Prince Charles once angered his mother Queen Elizabeth by snubbing a royal engagement.
The Prince of Wales was a no show at a state dinner hosted for the Chinese President at the Chinese embassy in London.
WATCH: Palace fury as Prince Charles embarrasses the Queen
In the 2017 Channel 4 documentary, ‘The Royal House of Windsor’, there were protests at the time against China’s human rights abuses as well as its occupation of Tibet.
Royal reporter Richard Kay says Charles was taking a stance by not attending the event.
Kay revealed: “By not attending on this occasion, he was not only letting down the monarchy, he was embarrassing his mother.
“Those who work for the Prince of Wales didn’t have an explanation other than that he had an unbreakable arrangement elsewhere.”
Kay went on to reveal that Charles didn’t warn Her Majesty that he wasn’t going to attend.
He added: “The monarchy was expected to put on a show.”
“We were trying to foster good trading relations with China, and in order to do that all parts of the state system has to work smoothly.”
“And the Royal Family, as ever, had a big part to play, they were really rolling out the red carpet.”
The royal reporter says there was an “expectation that Charles would be there” and his no show embarrassed his mother as he was expressing his political opinion whilst simultaneously violating the rule of the Royal Family remaining politically neutral.
Kay concluded: “Having a significant figure like the Prince of Wales, heir in line, signal his disapproval of what’s going on in Beijing was damaging in the extreme.
“Buckingham Palace’s response was one of anger – so angry, in fact, that some of their senior officials briefed journalists about what they described as a ‘petulant and selfish’ prince.”
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