Prince William has always shown quiet defiance towards the conventional entities of the press and palace courtiers. His aversion to the press is understandable considering the microscopic scrutiny he lives under as the heir to the throne. However, his point of contention with the courtiers is not as apparent at first sight. Historically, courtiers are trusted advisers to the monarch and part of his inner circle. They run the institution, organize major royal events, and are also in charge of the palace PR. Thus, royals tend to defer to their expertise and opinion, but not so much William.
In a 2010 interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Live magazine, William expressed his disagreement with courtiers who are often from the old guard and used to be in control and run the palace. William likes to be in control of his decisions and run his palace as well. This wrestling for control between William and the courtiers came to a head during William’s wedding planning in 2010-2011.
William has always kept his love life off-limits to everyone. Catherine and he are a team of two, and that is how they make personal decisions regarding their lives. When he was finally ready to propose to his longtime love, William did not inform anyone, neither the royal family nor the Middletons. He set aside royal protocol that dictated he should ask for permission from the Queen first and then ask her father for her hand second. Instead, William simply took ten days of leave in October 2010 and told both families that he was taking Catherine on a safari in Kenya.
They stayed at the 55,000-acre Lewa Estate with friends. In the last two days of their 10-day stay, William told Catherine he wanted them to go camping. Unbeknownst to her, he had secretly packed his mother’s iconic 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire and diamond ring that he had kept since her death at age 15 in his rucksack.
William talked about his marriage proposal, “I had been planning it for some time, and Africa seemed like the perfect place. It was beautiful. We spent some time together privately and I decided the time was right. We had been talking about getting married for some time, so it wasn’t a big surprise.
I wanted it to have meaning beyond just the act of engagement. Catherine understands what Africa means to me and how much I love protecting nature. Therefore, I could not have found a more appropriate place to kneel than Kenya.”
So William flew her high up the slopes of Mt Kenya at over 12,000 feet for an overnight stay in an isolated rustic cabin that had been his secret hideaway for years. It was there, near the famed ice caps, on the shores of the mountain’s stunning glacial lakes, and in a place where he felt at peace, that William dropped on one knee and proposed to an ecstatic Catherine. Upon their return, Catherine removed the ring and kept it. After formally asking Michael Middleton for Catherine’s hand, William swore him to secrecy, and the couple returned to their farmhouse in Wales, blissfully engaged and sat on the news for almost a month, while the world was speculating about a proposal to come that had already secretly happened.
Prince William and Catherine have always been very private about their timing and decision-making, which makes it difficult to predict their next move. William proposed to Catherine secretly in Kenya on October 20/2010, but they didn’t announce the news until November 15, 2010. The couple informed the Queen first and William asked for her permission to marry Catherine, which she granted. Later, they informed his father and brother who were both very happy about the news.
On November 16, 2010, Clarence House announced the engagement of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Buckingham Palace also issued a statement saying that the Queen was thrilled with the news.
However, behind the Palace doors, a conflict was already brewing between Prince William and the palace courtiers. Courtiers were unhappy that they were kept in the dark and had only a few hours to announce their engagement to the world. William’s reluctance to share the news with his father and grandmother until he was ready to announce it to the world was not necessarily about trust, but rather about not fully trusting the people his family trusted.
William’s issue with the Courtiers was two-fold: first, a “Trust” issue because of their ties to the British press, and second, a “Control” issue as the Courtiers usually run the show and William likes to make his own decisions. Now with the Royal wedding planning, tensions escalated.
As William revealed during their engagement interview in 2010, he and Catherine had been talking about marriage for a long time, so they knew exactly how they wanted their wedding to be. They were given an official list of 777 names to invite, but none of them were people they knew. William decided to start the list again.
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