King Charles Was in the 'Doghouse' When William and Kate were Expecting their First Child
King Charles was overjoyed when his first grandchild, Prince George, was born on July 22, 2013, to Prince William and Kate Middleton. Shortly after his birth, Charles described it as a very 'special moment'. However, there may have been another reason for his happiness. Royal author Valentine Low claims the King had concerns about the child’s gender, fearing that a granddaughter might one day marry a Catholic or someone outside the Windsor family, potentially affecting hereditary peerages.
Low's new book, Power and the Palace, excerpted on August 29, mentioned how Charles was reportedly left out of discussions surrounding the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which ended male-preference primogeniture. As reported by PEOPLE, Low alleged that Cabinet Office secretary Richard Heaton received an 'unexpected invitation' from the King to have tea with him in 2012 and discuss the law. The author penned, "What, Charles wanted to know, would happen if his first grandchild were a girl, and she married a Mr. Smith? Would the royal house be Smith or Windsor? He had other questions too — about what would happen if his grandchild married a Catholic and what effect the new law would have on hereditary peerages."
The government had been instructed to work directly with Buckingham Palace on the changes to the succession rules, which meant that the then-Prince Charles was allegedly out of the process. Shortly after, the Daily Mail had published a story about Charles's alleged concerns, noting that he and William "appear not to have been consulted at all." The author continued, "Heaton was contacted on holiday by the cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood’s office, asking what had happened. By the time he got back, according to Whitehall sources, Heywood was sounding more relaxed about the whole episode. What was all this about the Prince of Wales, Heaton asked. 'Oh, don’t worry about that,' said Heywood. 'He’s in the doghouse.'"
The author revealed the reasons behind Charles's alleged fury over the Daily Mail story. He explained, "One was that the Prince had, in their view, misrepresented the conversation between him and Heaton. Second, he had leaked — or someone had leaked on his behalf — a private conversation with a civil servant. And third, he was criticizing government policy, which he was not supposed to do." Not long after, Charles reportedly invited Heaton on an outing where they took the royal train and visited a pottery saved by one of the royal's charities, which Low claimed "wasn’t an apology, but it was the next best thing."
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 ruled that birth order, rather than gender, determines who will be the next king or queen of the UK, replacing the previous system that favored male heirs. Although William and Middleton's first child was a son, their daughter, Princess Charlotte, made history when Prince Louis was born, as she kept her place in the line of succession ahead of her younger brother.