Morgan, the writer of The Crown, who bluntly advised: “They aren’t the princes that matter any more.”
The resulting book is a mixture of the occasional revelation and well-worn anecdotes about the lives of William and Harry that stretch back to their parents’ courtship and the very public disintegration of that marriage.
Tension between the princes, he claims, dates back to their school days at Eton, where William introduced Harry to a riotous social circle. While Harry took the blame for bad behaviour, William seemed to emerge unscathed.
“This was the beginning of the relentless popular media stereotyping that would eventually drive Prince Harry out of Britain,” writes Lacey. “The other face of that stereotype was, of course, the impeccable image of his perfect elder brother, golden boy Prince William.”
One of the only times Harry got the better of his brother was during his military service. On graduating from Sandhurst, Harry noted that William, then a cadet, would now have to salute him. And while Captain Wales came under fire in Afghanistan, it was decided that sending William anywhere near the front line would prove too great a temptation to the Taliban.
Prince William accompanies Prince Harry on his first day At Wetherby School. Picture: Getty
Prince William accompanies Prince Harry on his first day At Wetherby School. Picture: Getty
Apart from that, Harry was always going to finish in second place. He was hurt, says Lacey, by his father’s plans for a slimmed-down monarchy and resented an official portrait taken early this year showing only the Queen, Charles, William and Prince George - the direct line of succession. But, as we all now know, it is Harry’s marriage - to a woman the author describes, with Wallis Simpson in mind, as “the second American divorcee to screw up the monarchy” - that has proved particularly divisive.
“The palace expected Harry to marry a nice girl called Annabel or Henrietta and to go and live in the country,” says Lacey. “They didn’t expect this bombshell.”
Presented with the opinionated and outspoken Meghan Markle, the palace didn’t know what to do. “There was personal animosity in the palace towards Meghan - and the feeling is mutual,” says Lacey. “There was somebody in the palace - and I can’t name them - who hated Meghan. There is no love lost there.”
This revelation was removed from the book on legal advice. Even with this precaution, Battle of Brothers proved too explosive for sensitive courtiers. Lacey’s usual practice with his royal books is to submit selected chapters to the palace in advance, a habit dating back to the help he says he got for Majesty, his 1977 biography of the Queen. But this time the packet came back unopened. “They took fright over the title, probably,” he says.
Nothing seemed to bring the two sides together. William, who made his girlfriend wait nine years before suggesting marriage, was so worried about Harry’s rush to the altar that he asked his uncle, Earl Spencer, to intervene. That only made matters worse: “Harry was furious with his elder brother for dragging other family members into the row.”
Relations between the palace and the Sussexes became so bad that pictures of Harry and Meghan were notably absent from the display of photographs on Her Majesty’s desk during the 2019 Christmas message, although they had featured the year before: “Who does and who does not feature on the royal Christmas desk has always been like the changing panorama of faces on the historic balcony of Moscow’s Kremlin. It showed who was in favour and who was not.”