Charles knows heavy is the head that wears the crown

IStanding in for the ageing Queen at the opening of Parliament heralds challenging new chapters in both the public and private life of her son and heir

F a picture paints a thousand words, there was no need for captions on that photograph of Prince Charles at the State Opening of Parliament a few days ago. His thoughtful gaze at the bejewelled crown nestling on the crimson cushion next to him, as he sat in full regalia on a throne, told the watching world all it needed to know.

One day it would all rest on his head rather than his mother’s. And this was the moment reality dawned.

Standing in for the Queen – absent from the occasion for only the third time in her reign – Charles had the look of a man confronted by the fact the role he was born to play was now closer than ever.

The years of preparation, the smiling and handshaking were drawing to a close. It felt like the start of the changing of the guard.

I don’t for a moment think the Monarch is about to hang up her sceptre and retire to watch daytime telly. Despite being in increasingly frail health, we are told her mind is as pin sharp as ever.

And she is not a quitter.

But this week saw a definite shift, if not in power, then in emphasis. And the heir to the throne felt it just like the rest of us.

There was something else there too in Charles’ rather sad eyes.

Something I suspect that, despite him being a prince, is a feeling and an experience most of us can relate to.

It’s the moment when the child realises they are starting to become the parent. The point in our adult life when we accept that our mum or dad, the person we could always rely on to help and on whom we could lean, now needs to lean on us.

For one friend it came when her dad asked her when his mum was coming to pick him up. He was in his 70s by then and had apparently been successfully dealing with minor memory loss for months.

My friend told him his mum would be there later that afternoon, and then went into the hall and wept.

For another colleague, it came when his fiercely independent father fell and broke his hip. Suddenly it fell to his middle-aged son to do his shopping, help him with the housework, take charge.

Now, I’m not suggesting the heir to the throne will be spending his days rinsing the Queen’s nighties or making sure her freezer’s stocked with microwave meals. The Queen is surrounded by an army of staff.

But for almost his entire life she has been the one in charge, both as his mum and as his Monarch. And now that’s changing. Whether you’re a prince or a pauper, that’s quite something to have to get used to.