President Emmanuel Macron was the guest of honour at Windsor Castle as the King hosts him for the beginning of his state visit to the UK. The King will make a speech honouring the relationship between their two countries as “friends and allies”, facing “a multitude of complex threats, emanating from multiple directions”. He will stress that “these challenges know no borders: no fortress can protect us against them this time”.
The background to all of this is migration. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is hoping to conclude an agreement with President Macron under which France will take back migrants who have crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats; in return, Britain will accept asylum seekers from France on a “one in, one out” basis.
Despite promising to end the influx of migrants in small boats and “smash the gangs” who organise the crossings, the Government had made no headway in bringing numbers down: indeed, the figures for the first six months of 2025 show crossings at a record high.
Starmer’s proposed deal with Macron is also facing opposition from other European Union member states who fear a sudden rush of migrants into their jurisdictions, as the EU’s Dublin III Regulation specifies that migrants can be returned to the EU country where they first landed. This means Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus are in the firing line.
Immigration is the most acutely political and divisive issue in public affairs at the moment. Is King Charles III straying into dangerous territory for a constitutional monarch, or merely fulfilling his role as an instrument of Britain’s soft power?
Charles was heir apparent to the throne for more than 70 years, longer than anyone in British history. Inevitably from time to time he chafed at the role of simply waiting, and when he finally succeeded his mother, Elizabeth II, in 2022, there were anxieties that he might seek to express opinions in a way which would be too outspoken or controversial for a reigning monarch.
These fears were fuelled partly by his restless, sometimes impatient and tetchy nature, but they also stemmed from the late Queen’s almost preternatural ability to avoid controversy and give away nothing of her own thoughts.
In fact Charles understood perfectly well that his approach would have to change when he was no longer Prince of Wales, but King. In 2018, in a BBC documentary to mark his 70th birthday, he said: “I’m not that stupid. I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So, of course I understand entirely how that should operate. The idea somehow that I’m going to go on exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense. Because the two situations are completely different.”
In any event, the King’s lot is not simply to be a mute marionette, cutting ribbons and shaking hands. Walter Bagehot, in his magisterial The English Constitution (1867), argued that the the role of the monarch “in a dignified capacity, is incalculable”, a figurehead who is recognisable and reassuring. “The nation is divided into parties,” he said, “but the Crown is of no party.”
In addition, famously, Bagehot set out the remaining functional prerogatives: “The sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights – the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.”
King Charles, therefore, has influence both privately and publicly. As far as the visit of President Macron is concerned, the Government will be hoping that his words of friendship and long-standing alliance will encourage the French leader to work with Starmer to find some accommodation on dealing with migration.
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Republicans may not like it, but the hints and allusions of a crowned head can sometimes have infinitely more import than the plainer remarks of an everyday politician. The King is being used in Bagehot’s “dignified capacity”, but he is also extending his right privately to encourage into the diplomatic sphere.
There is nothing at all improper or unconstitutional here. The King will not speak out of turn, nor will he compromise government policy. He will not suddenly decide to freelance or go rogue, but he will deliver a carefully calibrated message wholly consistent with Downing Street’s wishes.
The monarchy still has star quality. It would take a man far humbler and more self-effacing than Emmanuel Macron – admittedly a low bar – to travel through Windsor in an open carriage with the Prince and Princess of Wales, be greeted by the King and Queen, inspect a guard of honour and be fêted at a grand banquet in St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle, and remain unmoved.
This is, in Bagehot’s terminology, the “dignified” part of the constitution supporting the “efficient” part, the hereditary monarch at the service of the elected government. It may not succeed fully in achieving the Prime Minister’s aims. But Starmer is entirely within his rights to try, and the King is quite correct to play his part.
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