King Charles Faces Major Blow Just Weeks Ahead of Caribbean Tour: Report
As Charles prepares for the Caribbean, a latest move by Antigua and Barbuda could make the trip rather awkward.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to travel to the Caribbean this autumn for an official royal tour, but the trip has now come with an unexpected twist. Antigua and Barbuda has dropped the traditional oath of allegiance to the King, just weeks before the monarch’s expected visit.
Antigua and Barbuda has taken the step of removing its pledge of allegiance to the King. The change means newly elected officials in the twin-island nation are no longer required to swear loyalty to Charles or any future monarch of Britain. Instead, their oath now centres on Antigua and Barbuda itself, including its Constitution and the laws governing the country. The move follows Gaston Browne’s re-election as Prime Minister on April 30.
Browne has also made no secret of his longer-term plans to move the country towards becoming a republic. He has previously described such a change as a “natural progression” for Antigua and Barbuda, which gained independence from Britain in 1981 while retaining the King as its head of state.
The couple’s visit now comes against a rather interesting backdrop. Charles and Camilla will be taking on the journey to Antigua and Barbuda later this year for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. It is part of an eight-day Caribbean trip from October 27 to November 4 that will also see the King visit the Bahamas and Guyana. Moreover, it will be Charles’ first trip to the eastern Caribbean island since it stopped asking officials to swear allegiance to the King in May.
As reported by The Telegraph, the attorney general, Sir Steadroy Benjamin, said, “We will once and for all finally not be swearing to His Majesty in England, his heirs and successors in England.”
The oath change is not the only issue that Charles might have to face, as talks about reparations linked to the slave trade are expected to come up during the trip. At the same time, there is growing debate over “de-realming,” which would allow countries to remove the King as their head of state while remaining within the Commonwealth.
