Lord Chamberlain

He doesn't act at once.

He shows it to a few trusted colleagues, including the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Suffolk, and they agree to wait and see what can be learned.

The king's away hunting.

and returned to London on the 31st of October.

The authorities hadn't acted, not because they didn't know, but because they were waiting to see.

On the afternoon of the 4th of November, the search begins.

The Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Suffolk, makes a tour of the Parliament building, supposedly checking arrangements for the King.

In the cellar, he finds a tall man standing among piles of firewood who says he's a servant of Thomas Percy, who rents that room.

Shut up!

The Diary of Mervyn Pallister, Principal Hoggrieve for the Lord Chamberlain, 3rd August 1671.

A fraught morning spent blanched by the high summer sun, rounding up hogs for his lordship across Hackney.

They numbered seven loose swine in all, hefty and fast, and, dare I say, a mite randy.

What have I done? Thou didst what must needs be done.

Thank you.

The Diary of Mervyn Pallister, Principal Hogreeve of the Lord Chamberlain, 4th August 1671.

To say I had a troubled night would be to underestimate the matter by some degree.

It was royal in everything but name.

But what I would say to that as well is that the Lord Chamberlain statement from Buckingham Palace very much specifying Harry and Meghan's position, making their position very clear, making the terms of the Sandringham summit very clear that's all well and good but that statement in itself said that any activities that harry and megan do they do as private citizens and that in itself then gives them um you know it not an agenda but it gives them agency because now they don't need to follow royal protocol they can establish their own protocol they can do visits however they want they are more than they are more than entitled to conduct any sort of visit they want to any charity they want in any sort of function in any sort of way and format they want to do.

And this is what they are doing, because Prince Harry, he wasn't necessarily dressed in a full suit like Prince William was at, let's say, Aberfan last week, which I was also at.

He was dressed in, you know, in a blazer, a shirt, jeans.

The royal title, part of it is the HRH title, which we know is in abeyance, which they're not using.

And they're not using, they're not being referred to as his or her royal highness.

So effectively, the Lord Chamberlain statement now gives them agency to do whatever they want to do in a way in which they want to do it.

Because frankly, that's what they're entitled to do.

So within a couple of weeks, the palace felt the need to put down the rules in writing.

In September, on the king's instruction, the Lord Chamberlain sent a letter restating that the Sussexes are private citizens.

Now, a letter like that tells you that the palace saw a line that needed drawing.

Then, on the 15th of October, the couple made their first joint appearance since the move.

Working royals represent the king and the queen before him.

The Sussexes don't.

The Lord Chamberlain's letter put it bluntly.

Their charity work is, and I quote, a personal matter for them both.

And the working royals, the reason why the Sussexes don't like that expression is because it's a title that they don't have.

And we know that book from that letter from Lord Chamberlain signed off by the king made it expressly clear they're not working royals.

And they have a history of rejecting the truth about themselves.

If you lay it out and say, look, you're ordinary citizens, they don't like it because that's not how they see themselves.

Is that correct? Was there not some...

This was the Lord

Chamberlain's letter that went out.

And I completely...

One more.

I was just wondering that you mentioned how in the '50s we had the Lord Chamberlain's Office censoring plays, um, and that that only really finished in the '60s.

Um, and really, we, we had, we've had less than a lifetime's worth of no censorship in Britain.

Um, realistically, how optimistic are you that that wasn't just a blip and that we're just essentially returning to the standard which is mass censorship for whatever is the preferred, um, cause celebre?

I've, I've already quoted what Lisa Nandy says about how, you know, what you see so far is only the beginning.

But then, you know, to, to adjust, a- address this question about, well, are we just going back to, to something that, that, that existed, you know, w- after the...

It was only a short interregnum with the Lord Chamberlain Censorship Offices, Office, you know, on plays, and, and we've only had free speech for a short time.

Actually, I think we're in a much worse situation.

And how dare they choose the terms of, you know, their employment.

That letter from Lord Chamberlain said it all.

You're just private individuals.

You're not royal.

Not directly, but indirectly.

When they go to Nottingham and they are fake royals, they can sell that lie by being introduced as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

And back to Tom Bower on my show, he said that the palace are horrified that this letter from the Lord Chamberlain didn't land.

It didn't work.

In the afternoon I went to Whitehall and there spoke with my Lord at his lodgings.

And there being with him my Lord Chamberlain, I spoke for my old waterman, Payne, to get into White's place, who was waterman to my Lord Chamberlain, and is now to go master of the barge to my Lord to sea.

And my Lord Chamberlain did promise that Payne should be entertained in White's place with him.

From thence to Sir G. Carteret, and there did get his promise for the payment of the remainder of the bill of Mr. Creed's, wherein of late I have been so much concerned, which did so much rejoice me that I, meeting with Mr.

Child, took him to the Swan Tavern in King Street, and there did give him a tankard of white wine and sugar.

So to bed.

11th.

This morning I went by water with Payne, Mr. Moore being with me, to my Lord Chamberlain at Whitehall, and there spoke with my Lord, and he did accept of Payne for his waterman, as I had lately endeavoured to get him to be.