Imagine, if you will, King Charles in the Deep South. The aesthetics are easy enough: it doesn’t take much to picture His Majesty in crumpled linen, Her Majesty the right side of a large mint julep. But imagine if, in Richmond, Virginia, Charleston or New Orleans, His Majesty makes an off-the-cuff comment about how good it would be if the territories he was speaking in seceded from the United States and that it would be ‘a very great thing’ if claims of the Confederacy were honoured. His Majesty, in a show of tact, acknowledges that Washington D.C. might be a little miffed, but does so with a chuckle. After all, everyone knows that the aspirations of the US are old hat anyway.

Except of course the King didn’t do that. He went to Washington and was the epitome of grace and charm. He sought to honour America’s traditions and history and steered clear of any controversies. He certainly at no point questioned its territorial integrity, even as it threatened the position of one of his realms to its immediate north.

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Contrast the King’s behaviour with that of Donald Trump this week in Dublin, where he claimed that the annexation of British territory in Northern Ireland by the Republic would be ‘a great thing’. His comment comes off the back of months of joint sabre-rattling with Israel about the Falkland Islands.

The long, zombified existence of the Monroe Doctrine means that many of the claims to territory now held by the US, at least as valid as republican claims to Northern Ireland, have been brushed under........

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