King Charles spent decades preparing for his ascension to the throne. His reign promises to be unlike his mother

LONDON – In the millennial history of the British Royal Family, no heir has prepared for the crown longer. King Charles III.

He ascended the throne next Thursday the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, fulfilled a destiny set for him at the age of 3, when she became monarch in 1952. Charles’s wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, now holds the title queen consort.

While Elizabeth was crowned at the age of 27, Charles is 73 years oldolder at his ascension than any other king in English history.

Charles is now also the head Commonwealth, a post-colonial group of 54 independent nations, comprising 2.4 billion people. He is head of state for 15 of those countries – including Canada and Australia – although the queen’s death is likely to cause a heated debate in the Caribbean and elsewhere about giving up their former colonial custodians for good.

Extreme privileges, controversies and family drama are over 7 decades of waiting for the new king. And there has long been a debate about what kind of man he would be after the queen’s quiet, widespread reign.

The new king is a millionaire by birthright. His defenders say he is the hardest working royal, a tireless campaigner for charities who fought to preserve long before such issues became fashionable, causing ridicule in a world that had yet to wake up to the looming global warming crisis.

But while the queen is the most popular person in the royal family, liked by 75% of the people, according to a running tracker voted by YouGovCharles is liked by 42% and disliked by 24% of the British public.

Many experts believe that unfaithful marriage to Princess Diana and the unpopular royal treatment of her death in 1997. Others say it was because of the public political positions he took – a taboo for royals. supposedly apolitical and dramatic departure from his strict carefree mother.

The controversy surrounding some of his positions is not a secret to the new monarch.

“As you may have noticed sometimes, I tend to make a habit of sticking my head above the railing and generally getting it shot for pointing out what’s always been obvious to me,” he said. in a speech in January 2014.

What complicates his opinions is the fact that Britain has a constitutional monarchy, which is very different from the type of absolute monarchy that wields full political power, not the people. owners in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

So the monarchs are the British head of state but do not hold real direct political power. They appoint governments, reopen Parliament after recess and pass new laws. But that’s all rubber stamping ritual duties; So far, there is no doubt that the crown may attempt to interfere. If it did, there will be a political crisis.

The king or queen has weekly meetings with the prime minister. As the famous 19th-century essayist Walter Bagehot wrote in 1867, British sovereignty has “three rights–the right to advise, the right to encourage, the right to warn.”

The new king said he would take a different approach as a monarch than he did as a prince, telling the BBC in 2018 that it was “complete” to suggest he would go public in politics. pointless”, because “I’m not that stupid.”

“You just have to see Shakespeare’s plays, ‘Henry V’ or ‘Henry IV’ parts I and 2, to see the change that can happen. Because if you become a sovereign, then you play role the way it’s expected,” he said. “So, of course, you operate within constitutional parameters.”

Even so, some critics believe that his storied views could trigger a constitutional crisis if the government adopts the stance he has advocated before – from supporting farmers to criticizing. browse controversial architecture – even without evidence that he actually interfered.

The Queen always seems to be suitable for this quiet, imperative role, full of high soft power but little hard power. In contrast, the new king always appeared awkward.

He was born at Buckingham Palace on the evening of 14 November 1948, while his father, Prince Philip, played squash. Outside, Britain is recovering from the devastation of World War II. The streets of London remain Ruins from Blitz, and its people faced severe economic hardship that led to the foundation of the country’s modern welfare system. Inside the palace, Prince Charles has entered a parallel world with immense privileges, but also predetermined obligations.

“The newborn heir was taken by the royal midwife to the vast gilded ballroom” and placed in a crib “for the royal courtiers to see,” writes Sally Bedell Smith in her unauthorized biography, “The Crown Prince Charles: The passions and paradoxes of one thing don’t improve Life.” As soon as Charles was born, Smith said, he was “officially public property”.

Less than 4 years later, he became the heir to the throne after his grandfather’s death George VU. It was not an easy childhood, Smith and other royal biographers and historians agree. His mother and disciplinarian father were frequently absent, touring the Commonwealth for months at a time and missing the first two Christmases and Charles’ third birthday.

Charles was a “very sensitive and emotional” young man, so his “alpha male” father tried to train him by sending him to Gordonstoun, a rudimentary, spartan-style boarding school in Scotland, royal biographer Tina Brown told NBC News. ‘Keir Simmons for his podcast “Born to Rule” this year. This is “absolutely the story of his life” – Charles’ family “repeatedly tries to push him into this mold, because he’s the future king, for which he doesn’t fit,” Brown said. .

He graduated with a GPA, later describing the experience as “a prison sentence.”

At the age of 21, Charles told a BBC radio program that realizing he was going to be king was “something that makes you realize with the most ghastly, unshakable feeling.”