King Charles III had nothing to do with the Northern Ireland trade deal unveiled on Monday by Britain and the European Union. But no one would be unreasonable if he said that he expressed his royal consent to the agreement.

It is called “Windsor Frame” after the name of the king. He was sealed away in a luxury hotel in Windsor, west of London, where he owns a castle. It was there, at Windsor Castle, that Charles invited one of the negotiators, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to tea, minutes after she and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled the deal to the public.

This stormy visit, and the resulting photo of a smiling king appearing in honor of his guest, provoked an angry backlash from critics who said the government had unduly enlisted King Charles as an ally on one of the most contentious issues in British politics. By tradition, the British constitutional monarch does not interfere in politics, not to mention … the waves of Brexit.

Buckingham Palace and Downing Street seem to disagree over who initiated the meeting with von der Leyen. The palace said the king was acting on the “advice of the government” and a spokesman for the prime minister said Sunak was “strongly convinced that such decisions should be made by the king”.

To many, this may seem like a minor argument about protocol. However, historians note that the British monarch is an influential figure for supporters of a political union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who are also the main opponents of the trade deal. Unionists advocate the preservation of the northern part of the United Kingdom and declare loyalty to the British monarch. By giving the king such a prominent role in making the deal and sealing it in Windsor’s name, some observers say the government makes it harder for the unions to reject it.

“By calling it the ‘Windsor Accord’, the government was trying to imply that [ο Κάρολος] supports it,” said Vernon Bogdanor, an expert on constitutional monarchy at King’s College London. “I think the king is in a particularly difficult position.”

Other royal observers were less inclined to forgive Charles for his enthusiastic role in the events of the day. They said that the king and his courtiers were shortsighted in agreeing to meet with von der Leyen because of Charles’s desire to show off his political status, to be in the spotlight and on the right side of history.

“He could meet her today, tomorrow or next week,” said Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent. “It’s up to him and his people to decide if now is the right time – and it’s not. Their judgment was clouded because they were flattered by the prospect of being in the spotlight.”

Monarchs meet regularly with foreign leaders at the request of the government. Sometimes these leaders are not particularly pleasant: Queen Elizabeth II met with Nicolae Ceausescu, the despised dictator of Romania, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who even “set her up.” Charles hosted a banquet for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa a week before he was charged with money laundering.

“We don’t know whether he supported the deal or not,” Bogdanor said of the king’s meeting with von der Leyen, “but in any case, he was obliged to agree.”

What makes this event more grim is that Charles, by instinct and experience, will likely accept the Windsor frame. The deal aims to strengthen the United Kingdom and restore relations between the UK and the European Union. Although the King has never publicly commented on Brexit, he hinted at his point of view in a speech to the German Parliament in 2020 when he said that “no country is an island.”

What’s more, Charles is a man of passionate political convictions who spans battles from climate change to organic farming, something his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, never did. He was disappointed when the government of Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, advised him not to attend the UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last fall, according to people associated with the palace.

Charles admitted upon his return to the throne in September that he would have to give up any political struggle. He didn’t mind the government’s advice to skip the climate conference, but instead hosted a brilliant reception at Buckingham Palace on the eve of the event. The guest list included John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, and Stella McCartney, a fashion designer and Paul McCartney’s daughter who promotes sustainable manufacturing.

According to palace officials, climate change was one of the items on the agenda of the king’s meeting with von der Leyen, as was Russia’s war in Ukraine. Charles welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Buckingham Palace earlier this month when he visited London to address Parliament and urge the UK to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with fighter jets.

In view of this visit, the government put aside questions about the king’s meeting with the chairman of the Commission. “Ursula von der Leyen is a very senior international figure,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverley told LBC radio. “Therefore, as part of our hospitality to foreign visitors, it is not unusual to facilitate such a meeting.”

But the political establishment widely acknowledges British support for Ukraine. On the other hand, the post-Brexit trade regime for Northern Ireland is the subject of an almost…theological debate between Brexit hardliners in the Sannock Conservative Party and unionist politicians in Northern Ireland.

Both groups expressed dissatisfaction with the king’s presence. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Eurosceptic Conservative MP and former minister, told GB News that “the monarch should only intervene when everything is done and accepted.”

Arlene Foster, former First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, tweeted: “This is rude and will be taken very poorly by Northern Ireland. We must remember that this is not a decision of the king, but of a government that does not seem to be paying attention.”

Part of this concern may reflect the importance of the monarchy to unions. Bogdanor said unionists tended to view their loyalty to the king in more conventional terms than the citizens of England, for whom loyalty was almost innate. According to him, the heart of this relationship was the preservation of the union.

“The King has enormous influence in Northern Ireland,” he said. “He’s the one who separates the Unionists from the Nationalists.”

Yet Charles has been on the throne for less than seven months. His mother ruled for 70 years, making her an iconic figure in Belfast, where her portrait appears on murals in the city’s Unionist quarters. Some experts predicted that the debate over the king’s role would quickly die down as union members busied themselves with reading the text of the Windsor Accords.

“If there was a queen in his place, this could be a serious problem,” said Cathy Hayward, professor of politics at Queen’s University Belfast. “But I haven’t seen or heard anything to suggest that it caused anything more than mere disapproval.”