Secretary to Prince Charles an attack dog who turned on his master

LONDON - Three years ago there was little doubt about Mark Bolland's standing in royal circles. Among his nicknames were the Machiavelli of the House of Windsor and the Attack Dog of the Prince of Wales.

The former deputy private secretary to Prince Charles was credited with rehabilitating the public image of the Prince following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

His proudest work was transforming Camilla Parker Bowles from a marriage-wrecker to the accepted consort of the heir to the throne.

But Bolland, 39, turned on his former master by providing a witness statement in the High Court in which he exposed the Prince's belief that he was a political "dissident".

Little surprise, then, that when his participation in the journal proceedings became known, Clarence House tried to keep his testimony secret.

Project Camilla reached fruition last year with the couple's marriage in Windsor Guildhall and blessing before the Queen and 750 guests, including Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But Bolland, both admired and loathed in royal circles for his PR charm and guile, was not invited.

The Prince's one-time confidant (he was one of only two officials who helped him bring Diana's body back from France in 1997), left his royal public relations post in 2003.

Royal insiders made it clear that Bolland had angered several key figures during rows between Charles and members of the royal family.

Of particular note was the humiliation of Prince Edward when his production firm was caught flouting a ban on filming at St Andrews University while Prince William was studying there. While Bolland described Charles as being "incandescent", friends of the Prince claimed his PR man inflamed the situation.

It was widely assumed the arrival in 2002 of Sir Michael Peat, a trusted palace apparatchik, as Charles' private secretary heralded Bolland's exit.

Within six months Bolland was gone and his efforts to avoid several PR disasters, including the decisions to prosecute the royal butler Paul Burrell and rule out a public inquiry into the collapse of the trial, forgotten.

He wasted little time in giving as good as he got. Writing in the News of the World two years ago, Bolland said of the Prince: "Nothing he now does seems to interest anyone other than mystical eccentrics, subsidy-loving farmers and traditionalists."

It is all a long way from the moment that became known as Together Day, when Charles and Camilla were photographed in public alongside each other for the first time in 1999. The event, of course, was a Bolland arrangement.

The allegiances may have shifted but the ability of the one-time courtier to generate headlines about Charles is undiminished.

- INDEPENDENT