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Volgens een expert wacht prins Harry op excuses van prins William

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- The drama of Prince Harry and Prince Williams sibling conflict has been unfolding and escalating over the past few years, becoming increasingly messy. But, this is not the first time a close family bond has fallen apart in a monarchy. And nor is this one the worst as it doesn't involve any murders or executions. See, the Harry/William feud doesn't sound so bad now. In royal families, there's only one throne to sit on, so there's bound to be drama queens and kings and princes, and well, you get the idea. Let's go back and take a look at the most famous royal feuds in history, starting with the most recent. (bell dings) The Young Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex were assigned really specific roles in the family. The Heir and the Spare, and the family treated the princes accordingly. In spite of that inherent favoritism and tragedy, the princes weren't at always at odds growing up. But the different treatment continued outside the family and in the media. Headlines chronicled Harry as a scandal-prone troublemaker, not always without reason. While William typically escaped criticism, whether or not he was involved, and sometimes he was. All that being said, 2017 marked the first deep fractures in the relationship. William warned a love-struck Harry not to rush his relationship with Meghan Markle. However, the younger Prince did not love this advice, and instead went on to marry Markle the very next year in 2018. And the couple apparently did not receive the warmest of welcomes. Harry resented William for not doing more to welcome the American actress into the royal family. Meanwhile, later accounts stated William believed his sister-in-law had an agenda that could hurt the monarchy. (bell dings) Harry claims a fight about Markle, sparked by the vicious tabloid coverage, led to a physical altercation between brothers. Whoa. By March, 2019, William and Harry's royal household split apart, and then Harry and Meghan announced a step back from their Senior roles, which only ended up intensifying the feud. In a meeting between Harry, William, then Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, (bell rings) Harry says his brother screamed at him. Whoa, again. Since moving to California Harry has openly discussed how his family and the British press have treated him. - Was the move about getting away from the UK press? Because the press is, you know, is everywhere. Or was the move because you weren't getting enough support from the firm? - It was both - But Harry and William weren't the first pair of brothers to feud in the royal family, by a long shot. Or the first to be faced with the choice between love and the throne. (bell dings) Brothers Edward VIII and Albert, also known as Bertie, were respectively the Heir and the Spare, like William and Harry. There are considerable parallels between the generations, but this feud was even higher stakes with a country at war and the world in the balance. It all really started when Edward VIII ascended to the British throne following the death of his father, George V, in January, 1936. This posed a problem for Edward. Becoming King of England also meant becoming the head of the Church of England. And at the time, the Anglican Church did not permit divorced people to remarry if their former spouses were still alive. Here's the thing, Edward had fallen for the twice-divorced American socialite, Wallis Simpson, and wasn't about to give her up. So he abdicated in December, 1936 before his upcoming spring coronation. Next in the line of succession was, of course, Bertie who didn't even wanna be king, but he accepted the job anyway taking on the name George VI and making his older brother the Duke of Windsor. But instead of heading off into the sunset, the Duke continued to plague (telephone ringing) the New King with all kinds of requests. He wanted his new wife to be granted. the title of Her Royal Highness, expected an allowance from the state, and even lied about his financial status. Edward only became an even bigger headache for George. In October, 1937, Edward and Simpson partied with Nazis and met Adolf Hitler in Germany. Edward and Wallis remained in quasi-exile following World War II, with George remaining weary of their Nazis sympathies. Jumping back to the 16th century things become a bit more deadly. (bell dings) Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I of England never even met in real life, but they still managed to have a lethal feud. Death seemed to follow Mary wherever she went. Her involvement in the murder of her second husband was questionable, especially when she married his suspected killer. The Scottish Nobles made her abdicate the throne in favor of her infant son, James. Mary escaped imprisonment and fled to England in 1568, where she turned to her cousin-once-removed, Elizabeth I. But Elizabeth was concerned about losing her crown to Mary. Some believed Mary claimed that the English throne was stronger than Elizabeth's. You see, Mary's grandmother, Margaret, was the older sister of Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII. Birthright wasn't the only factor in the feud as Mary's Catholic supporters seemed to install her on the throne to replace the Protestant, Elizabeth. Elizabeth decided to keep her cousin under house arrest, which worked just fine until a plot to assassinate Elizabeth came to light in 1586. After Mary was found guilty, her death warrant was signed and she was executed. Feud over. Elizabeth wasn't the only ruler with a family rivalry that ended in death. Moving outside the UK, and roughly 1,000 years prior, (bell dings) Cleopatra VII took care of her siblings one by one after she ascended to the Egyptian throne in 51 BCE. Her co-ruler, brother, and husband drowned in the Nile River, probably due to fighting or fleeing Caesar's forces. Her younger sister didn't get off easy either. Arsinoe IV had tried to claim the Egyptian throne amidst Cleopatra's fight with Ptolemy XI, but Cleopatra had a new lover, Mark Anthony, for help. In 41 BCE Anthony arranged for Arsinoe to be put to death. Cleopatra's peace from her feuding siblings wasn't meant to last though. 10 years later, Anthony and Cleopatra's forces were defeated and Cleopatra killed herself, probably using poison. Monarchy, royalty, the crown. These may come and go, twist and turn, rise and fall throughout history, but family feuds, those are forever.

For the past few years, the world has been fascinated by the unfolding drama of Prince Harry and Prince William’s sibling conflict. But they aren’t the only ones to see a close sibling bond fall apart amid the public pressures of their roles. 

In royal families, there’s only one throne to sit on, so there have been feuds over who gets to reign. Some heirs lower down in the line of succession have criticized the current king or queen or attempted to seize power themselves. Other royals have fallen out over who will be forced to wear the crown.

From how Cleopatra’s rule in Egypt affected her siblings to conflicts between princely brothers, these five famous royal feuds are examples of what can go awry in royal families. There are the highest of stakes in these conflicts: the losers may be imprisoned, exiled, or even executed.

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