Carlos III, the man who spent 70 years preparing to be king

Carlos, who was officially proclaimed king last September, after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, will now be (was) crowned.

His service as heir to the throne was long: 70 years, and this made him the monarch with the longest preparation for the reign. And at 73, he is the oldest person to ascend the British throne.

LOOK: The rites of the coronation of King Carlos III (and how different it will be from previous coronations)

He is the 62nd monarch to occupy the throne in the last 1,200 years of the history of England and Great Britain.

And he is a king who, compared to his mother who enjoyed immense respect and popularity during her long reign, never really got high approval of the British people.

But who is this man who was born to be king?

The eldest son of then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and grandson of King George VI, He was born on November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace.in London.

A month later, on December 15, Carlos Felipe Arturo Jorge Mountbatten-Windsor was baptized in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace.

Carlos was three years old when his mother acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952, becoming the natural heir to the crown.

As a young man, he showed himself to be a complex character, often plagued by doubts about his own ability to carry out the role for which it was intended.

On one occasion, when asked what the moment was like when he first realized that he would one day be king, Carlos replied that there was no sudden moment of revelation. It was he, he said, a knowledge “slow, frightful, and inexorable.”

education and youth

In many ways, Carlos has been a pioneer, even without meaning to.

His parents chose to send him to school, making him the first heir to the crown. who received an external education, instead of private tutors.

He attended various schools, including a private boarding school in Scotland, an experience he admitted was traumatizing: he was bullied, and cold showers and harsh outdoor activities took a toll on him as a shy and sensitive child.

Carlos was the first heir to the throne to complete a degree at the university. (MEDIUM PA).

He also had two school terms as an exchange student in Melbourne, Australia.

Carlos was also the first heir to the crown in entering the university.

He earned a BA from Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he studied archaeology, anthropology, and eventually history.

It was during this time, in 1969, when, at the age of 20, he was inaugurated by his mother as Prince of Wales, the title traditionally worn by heirs to the throne,

Later, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandparents, Carlos served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force where he trained as a pilot, eventually serving as commanding officer of the minesweeper HMS Bronington.

role and marriage

When Carlos reached the age of 28, it was considered time to find two essential components in the life of any heir to the crown: a role and a spouse.

The first he achieved by creating the Prince’s Trust Foundation, an organization designed to help and encourage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The second it was more complicated.

He had been interested in Camilla Shand for years, but at the time he felt too young to commit and she married a previous boyfriend, Andrew Parker-Bowles.

Carlos met 16-year-old Diana Spencer in 1977 while visiting her older sister Sarah in Althorp, the Spencer family home.

The relationship was closely followed by the press and Diana he quickly became a media superstar.

They married in 1981 and already at that time there were concerns surrounding the couple.

In an interview after they got engaged, the prince was asked if he was in love: “Whatever ‘in love’ means,” he replied halfheartedly.

That the two were incompatible was always self-evident.

“Coexistence Marriage”

It was “a live-in marriage”, wrote the historian Ben Pimlott in his biography of the queen.

However, the wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral captivated the nation and attracted a huge global audience.

In 1982 they had their first child, Prince William, and two years later Prince Harry was born.

In 1992, journalist Andrew Morton published a book written, apparently with Diana’s tacit approval, in which he revealed tensions in the royal marriage, spoke of Lady Di’s unhappiness, and claimed that Carlos had resumed his relationship with Camilla.

Later that year, transcripts of intimate phone calls between Diana and her lover, James Gilbey, and between Carlos and Camilla, appeared in the press.

In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced that the couple they had “amicably parted”.

Charles and Diana’s was “a marriage of cohabitation,” wrote historian Ben Pimlott in his biography of the queen. (Getty Images).

As Diana maintained the sympathy of public opinion, the separation made matters worse for Carlos when in an interview in 1994 he admitted his long adultery with Camilla but insisted that it was only after their marriage had irretrievably broken down.

It was in this context that Diana said in an interview with the BBC a phrase that became famous: “there were three in this marriage”.

Carlos filed for divorce in July 1996.

Diana’s death

Following Diana’s sudden death in a Paris car accident in 1997, the prince flew to Paris with Diana’s sisters to bring her body back to the UK, angering many at court who claimed his ex-wife was no longer a royal. and he did not deserve that transfer.

But Carlos insisted that, as mother of a future kinghe was also to be granted a royal funeral.

Having been accused of being aloof and insensitive, Carlos was aware that the monarchy needed to respond to the new public mood.

Diana’s death prompted him to project a completely different image.

He did not appear in public with Camilla Parker-Bowles until January 1999 and six years later they were married.

Carlos and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony in 2005. (GETTY IMAGES).

The Church of England refused to perform the marriage and they were forced to arrange a civil ceremony (the first for a family member), which was not attended by either Queen Elizabeth II or her husband.

Charles was born to be king at a time when public attitudes towards kingship were changing.

The relationship with his first wife and the long relationship with who became his second wife they tested the loyalty of many British supporters of the monarchy.

accession and coronation

When Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022 at age 96 after having been Britain’s longest-serving monarch, Charles immediately became king and was officially proclaimed on September 10.

Thus, in less than 48 hours, Charles’s accession as sovereign of the United Kingdom was a smooth transition.

But things now might not be so simple for the new monarch. Carlos ascended to the throne at a difficult time for the United Kingdom and the royal family.

Historians agree that the king faces “unprecedented challenges” that will define, for better or worse, the future of the British monarchy.

After 70 years of his mother’s popular reign and with a changing public perception of the royal family, times ahead for Carlos III may be difficult.

Source: Elcomercio