King Charles III rushes to leave an impression
King Charles III is a man in a hurry.
After waiting nearly 74 years to become king, Charles has used his first six months on the throne to meet faith leaders across the country, reshuffle royal residences, stage his first overseas state visit and hold a sleepover at Windsor Castle that included the coach of the England soccer team. Then there was the big news: He opened the royal archives to researchers investigating the crown's links to slavery.
“We are already surprised by the Prince Charles who was turned into King Charles and who we still call Prince Charles, because that's how we think of him,” quipped royal historian Robert Lacey. “But, actually, he's become a monarch quicker than people expected.”
With the coronation less than two weeks away, Charles and the Buckingham Palace machine are working at top speed to show the new king at work. And the public is seeing a new kind of sovereign as he tries to slim down the monarchy and show that it is still relevant in a modern, multi-cultural nation where reverence for Queen Elizabeth II muted criticism during her 70 years on the throne.
Out is the matronly decorum that characterized Elizabeth's reign. In is a more human monarch, who held back tears as he addressed the nation after his mother's death and threw a mini-tantrum when a pen leaked on his fingers while signing a book in Northern Ireland. The public had a good laugh. The king now carries his own pen for signing emergencies.
While Elizabeth progressed grandly through meetings with subjects who bowed and curtseyed before her, King Charles sat on the floor with the congregation during a visit to a gurdwara, or Sikh house of worship, in Luton, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of London. On his first state visit, he displayed an ability to properly roll his R's while flipping between German and English in a speech to the Bundestag, the German parliament.
Germans were impressed. Britons were surprised. Who knew he could speak German?
It's as if Charles, long derided as gray and stiff, has just stepped into the room. With extreme subtlety, his personality is starting to show, such as with the everchanging pocket squares that give a dash of color to his conservative suits.
“Charles, the monarch, with his faults and virtues, has become a subject of more genuine interest,” said Lacey, the author of “Battle of Brothers: William & Harry and the Inside Story of Family in Tumult.”
“I mean, what pocket handkerchief is he going to wear? Maybe this will become the equivalent of the queen's handbag.”
One reason Charles is so eager to get started may be because he knows he won't have much time to make his mark.
The man who waited a lifetime to be king alluded to the march of time during a white tie dinner at the presidential palace in Berlin, saying he hoped he and Camilla would “live long enough” to return to see the sapling they had just planted grow into a tree.