Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: 'Wills' may reign after royal flush Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:35:41 EST Message-ID: \SE B;LIFE \SS (WS) \HD 'Wills' may reign after royal flush \BY Anne Senior \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT LONDON LONDON - The way the tabloids tell it, the British monarchy is on the brink of a historic crisis and there may never be a King Charles III on the throne. The royal soap opera has taken a potentially serious turn with reports that Prince Charles may renounce his right to the crown because of a rift with his 31-year-old wife, Diana. If the rumors turn out to be more than just media hype, this would be the worst upset in the royal House of Windsor since the 1936 abdication crisis when Britain lost a king - Edward VIII - over another affair of the heart. The popular press, never a great fan of the serious-minded prince, seems to think history is about to repeat itself. Prince Charles, discredited in the eyes of his future subjects by an unhappy marriage and rumors of extramarital relationships, will make his 10-year-old son William the direct heir to Queen Elizabeth, the story goes. "I won't be king, sobs Charles," the banner headline in the sensationalist News of the World read last weekend. The Sun, Britain's best-selling newspaper, followed up with a story about the prince telling Queen Elizabeth: "Give my throne to Wills." True or not, the idea has taken root in millions of British minds that Charles may never be king. With such worries, the prince might be forgiven for reflecting on a world where years of preparation for kingship can be wiped out by marital strife and gossip about his friendship with an old flame, 45-year-old Camilla Parker-Bowles. Instead, the man often portrayed as a moody philosopher-prince has been cracking jokes about the royal family and its doom-laden press coverage. In a speech at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre last week, he brought the house down by reeling off the plays he had seen recently - "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "All's Well that Ends Well" and "The Taming of the Shrew" - to poke fun at the scandal-plagued monarchy. "The Taming of the Shrew," in which a husband battles to control his strong-willed wife, was taken as a reference to Princess Diana's reported desire to tell the world that her 11-year marriage has deteriorated into an icy alliance. Maybe the "friends" who told of Charles' inner torment got it wrong after all. Or perhaps the 44-year-old prince is trying to see the funny side of a grave situation. The only official reaction from Buckingham Palace aides is a sigh of exasperation. The trigger for the story about Charles giving up his throne was an alleged "love tape" conversation said to show that Mrs. Parker-Bowles, a married woman less glamorous-looking than Diana, was the true object of his affections. The Daily Mirror, the newspaper that brought the world pictures of a bare-breasted Duchess of York - the estranged wife of Charles' younger brother, Prince Andrew - embracing her financial adviser, quoted Charles as telling his friend, "I love you, I adore you." Royalists admit that if the allegations stick they could erode Charles' credibility as future king and head of the Church of England, which preaches that marriage should be for life and that infidelity is a sin. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM