It is a testimony to the King’s prominence as an adjunct to this weekend’s high-octane diplomatic manoeuverings that after attending Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s summit of world leaders in London on Sunday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was due at the monarch’s Norfolk estate by helicopter for a personal audience.
Some four days after Charles formed the regal spear tip of Sir Keir’s charm offensive on Donald Trump by writing the letter proferring to the American president an unprecedented second state visit to the UK, the invitation to Mr Zelensky is an essential reassertion of royal neutrality by ensuring that the Ukrainian leader gets his own fireside chat in Sandringham.
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Read MoreNonetheless, the encounter – the third direct meeting between Charles and Mr Zelensky – will be an opportunity for the King to reaffirm his interest in the Ukraine war and his instinctive sympathy for the agonies being suffered by its citizens. Speaking on the second anniversary of the Russian invasion a year ago, the monarch paid tribute to the “determination and strength of the Ukrainian people”.
As one former senior Palace aide put it last night: “It is likely that the irony will not be lost on His Majesty that after being told for so long not to meddle and to stay quiet, he finds himself with a role to personally bind the wounds of the transatlantic relationship.”
This week’s prize of the full pomp and circumstance of a second state visit – a privilege not accorded even to Ronald Reagan – came with the additional sweetener of a warm-up conflab in Scotland between the King and Mr Trump – either at the royal residences of Balmoral or Dumfries House – to plan arrangements.
Ed Owens, a historian and writer on the nature of royal power, told The i Paper that the King’s audience with Mr Zelensky should be seen through a prism of cementing Britain’s newly-minted role, along with France, as the intermediaries responsible for keeping Mr Trump vested in Ukraine and Europe.
“I think that Trump will be influenced by that because he has a lot of respect for the Royal Family, not necessarily as political decision makers but because he genuinely cares what people like the royals think about him.”
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Read MoreBut the result is nonetheless a rare nexus between the soft power of the House of Windsor and the very hardest version of geopolitics which, according to some, King Charles may well be privately relishing.
The former aide said: “For all the previous criticism made of the King, he is emerging more and more as a monarch fit for our times. He is thoughtful, he is engaged and, in contrast to the late Queen, he is willing to express his views, albeit carefully and appropriately. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was quietly enjoying this.”
Shortly after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, royal watchers were pointed to the fact that Queen Elizabeth had been seen posing next to a bunch of yellow and blue flowers. Aides let it be known that the suggestion this was a subtle show of support for Ukraine would not be wide of the mark.
Times, it would seem, have changed. Dr Owens said: “Now we have Charles being used as shiny bait for the Trump magpie and the King himself being forthright on the issues. Charles is flexing his role here in ways that Elizabeth simply would not have.”
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