CHARLES 3. At 73, Charles succeeded his mother by becoming king of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in 2022. A look back at the life of the monarch.
Charles III will have been the heir to wait the longest to accede to the throne: on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022, he was already 73 years old. Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor, Prince of Wales, is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was born on November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace in London. He was four years old when his mother acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952. After graduating with a “Bachelor of Arts” in anthropology, history and archeology at Trinity College Cambridge, Prince Charles completed his military duty in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976, before commencing his service in the navy. From his first marriage to Diana Spencercelebrated on July 29, 1981, two sons were born, Prince William, born June 21, 1982, and Prince Harry, born September 15, 1984. The tragic death of Diana in 1997, a few months after their divorce, caused a crisis of the British monarchy.
On April 9, 2005, Charles married his teenage sweetheart Camilla Parker Bowles for the second time. Prince Charles took an early interest in ecology. From 2007, it began to publish its “annual ecological footprint” by communicating regularly on its actions in favor of the quality of the environment. From 2008, he created a global fund to raise awareness about the destruction of tropical forests. Accompanied by his wife Camilla Parker Bowles, he devotes many trips to awareness campaigns dedicated to the ecological cause. In the last years of his mother’s life, Charles took more and more part in the obligations incumbent on the monarch, to relieve Queen Elisabeth, whose health was weakening. He was proclaimed King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth on Saturday September 10 in the heart of St. James’s Palace in London, two days after the death of his mother.
Prince Charles, baptized Charles Philip Arthur George, was born on November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace. He is the eldest son of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and her husband Prince Philip. His mother became queen in 1953 when he was four years old. He therefore becomes the heir apparent, that is to say the first in the order of succession, to the crown of England.
Charles is made Duke of Cornwall and acquires other titles of nobility. He is raised by governesses, alongside his younger sister, Princess Anne. At the age of 7, he joined Hill House School in London and then Cheam Preparatory School in Berkshire. He was enrolled by his father at Gordonstoun School, a high school boarding school in the North-East of Scotland of which he had very bad memories and where he was harassed by his comrades. His years of study and the establishments he attended met royal and diplomatic imperatives. Sensitive to literature and theatre, he graduated in anthropology, archeology and history from Trinity College in Cambridge.
Of a rather intellectual and reserved character, Charles frequented many young women during his twenties. From 1971 to 1976, Charles completed his military service in the Navy, then the Air Force. In 1971, he met Camilla Shand at a party, through Lucia Santa Cruz, daughter of the former Chilean ambassador to London and Charles’ former girlfriend. The prince is under the spell of Camilla and they have a relationship. Their relationship ended when Charles left for the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. When he returned eight months later, Camilla was engaged to longtime boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles, whom she married in 1973. At almost thirty years old, pressed to marry by his family and by British opinion, Charles marries Diana.
On February 24, 1981, Charles’ engagement was announced to Lady Diana Spencer, a 19-year-old noblewoman. The wedding was celebrated on July 29, 1981 in the presence of 2,500 guests gathered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The event is televised worldwide, and an estimated 600 million viewers watched the ceremony. It is an arranged marriage, a union of convenience insofar as Diana ticks all the criteria of a future queen: she comes from the high British nobility, Protestant and probably a virgin. Nicknamed the “princess of hearts”, Diana, nicknamed Lady Di, is adored by the crowds.
While Charles still maintains a more or less secret affair with Camilla, his sons William and Harry are born during the 1980s. But the princely marriage is already in a bad way. In 1992, Charles and Diana separated, then divorced on August 28, 1996. Lady Diana revealed to the general public that Charles maintained his extramarital relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles throughout their marriage, which seriously damaged their image. of the prince. On August 31, 1997, Diana died tragically following a car accident in the tunnel of the Alma bridge in Paris. His death is a worldwide explosion and criticism rains down on the royal family.
In 2005, seven years after the tragic death of the Princess of Wales, Prince Charles finally married his childhood sweetheart, Camilla, in a civil wedding at Windsor Town Hall, followed by a nuptial blessing at Windsor Castle, which Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip do not attend. Camilla becomes Duchess of Cornwall, accompanies Charles on his travels and officiates as a member of the royal family. However, she has to face an unfavorable public opinion that is still very attached to the memory of Diana. In February 2022, Queen Elizabeth made it known through a press release that she wished that on Charles’ accession to the throne, “Camilla be known as Queen Consort”.
After 70 years of reign, Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. Her eldest son immediately became King Charles III. 73-year-old Prince Charles is the heir to have waited the longest to accede to the British throne. He is officially proclaimed sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth realms Saturday September 10, 2022, in the heart of St. James’s Palace, London, awaiting his coronation in May 2023.
King Charles III delivers his first speech as sovereign on Friday 9 September. In this televised address of less than ten minutes, the sovereign pays tribute above all to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. “Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen – my beloved mother – has been an inspiration and an example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the sincerest debt that a family can owe. his mother Queen Elizabeth had a full life. […] She made sacrifices for duty. Her devotion and devotion as Sovereign have never wavered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss,” he said. And to add: “As you begin your last great journey to join my dear dad, I just want to say this to you: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and the family of nations you have served so diligently for all these years. May ‘flights of angels sing your rest’.”
Pen, nervousness… A tense start to the reign for Charles III
The first days of the reign of Charles III were marked by outbursts of anger from the sovereign. Quite the opposite of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II who was known for not showing anything and not letting her feelings out. On the day of his proclamation, when signing his oath at St. James’s Palace, the new king was irritated by an inkwell and a box of pens which bothered him on his desk. Charles III then frantically shook his hand so that a servant cleared his desk quickly. Three days later, it was during a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, that the sovereign got angry again in front of the cameras. As he was about to sign the guestbook at Hillsborough Castle, he realized his pen was leaking. He then got annoyed: “Oh my God, I can’t stand this damn stuff”.
Age and health of King Charles III
Born in 1948, Prince Charles reached the respectable age of 73 when he became King of England. Note the extreme longevity of his family: his mother died at 96, his father at 99. The Queen Mother, his grandmother, died at the age of 101 in 2002. Despite his advanced age, Charles III acceded to the throne without presenting any particular health problems. He had contracted the Covid twice but without developing serious forms.
Charles III is 1m78 tall. Many photos of the couple formed by Charles and Diana before their separation were strongly criticized because they represented Charles much taller than his wife. However, Diana was also 1m78 tall. the photographer of their wedding would have entrusted to Closer that Charles used to elevate himself for photos to look taller than Diana.
Charles III had two sons from his marriage to Diana Spencer. Her relationship with her youngest son, Prince Harry of Sussex, hasn’t always been good. In March 2020, Harry and his wife Meghan, two years after their marriage, decided to give up their royal duties and moved to North America. Tensions tense with the rest of the royal family when the couple gives several very critical interviews, placing themselves as victims of the monarchical system. After the death of Elizabeth II, Charles III tries in a speech to appease the spirits by saying his love for Harry and Meghan. According to several media, he even commissioned the Archbishop of Canterbury to convince the couple to come and attend his coronation. The January 2023 publication of Harry’s memoir, The Alternatetriggers the controversy again: the prince mentions in particular his pain after the death of his mother and admits having begged his father not to remarry.