King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, at the age of 74, in front of more than 2,000 guests. Dreamy child, convinced ecologist, unfaithful husband… A look back at the life of a man who became a sovereign.
He will have spent almost a lifetime waiting for this historic day. Saturday, May 6, King Charles III is crowned in London (United Kingdom), in front of more than 2,000 guests and tens, even hundreds of millions of viewers. The coronation of a king of the 21st century, who embodies the continuity of a thousand-year-old monarchy.
Who is the new king of the United Kingdom, also at the head of the states of the Commonwealth? The former Prince of Wales, who acceded to the throne eight months after the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, has been throughout his life a neglected child, a harassed student, an exalted actor, but also a visionary environmentalist. The British public also keeps the image of an unfaithful and unhappy husband, from the time of his union with Princess Diana.
A difficult childhood
Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on the evening of November 14, 1948. Little Charles was only 4 years old the day his mother, Elizabeth II, was crowned. Throughout his childhood, Charles discovered the joys of nature on the grounds of Balmoral Castle, Scotland, and forged a close relationship with his grandmother. His parents, very busy with their obligations, are more distant.
Charles is the first heir to the crown to leave Buckingham to go to school, aged 8. He then followed in the footsteps of his father Philip to the boarding school of Gordonstoun, in the north of Scotland. Absolute hell for the young prince, harassed every day in the dormitories. Charles reveals himself much more when he arrives in Cambridge, where he studies anthropology and archeology. Outside of class, he likes to play in the theatre. At 21, the heir to the throne is learning Welsh for his enthronement as Prince of Wales. He joined the army, embarked in the Royal Navy, the navy of the British armed forces.
Between an impossible marriage and the failure of a union
The story of the new king of the United Kingdom is intrinsically linked to that of the queen consort, Camilla Parker Bowles, née Camilla Shand. In his youth, Charles was quickly seduced by this British horse enthusiast with a cheerful temperament. A promising relationship, but impossible, because tradition forbids their marriage. “I guess the feeling of inner emptiness will eventually pass,” confides the Prince of Wales to a friend, after the announcement of the engagement between Camilla Shand and Andrew Parker Bowles.
In the early 1980s, Prince Charles in turn became engaged to a young woman from a family of British nobility, Diana Spencer, after only a dozen meetings. On July 29, 1981, 500,000 spectators were in London and 750 million others in front of their television screens to watch their union. Quickly, the marriage falters: the very popular Princess Diana is at the center of attention and overshadows the future sovereign. The repulsion between the two spouses is increasingly visible, even on official trips.
Charles rekindles a relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, and later admits that he remained faithful to Princess Diana…until his marriage became irreparable. In 1992, a biography of Lady Di portrayed him as selfish and a bad father. The book, then an interview with the princess in 1995 on the BBC, had the effect of a bomb. Their divorce was finalized in the summer of 1996. A year later, Diana died tragically in Paris, aged just 36. Charles shows himself as a bereaved father, taking care of his sons William and Harry. In the years that followed, the prince, greatly affected in his popularity, began a rehabilitation operation for himself and for Camilla. They will manage to get married in 2005.
A prince of convictions
From his youth and his studies in Cambridge, Prince Charles, in love with nature, defended ecological positions at the time avant-garde. Criticized, sometimes mocked for his convictions, he warns early on the seriousness of global warming. He denounces the “lobbyists” that make the Earth one “dying patient”, the use of pesticides and intensive agriculture. His observation, made for decades, ends up being shared. In 2021, the Prince of Wales is going to COP21 in Glasgow, Scotland, after talking with Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) the previous year.
Now 74 years old, Charles is criticized for other positions, such as his handwritten notices sent to certain ministers. A freedom of tone and opinion that he has not used since September 8, 2022, the day the Prince of Wales inherited the sovereign’s costume.