As Charles's Caribbean Tour Ends, a Senior Palace Aide Says Realms That No Longer Want a Monarch Face 'Absolutely No Difficulty' From the Royal Family
St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda — King Charles III's first tour of the Caribbean as monarch ended on November 4. Speaking at the close of the tour, a senior royal aide said Buckingham Palace is 'fully open' to Commonwealth realms removing the King as head of state: the King and the royal family are there to serve the people of these regions for as long as they wish, but if they no longer wish it, 'we really are fully open to that' and a new arrangement can be found — 'we have absolutely no difficulty with that.'
Outside the United Kingdom, Charles is head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, seven of them in the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. During his mother Elizabeth II's reign, 17 realms became republics while remaining in the Commonwealth. The aide cited Barbados's 2021 transition as a successful example, saying he had been in close touch with the Barbadian prime minister as it went ahead and that it was done without rancour.
The nine-day tour took in the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, culminating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua. Calls for slavery reparations and republican sentiment followed the King throughout: within hours of his arrival, Antigua and Barbuda's prime minister, Gaston Browne, told ITV News: 'I am a republican. If you asked for my personal view, I would like to see Antigua and Barbuda become a republic.' Browne added that becoming a republic requires constitutional steps — Antigua's constitution requires more than two-thirds of voters to back the change — and that the decision ultimately rests with the people. Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, said he was 'agnostic' on the subject but open to losing the King as head of state if it was the will of his people.
In his speech opening the Commonwealth summit, Charles said the transatlantic slave trade fills his heart with horror and his soul with profound sorrow, but he issued no formal apology and did not endorse reparations. Prime Minister Andy Burnham's offer, on the eve of the summit, to hold talks over a formal apology for the slave trade triggered renewed demands across the Caribbean for Britain to pay billions in compensation, leaving the King walking a diplomatic tightrope over the monarchy's own future in the region.
(Source: The Times)
Source: The Times
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：英国国王查尔斯三世2026年4月28日在美国国会联席会议发表讲话（资料图）。公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: King Charles III addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress on April 28, 2026 (file photo). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-05As Charles's Caribbean Tour Ends, a Senior Palace Aide Says Realms That No Longer Want a Monarch Face 'Absolutely No Difficulty' From the Royal FamilyThis story
