Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival

Endgame by Omid Scobie explores the internal dynamics of the British royal family, from key players to important machinery that helps the Firm run. Published in 2023, the book comes at a time when questions and conversations abound about the role and relevance of the monarchy.

Some form of monarchy exists in more than a fifth of the world’s formally recognized nation-states. Besides Europe, monarchies are present in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Many of these can be traced back to the British Empire. The British monarch is still the head of state of the Commonwealth realms, which include Canada and Australia. Understandably so, the monarchy still prevails in Britain. However, their influence over other nations has been waning over the years, with more than one Commonwealth nation seeking to cut ties with their colonial parent. Scobie describes how Barbados removed the Queen as the head of state months after her death, and Jamaica awaits a referendum in 2024 to decide on its fate as a future republic.

Despite this, the British royal family is still relatively popular, largely because of the public interest in the family itself and how this fuels business for the tabloids. Scobie expounds on the British monarchy’s relationship with the media and how their presence in public consciousness is partly owed to this relationship. However, there has been a downtick in the institution’s popularity, especially after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Questions emerged regarding the relevance of the monarchy and why it still exists, especially ahead of King Charles’s coronation. In keeping with this, Scobie begins his narrative with the Queen’s death and concludes it with Charles’s coronation, a period that truly underscored the uncertainty facing the monarchy.

There are several reasons for the monarchy’s persistence despite the changing times, the largest being that it forms a part of British culture, tradition, and national identity. Despite the arguments present in Scobie’s book and otherwise for the removal of the monarchy (the expense; the foundations of colonialism and the wealth of enslaved peoples; the prevalent sexist, classist, and racist attitudes), neither of the two major political parties in the country supports its abolition. There is immense national pride in the claim to the 1,000-year-old unbroken historical link represented in the royal family, and the Firm employs “the deft use of pageantry and ceremony” to reiterate its relevance and establish its influence (“As a King Is Crowned, Some Britons Ask Why the Monarchy Persists.” The New York Times). In keeping with this, Scobie examines several traditional and ceremonial events in the book, including the Queen’s funeral and Charles’s coronation.

However, the monarchy will need much more than pageantry and ceremony to survive the changing times, and Scobie’s book ends on an ominous note. The family and the institution have been beset by one crisis after another. While the book examines a host of these, more have emerged after its publication. In early 2024, less than a year after Endgame’s release, the Palace announced King Charles’s cancer diagnosis. Around the same time, there was increasing speculation regarding Kate’s absence from public life following surgery. This was fueled by a doctored photograph that engendered numerous conspiracy theories and eventually culminated in an announcement of a second cancer diagnosis—Kate’s. These ongoing challenges support the idea that the British monarchy is still in a state of flux and uncertainty. Scobie’s observations, and subsequent predictions in the book regarding the monarchy’s future, are yet to be fully tested.