Friday, November 07, 2003
A Royal Rumor
Here's one of the odder stories you'll ever read, but one with potential to end up monstrously large. Reading between the lines of the story linked above, and others from the BBC and the Guardian, it seems possible that Britain's Prince Charles is about to be publicly accused of engaging in a homosexual act several years ago with a royal valet. British media isn't allowed to come right out and say so because of strict libel laws, although one paper was ready to do so last Sunday before a court ordered it to desist.
Not that the British haven't had their homosexual or bisexual royals before. It's said that when James I succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603, the following joke made the rounds in London: Rex fuit Elizabeth: nunc est regina Jacobus--"Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen." (Yep, the great translator of the Bible was apparently gay, although there are dozens of Christian websites that try to disprove or deny the possibility.) And even a casual reading of British history shows that the love which dare not speak its name has always been spoken of in one place or another.
It seems pretty clear that the story is going to come out eventually, somehow, if not through the British press, then via some other route. And if it does, you have to wonder what becomes of Prince Charles afterward. Would modern Britain accept a king about whom such allegations were swirling? Or would Charles be forced to give up his place in line to his son, the far-more-popular Prince William? Beats the hell out of me. What's most fascinating about this is the amount of ink and pixels spilled across the British Commonwealth today without ever revealing exactly what everyone is talking about.
Here's one of the odder stories you'll ever read, but one with potential to end up monstrously large. Reading between the lines of the story linked above, and others from the BBC and the Guardian, it seems possible that Britain's Prince Charles is about to be publicly accused of engaging in a homosexual act several years ago with a royal valet. British media isn't allowed to come right out and say so because of strict libel laws, although one paper was ready to do so last Sunday before a court ordered it to desist.
Not that the British haven't had their homosexual or bisexual royals before. It's said that when James I succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603, the following joke made the rounds in London: Rex fuit Elizabeth: nunc est regina Jacobus--"Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen." (Yep, the great translator of the Bible was apparently gay, although there are dozens of Christian websites that try to disprove or deny the possibility.) And even a casual reading of British history shows that the love which dare not speak its name has always been spoken of in one place or another.
It seems pretty clear that the story is going to come out eventually, somehow, if not through the British press, then via some other route. And if it does, you have to wonder what becomes of Prince Charles afterward. Would modern Britain accept a king about whom such allegations were swirling? Or would Charles be forced to give up his place in line to his son, the far-more-popular Prince William? Beats the hell out of me. What's most fascinating about this is the amount of ink and pixels spilled across the British Commonwealth today without ever revealing exactly what everyone is talking about.
