Why the King’s patience finally snapped after Harry’s endless flip-flopping on Palace stay: REBECCA ENGLISH reveals how Charles was pushed to breaking point by ‘chaos, disruption and disrespect’

This was, as one insider put it, ‘the day the King lost his patience’.

After weeks of hesitation and flip-flopping, not to mention repeated leaks and briefings from Team Sussex, Her Majesty has been pushed to breaking point. That’s enough.

It wasn’t the embarrassment it caused him personally to see family difficulties play out in such a public arena that drove him to spank his young son.

This was, as one source described it to me yesterday, ‘annoyance and disrespect’ towards his staff.

You see, Buckingham Palace isn’t quite ready for visitors right now, let alone ones as high-profile as the boss’s son.

It is currently largely a construction site (and will remain so until next year) and is unsuitable for guests.

However, the royal family was still keen to prepare rooms for Prince Harry when he arrived in the UK last night and to have a team on hand to cater to his every whim by changing existing staff arrangements.

However, the constant going back and forth had caused the King’s patience to wear thin.

Her Majesty, who stopped the staff team again on Saturday morning after yet another rejection from her son, was stunned when a few hours later she received a request to ask ‘Dad’ if he could take the rooms.

And the answer (which I understand was given directly to Harry) was an unequivocal ‘No’. ‘I’m sorry, but you’re too late.’ Definitely not just 48 hours ago.

It was ‘discomfort and disrespect’ towards his staff that led the King to slap his young son, a source told yesterday.

Harry with his children Lilibet and Archie, whom he hopes to bring to the UK for a visit

The Palace highlighted another element in the situation. This was by no means a decisive factor but it added ‘further complexity’ to events and was apparently thought to have endangered the King’s constitutional position.

Today, the High Court will decide on the Duke of Sussex’s lawsuit against Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers, alleging illegal information collection. This was strongly denied and challenged by the Mail.

So why did Harry’s team suddenly release a dramatic statement yesterday morning announcing that he had accepted his father’s offer?

Those in royal circles say there are only two possible theories. The first was that Harry had not clearly communicated his father’s response to his staff (unlikely, given that he would arrive in England in just a few hours, right?). Or second, this was a clear attempt to ‘force’ his father to reverse his decision.

But perhaps there is a third possibility. The angry prince doesn’t care anymore and wants to embarrass his family to the maximum.

Either way, Harry’s arrival last night was once again mired in the same atmosphere of chaos, confusion, claims and counter-claims that has characterized all of his dealings with Buckingham Palace in recent years.

Hopes among courtiers that the Duke of Sussex might for once enjoy a simple and “peaceful” reconciliation with his father (perhaps along with his two beautiful children) are now as pipedreaming as ever.

And even within royal circles, which openly admit that the establishment has not always handled the ‘Sussex affair’ perfectly, there are many who believe this is a mess entirely of Harry’s own making.

Team Sussex argue that the duke was busy trying to carry out his own plans as he was hit hard at the 11th hour by the Home Office security committee RAVEC, which refused to restore his full-time security while he and his family were in Britain.

A spokesman said it was ‘disappointing that the proposal has been withdrawn’. . . ‘at the last minute’.

However, it is worth noting that the prince’s trip to his native country this week has been taking more than a year to plan; The week-long formal engagements are centered around a major event in the Midlands on Friday to mark the 12-month countdown to the laudable Invictus Games for injured service personnel.

His team began organizing the visit knowing full well that when he chose to leave the UK and relinquish his royal duties, he had decisively lost his battle in the High Court against Her Majesty’s Government over the Home Office’s decision to deprive him of 24-hour taxpayer-funded police protection.

It should be noted that this was a decision he opposed, accusing the courts administering justice on behalf of his father of collusion in the ‘Establishment’ and claiming that they had made it impossible for him to imagine a time when he could safely return his wife and children.

Its critics argue that it makes no sense.

From what I understand, Buckingham Palace’s offer of a royal stay was real.

However, despite repeated requests for clarity, an official response to Harry and his family’s offer of accommodation at the royal residence was not received until a ‘due deadline’ at the end of last week.

While every effort has been made to facilitate his stay as a courtesy to staff and others concerned, minimal notice is required from members of the household to ensure he can be ‘appropriately accommodated’ in a royal residence.

Since the offer was first made, all indications from the duke and his senior staff have remained that the accommodation is deemed ‘inappropriate’, despite it being one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, with men brandishing machine guns on every corner.

Sources say it has reached a point where Charles cannot handle the “constant chaos” that comes hand in hand with his young son

This was a recurring concern until Saturday morning, when the prince once again formally rejected the King’s offer. Later in the day a ‘belated request’ was received to accept the accommodation offered for the Tuesday evening, but by then appropriate hospitality and staffing was no longer available.

Following personal consultation with the King, the decision to decline the offer was communicated to Harry ‘through appropriate channels’.

Asked if there was any doubt in Harry’s mind about this decision, a source said they could not comment on the details but could ‘confirm that the duke was aware’.

This certainly explains Team Sussex’s disappointment with the Palace yesterday following the unexpected announcement that the Duke of Sussex will be staying at his father’s official residence in London.

The Palace’s pithy response, which contained unmistakable shades of ‘recollections may vary’, came just minutes later; It was a sign, if necessary, of their great displeasure.

It was clear that the king was running out of patience. Sources say it got to the point where Charles couldn’t handle the “constant chaos” that came hand in hand with his young son.

While some commentators yesterday suggested that this decision was a sign of malevolence and poor parenting by the King, who has hundreds of rooms at his disposal, this is a gross misrepresentation and misunderstanding of how both he and the royal family operate. The King, who we must remember is a man currently undergoing treatment for cancer and who has worked throughout his diagnosis, is the last person who would want to pour fuel on the fire of a very fragile family relationship.

In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that he seems a little upset, if not perhaps surprised, by recent events. But it happened. So where does all this leave father and son?

I am told that Her Majesty has still not ruled out seeing her son in the next few days, despite recent provocations, but yesterday’s events have clearly made this even more difficult.

King Charles has an extremely busy work week, filled with hard work every day.

As for meeting the grandchildren, having barely seen them since they were born – and haven’t even been in the country for four years – it seems even more difficult because Harry apparently hasn’t yet decided whether it’s ‘safe’ to bring them from their holiday home in Europe.

But the prince made clear he still wanted to find a way to bring them to England towards the weekend, when his work will take him to the Midlands and beyond.

One can only hope that, for Buckingham Palace, the next few days will go more smoothly than the previous ones and that such a meeting will be possible.

But as an insider put it yesterday: ‘Experience does not inspire much confidence in this regard.’