2023-05-01 16:54:00
Crown prince at three years old, king at 73 and finally crowned at 74: the coronation on May 6 of Charles III in London consecrates an unloved old king, who spent his life waiting for his destiny, with multiple passions often hidden by the vagaries of his private life.
Born on November 14, 1948, he was three years old when his mother became queen on the death of King George VI. As the eldest son, Charles becomes crown prince. He is four years old when he attends the coronation of his mother Elizabeth II, bored between his aunt Margaret and his grandmother the queen mother.
Charles III navigates cautiously between tradition and modernization of a monarchy strongly criticized in recent months by his son Harry
At nine, his mother named him Prince of Wales. Very young, this sensitive and clumsy child was sent to boarding school. He suffers there in silence, often abused by other students, notably at the Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland, chosen by his father Prince Philip to toughen up this timorous son whom he does not understand.
Elizabeth II, in front of whom he learned very young to curtsy, is too busy with his duties. “She was more distant than indifferent,” said Charles of a mother who, on returning from an official six-month trip, when he was five years old, shook her hand.
At the age of twenty, he was inducted Prince of Wales during a grandiose televised ceremony.
He studied at Cambridge, studying anthropology, archeology and history there, and from 1970 became concerned about pollution and plastic waste, in a speech that was a precursor to his constant interest in the future of the planet. .
During this period, he meets Camilla Shand at a polo match. Coming from the upper middle class close to royal circles, she is relaxed, funny, loves nature like him. An idyll ensues, which the prince’s engagement in the Royal Navy will break a few months later.
Camilla married another relation, Officer Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973.
Charles married without love Diana Spencer in 1981. She was twenty years old, he was 32.
After the birth of William, the heir, in 1982, and Harry, the substitute, in 1984, his duty accomplished, Charles found the arms of Camilla, who divorced in 1995.
After years of a ruthless war that the British tabloids feast on, Charles and Diana divorce in 1996. A year later, Diana dies in a car accident in Paris.
Charles’s popularity rating drops to the bottom.
Crown Prince, whose vague role is to support the Crown, he creates a life for himself. He is passionate about the environment, sustainable development, alternative medicine, rurality, religions.
He earned the nickname of Prince Activist, and some people worried about a future king who would not respect the strict political neutrality expected of the sovereign.
For years, the publicized crises of his private life eclipse the actions of this extremely wealthy man with a hushed voice, always impeccably dressed.
In 2005, he remarried Camilla, in a civil ceremony at Windsor Town Hall. The queen does not come there, but organizes a reception for the newlyweds.
Charles III, who replaced her more and more in recent years, traveled to nearly a hundred countries, met many of the greats of this world, shook millions of hands.
His sons told of a father working hard, sometimes falling asleep at his desk at night.
Sure of himself, he does not like to be contradicted. He gets carried away quickly, sometimes against a simple leaky pen. Impatient, “he wants things done by yesterday,” said Camilla, now queen consort. But she also told of a grandfather who reads Harry Potter to his grandchildren, imitating the voices of the characters.
“He’s a warm man, very good with people,” said former British Ambassador to France Peter Ricketts.
Like his mother who passed away in September, he has promised to serve all his life.
Since then, Charles III has been carefully navigating between tradition and modernization of a monarchy that has been strongly criticized in recent months by his son Harry, who will however come to the coronation, but without his wife Meghan.
The king remains less popular than his mother, or his son William, and arouses little enthusiasm among young people, according to polls.
“It’s hard to breathe in when you’re over 70, and you’ve been there for so long, with ups and downs,” said royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.
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