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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Ravi Holy

He may be the king, but is Charles also a bit of a traitor? Dear reader, you decide

King Charles and Queen Camilla with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally (left), at St Peter's church in Wolferton, on the Sandringham estate, Norfolk, 25 January 2026.
King Charles and Queen Camilla with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally (left), at St Peter's church in Wolferton, on the Sandringham estate, Norfolk, 25 January 2026. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

We need to talk about King Charles and specifically this: is the British monarch basically a traitor? Dr Gavin Ashenden is a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, and he says he may be. The king is attempting to change the job description of the British monarch from “defender of the faith” to the more inclusive “protector of the space for faith within the multifaith nation”, and you can see why someone who regularly appears on GB News to lament the “woke takeover” of the church and who suggests that Islam is inherently and uniquely violent would object to this. And then some.

“While the monarch cannot technically be a traitor, we might take refuge in grammar and find that the verb carries our feelings even if the noun cannot,” spluttered Ashenden. “Parliament and the oath it presented to the king as a condition of being crowned are betrayed; the Church of England is betrayed. The constitution is betrayed; Anglicans are specifically betrayed. And Christians in general will legitimately feel abandoned at the very least. Some of them too will feel betrayed.”

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