When King Charles III was Lord of the Isles
Long before William and Catherine’s recent visit to Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, Charles lived with crofters and immersed himself in farming and Gaelic culture in the Outer Hebrides
Prince William and Catherine, the Princess of Wales showed their love of Scotland last month by marking their 14th wedding anniversary with a two-day visit to the picturesque Isles of Mull and Iona in the Inner Hebrides. The forty-two-year-old heir to the throne and his forty-three-year-old wife celebrated the cohesion and spirit of rural communities as well as the importance of sustainable farming—producing food while protecting vital ecosystems—and the restorative power of nature for children and adults.
They also affectionately recalled a holiday on Mull in 2005 with friends shortly before their graduation from St. Andrews University. That visit was private, but they weren’t incognito. They mingled with the locals, had a water balloon contest, drank beer at a pub, and organized a barbecue at their cottage overlooking the island’s harbor. Nobody leaked their whereabouts to the press, so their trip went unmentioned until their official visit two decades later as Lord and Lady of the Isles, one of their two Scottish titles.
Their interest in the islands and their significance was certainly sincere, yet I couldn’t help thinking about the deeper experiences of William’s father when he lived in a modest crofter’s cottage for several days on the island of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides in 1987 and 1991. (Crofting is a Scottish term for small-scale, often subsistence farming.) It was equally poignant to compare the happiness of William and Catherine with the turmoil of Charles and Diana’s marriage that was particularly intense during his visits to one of Scotland’s most remote islands.
In May 1987, the royal marriage was rapidly disintegrating. Charles had rekindled his romance with Camilla Parker Bowles the previous summer as Diana had ended her intimate relationship with Barry Mannakee, one of her protection officers, before moving on in November 1986 to Captain James Hewitt, with whom she had a five-year affair. Charles and Diana were increasingly leading separate lives, and they were both deeply unhappy.
Against that backdrop, Charles lit out for Berneray, which he had visited as a child when his family cruised around the Western Isles on the royal yacht Britannia. “Back in 1956 I think, we had a picnic on the beach,” he recalled. “I can just remember it actually because we played football, and it was rather fun.”
“To find out about the whole way of life”
His purpose more than thirty years later at age thirty-eight was “to find out about the whole way of life, the crofting existence, and what part-time farming actually involved…There is only one way to find out, and that was to go and do it.” He also had a sentimental reason. “I’m one of those sorts of people who take even apparently honorific titles rather seriously,” he said, “and one of the titles I have always liked is The Lord of the Isles, partly because I’m an incurable romantic, and it is a marvelously romantic title. Also, because I mean, I always have had a soft spot for Scotland.”
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