King Charles III is grappling with the unknowns of a cancer of unspecified nature, diagnosed over a year ago , and which has never entered remission beyond the positive signs that have accompanied the almost normal resumption of his public activity for several months now.
The 76-year-old British sovereign - expected in Italy for a state visit from April 7 to 10 - had to cancel all of his scheduled appointments yesterday and today due to some "side effects" experienced during a final session of the unspecified type of cancer treatments he continues to undergo. The news, made public in the evening by Buckingham Palace, was downplayed as something of no concern by the court. Meanwhile, the trip to Italy is not currently being discussed. However, it was a problem that prompted doctors to recommend Elizabeth II's firstborn "a short period" of hospital stay of a few hours "under observation"; followed by an evening return to his London residence.
"Following scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer, The King this morning experienced temporary side effects which required a short period of observation in hospital. His Majesty has now returned to Clarence House but, as a precautionary measure, tomorrow's appointments will also be rescheduled," the palace said. The monarch will therefore have to forgo a busy visit to Birmingham today. In addition to having cancelled yesterday's audiences with three ambassadors and his announced attendance at a classical music concert conducted by Riccardo Muti: Verdi's Requiem, performed this evening by the Philarmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
The king "very much hopes to be able to reschedule" the missed appointments "in due course, and offers his deepest apologies to those who worked so hard to make the visit to Birmingham possible", we read in the official note released by the palace. A note that does not contain details on the side effects evoked. But to which a source within the court cited by the BBC adds some apparently reassuring elements, stating that it was "a minor hitch on the road that continues to go decidedly in the right direction" of restored health. Meanwhile, as evidence of a not excessive alarm, there are those who note how the 77-year-old Queen Camilla, who according to plans is due to accompany her husband to Italy in about ten days, has kept her agenda unchanged by regularly visiting the set of a British television series.
Signs that comfort the expectation of a confirmation of the mission to the Peninsula, a country much loved by Charles and in which the royals of the House of Windsor - as part of the various institutional and private stages scheduled between Rome and Ravenna - also intend to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their disputed but now very solid marriage, on the 9th. A trip that has remained on the calendar despite the cancellation and postponement of the State visit to the Holy See initially scheduled for the first day : a visit that should have culminated in the celebration of the Jubilee together with Pope Francis, but which was "postponed by mutual agreement" in recent days on the basis of the indication of the doctors of the 88-year-old pontiff, recovering from a long hospital stay for pneumonia at Gemelli, to stick to "a prolonged period" of convalescence and strict rest.
(Online Union)
