By Colin Maximin
The King is to make his first trip to the Commonwealth Realms in the Caribbean since islands dropped their pledge of allegiance to the British monarch.
The King and Queen will visit Antigua and Barbuda this autumn for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, shortly after the nation officially ended the requirement for elected officials to swear an oath of allegiance to the sovereign.
Charles III will also travel to the Bahamas and Guyana as part of an eight-day trip to the Caribbean.
This will be his first trip to the Eastern Caribbean island since it officially dropped swearing an Oath of Allegiance a few months ago.
It forms part of a challenging backdrop to the trip, which will also see the King faced with the debate over slave trade reparations and ongoing discussions over “de-realming”, in which islands could remove the monarch as head of state while remaining members of the Commonwealth.
Antigua and Barbuda passed a constitutional amendment in December 2025 to eliminate swearing loyalty to the British Crown.
Newly elected officials now pledge their allegiance directly to the state of Antigua and Barbuda, its laws, and its constitution rather than to King Charles III and his heirs.
Then, Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin, who told lawmakers the change was long overdue for a nation that has been independent since 1981.
“We will once and for all finally not be swearing to His Majesty in England, his heirs and successors in England,” he said. “We are swearing the oath of allegiance to the state of Antigua and Barbuda, its Constitution and its laws.”
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said in 2022 that he planned a referendum on the monarchy, clarifying that it was not intended as an “act of hostility”.
The late Queen Elizabeth II and now the King are understood to believe the matter is one for realms and their people to decide freely.
In 2021, the King – then Prince of Wales – delivered a speech of continued friendship at the handover ceremony in Barbados as Dame Sandra Mason was sworn in as the first President of Barbados, replacing the British monarch, and the Royal Standard was lowered.
This week, a local government official, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Telegraph that Antigua and Barbuda is planning to become a fully independent country with its own head of state.
Speaking from the island’s capital St John’s, he said:” You cannot be independent nor call yourself independent if you have a head of state so far away in a foreign land. He lives in a palace in London. We don’t even have a palace here on our island. How can that be right?”
The issue has not yet been put to a vote. Many believe that a public referendum would show significantly more quiet support for the monarchy than republican campaigners believe.
Last year, Grenada also officially dropped the Oath of Allegiance to King Charles III, “his Heirs and Successors”.
The changes came into effect on 1 August 2025, as the English speaking Caribbean marked Emancipation Day – the anniversary of the day that slavery was abolished in the British Empire.
The Bahamas, which the King will visit during his Autumn tour, has no plans to abandon nor change the oath of allegiance to the British crown.
A spokesman from its foreign office said : “There are no immediate plans to do so. The Bahamas is happy to remain a part of the British realm and commonwealth.”
The King last visited the Caribbean in 2021, when he formally acknowledged “the appalling atrocity of slavery” at an event marking Barbados becoming a republic.
He visited Antigua and Barbuda in November 2017, following the widespread devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and made official visits to Guyana in February 2000 and The Bahamas in July 1973.
The tour will last between October 27 and November 4 and will “celebrate communities, cultures and nature within the Commonwealth family”, the palace said.