The Throne Room Was the Perfect Place to Protest

On Monday, anti-monarchy campaign group Republic managed something that, frankly, I didn’t think was possible.

Activists entered Buckingham Palace during public tours and unfurled a large banner inside the Throne Room. It featured an image of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor alongside Jeffrey Epstein, held beside a second banner reading: “What did you know?”

I’ll admit, I was almost impressed by the logistics alone. If you’ve ever toured Buckingham Palace during the limited summertime open window, you know that security is no joke. Bags1 are checked, visitors are screened, and movement through the State Rooms is carefully managed. Getting a protest banner into the palace and deploying it inside one of the monarchy’s most symbolic spaces was no small feat.

The message, of course, was aimed at King Charles and Prince William. But will they have seen it? That’s another question altogether—not least because they both currently have what could politely be described as a “hybrid working model” and will, these days, rarely be found at the Buckingham Palace water coolers.

Buckingham Palace has always served two purposes. It has been the monarch’s home, but it has also been the public face of the institution. It’s where crowds gather annually for balcony appearances, where television cameras and lines of reporters set up during major royal events, and where protesters go when they want to make a statement about the monarchy.