King Charles III Page #5

Ayes to the left...

FOUR LOUD KNOCKS

MURMURS:

Dona eis requiem.

Empowered by ancient decree I do,

as King of England, Northern

Ireland, Wales and Scotland,

use my Royal prerogative here to

dissolve the Parliament at once.

UPROAR:

Order!

Order! Order!

Order!

Order!

I will have silence!

This noise demeans you all.

Is this the space where public

will is spoke and heard,

or just a stand for

juvenile and selfish squall?

Through petty theft, and fighting

here amongst yourselves,

you've lost the population's trust.

I am not prone to certainty,

but you have drawn that measure

in my unsure heart.

Unlike you all,

I'm born and raised to rule.

I do not choose,

but like an Albion Oak,

I'm sown in British soil,

and grown, not for myself,

but reared

with single purpose meant.

Whilst you have small constituency

support which gusts and falls

as does the wind, my cells and

organs constitute this land...

The speaker knows

it is within my right,

to sack my ministers

and call a fresh election.

SHOUTING:

Order! Order!

My speaker,

will you here confirm to them

that what I do

is well within my right

and anointed power to,

as King, demand?

Your Majesty,

if this is what you want,

then this you can, as King, command.

CLAMOUR OF VOICES

HE SWITCHES TABLET OFF

Where's Mummy gone?

Fresh air.

Cry havoc.

DOORBELL BUZZES:

DOG BARKS:

Jess! Jess!

Oh!

Bob, I'm sorry to wake you.

I-I know it's late.

Did you got her text?

Yeah, I've been trying to call.

Your Highness? Yeah?

F*** off.

CROWD NOISE AND HUBBUB

I had to find you.

You can't be out here on your own,

you'll be lynched.

I'm not on my own. Terry?

Yes, sir.

That's how I found you.

What do you want? Jess, I...

I want to say, I...I love you.

What?

Jess!

They're just using this

to get at my father.

Well, I don't want anything to do

with any of it. Or you. We're done.

Yeah, but I know you like me.

Mate, it doesn't matter.

You're a prince.

You always will be.

Come to the palace.

There's a way this can work.

Please!

Ohh!

HELICOPTER WHIRS

The crowds!

You hear?

How many guards

are standing there outside?

Please, have them tripled.

Your Majesty, these men in front

are there for tourist ceremony,

not defence.

If it's your safety that concerns...

It's my preservation - and I know

that will be served by what is seen.

The truth is

that my greatest enemies

stand not within the crowd outside,

but there, in Whitehall,

waiting for the slightest

glimpse of weakness.

Sir Matthew, when timely pressed,

you'll need to know precisely where,

to whom, your loyalty lies.

My loyalty?

Your Majesty, when we join

the forces we all swear

that, come what may, we shall

protect the King, and so we will.

SHOUTING:

You're looking at me.

Aren't you?

All the time.

You think you know me?

Well, I know nothing.

Just a plastic doll,

designed, I'm told,

to stand embodying a male-created

bland and standard wife,

whose only job

is prettying the Prince,

and then, if possible, get pregnant

with the royal and noble bump,

to there produce an heir...

..and spare.

But, being underestimated so

does mean I can observe and plan

and learn the way to rule.

Of course I understand, Dad,

but this goes way beyond...

For I will be a queen

unlike the ones before.

My mother's dad was

in the North a miner born,

my father came from Leeds,

both of them when young and

inexperienced did risk their house

and all they had to try

and make a business of their own.

But it's not just this stock I bring

to these most distant regal realms,

but something more

important and precise.

I have ambition for my husband, yes,

and I hope my son

will grow the finest King -

but if I must put up with taunts,

and make so public everything I am,

then I demand things for myself.

I ask no less than power

to achieve my will

in fair exchange

for total service to the State.

Yes, this is what, enthroned,

that I will do.

Not simply help my husband in his

crown, but wear one of my own.

How did it go?

He simply said the strength

of public voice in strong support

did give him solace

that he wasn't wrong.

This is answer clear enough to me.

He's stranded.

So, what's your plan?

Your Highness? The Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister?

I didn't ask him here. I know.

Prime Minister.

Please tell us latest news.

Last night saw violence

across the country.

In Liverpool, in Oxford,

Edinburgh, in Belfast too.

But London is the worst.

Prime Minister, I've seen what's

going on. And Parliament?

There is no Parliament.

The speaker will not open the House

for he fears it is illegal

as things stand.

So the members of Parliament do sit,

just as 400 years ago,

in Westminster Hall instead.

Services are functioning well -

schools, transport, health?

No, the schools are closed,

doctors are stretched.

The bloodshed worsens every day

we wait,

and while we in the House

attempt to calm,

the King parks a tank

in Buckingham Palace grounds.

Prime Minister, in private,

I, of course,

whole-heartedly do give my support,

but this is for Parliament to solve.

William, they can't!

Parliament is impotent.

The time has come to go

and halt this mess.

Your Highness, you are the only way.

And what am I to do?

You know full well. I can't.

Then, sir, I think you will be

Prince no more.

For none that follow

will be King again.

George.

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!

George, come back inside, please.

I'm so sorry! He just ran away.

Go back inside, OK?

Mummy and I are talking.

Prime Minister,

go back to Number 10.

You can leave this to me.

I will bring an end to this

unnecessary episode.

I thank you, sir.

For reasons

you don't need to understand,

a picture made of Jessica

that is quite intimate

has made its way into the pages

of a national paper.

There is attack towards her worse

than I have seen

against Kate, or me, or Mum,

or you...

and now she wants to leave me,

cos of this.

If I defend the freedom of the

press, it's with the knowledge they

will never live up

to a higher standard.

Naked girls, young boys

will illustrate their pages,

and they'll make hypocrisy an art,

insisting that they stand

chief moralist

while making cash

as base pornographer.

I know this much.

So, all that we can do...

..is stand our ground.

For, if they're free to

print this dirt,

then we have liberty,

as well, to answer back.

So now you have my word,

you have the royal protection

and respect.

Whatever we can do to help, we will.

You will be welcome in our family.

Wait, no, that isn't that we want.

Come, Harry, now it's done.

I do not want her

noble princess made.

Instead descend myself

into the mass,

cast off the princely burden

of my birth

and for my life be Harry,

man and friend,

with job, and house

and car and maybe wife.

It isn't possible.

We make no fuss

'cept that I've moved, found work.

I'll have

no role official and not prince,

I'll live a life of normalcy,

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