Day irritated Queen took back lamps swiped by ‘spoiled’ Charles

Famously, the late Queen used Tupperware and fussed about turning off light switches when rooms weren’t in use. so it’s perhaps unsurprising that, in the 1990s, she felt Prince Charles was spoiled and too grand.

If he took a shooting party to sandringham for the weekend, he’d have the whole place decorated with huge ferns transported from london. His mother, by contrast, would have been happy with some potted plants and old-fashioned flower arrangements.

once, when the Queen stayed at Craigowan on the Balmoral estate during this period, she arrived to find there were no lamps because Charles had taken them all over to Birkhall, the Queen mother’s scottish residence — where he preferred to stay as it was bigger and more elegant.

The Queen was outraged that he’d left her without a single lamp in the sitting room at Craigowan, with no thought for anyone’s comfort except his own. so, she jumped into her land Rover and drove over to Birkhall, retrieved all the lamps and put them back where they belonged.

His mother never really approved of her heir’s pampered lifestyle. When his childhood teddy bear — which accompanies him everywhere, according to Harry — needs repairing and patching, he sends it to his wife’s couturier to be mended, with instructions to do it quickly.

like his mother, Charles is sensitive to the plight of others, but he can be intolerant of those who fail to offer him what he considers to be proper respect. Former footman mark simpson recalls one such moment back in the 1970s.

‘I have heard him when I have been laying up dinner and he has been in his study next door, screaming like crazy on the phone. Everybody would quake. He would clear his desk in one swipe. you could hear him sometimes in his bedroom.

‘you couldn’t hear what it was about but it was a huge, high-pitched scream. It is quite scary to witness. The rest of the time he was terribly gentle.’

Charles is adamant that the clocks at Highgrove should all keep precise time. If he notices that one has stopped, he shakes his hands and proclaims: ‘my clocks! my clocks! What am I to do?’ He then sends a note to the appropriate member of staff, reprimanding them.

and if little pieces of gravel are inadvertently brought into the house from the driveway, Charles sends the housekeeper a note and warns it must never happen again — regardless of the possibility that his own shoes may be responsible.

Now in his mid-70s, King Charles complains that his memory has become ‘appalling’. When I sat with him at Highgrove not long ago, he explained that, in order to remedy this, he writes down his thoughts on crested paper notelets that fit into the top pocket of his jacket. These are removed by his valet, who then passes them on to the appropriate people to take whatever action is desired.

as we sat in his lloyd loom wicker garden chairs, Charles talked about hanging by his feet from the ceiling to help alleviate the pain in his back.

Then he demonstrated a polo shot to illustrate where it hurt — and his blazer, which had been hanging on the back of his chair, fell to the ground.

He simply left it there, making no attempt to pick it up. This is a man who has had valets and footmen all his life.

The Queen would never have done that — for all her position and grandeur, she was a simple woman at heart. she would have picked up her coat.