King Charles III has released a brief tribute to Elizabeth II to mark the first anniversary of his mother’s death.
The King recalled the late Queen’s “devoted service and all she meant to so many of us”, and thanked the nation for the “love and support” shown to him and Queen Camilla during the first 12 months of his reign.
A source told Valentine Low of The Times that Charles has enjoyed his first year as King. “Someone who knows him well said to me, ‘He looks ten years younger and he has got a real sense of purpose about him’,” the source said. But what have we learned during his first year on the throne?
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What did the papers say?
There are “clues to his aspirations” in the “informal formality” of his royal occasions, wrote Caroline Davies for The Guardian. “He has turbo-charged royal receptions, harnessing their soft-power to the maximum… in the knowledge he can no longer speak out publicly on subjects he remains passionate about”, she added.
Charles has shown himself to be a down-sizer. The “slimmed-down” monarchy he is said to have wanted now looks “positively skeletal”, added Davies, and there has also been a “reduction in staff”, with the king reportedly “setting about reducing the number of middle managers in his employ”.
Another thing we have learned, said Low, is that Charles does not see himself as a “caretaker” monarch who would leave “real changes” until William is on the throne. That suggestion has gathered pace in the media in recent weeks but reportedly “went down badly at Buckingham Palace”, where sources argued that the idea that Charles is a stop-gap sovereign is “fanciful”.
“Slowly but surely” Charles is “stamping his personality” on the role, with “more outings, more emotion and more hard work for courtiers”, Low added.
But his reign has been “marked more by continuity than transformation”, said The Associated Press, and “by changes in style rather than substance”. He has “focused on building bridges at home and abroad as he embraces the role of diplomat-in-chief”.
During his first Christmas Day broadcast, Charles “gave a nod to the changing face of Britain” by “splicing in video of his travels around the kingdom, including scenes of the king meeting with food kitchen volunteers at a Sikh house of worship in Luton”.
Having asked readers for their verdict on Charles’ first year, The Telegraph found they were “somewhat split” over how he has fared, as he is “seemingly more of a divisive figure than his late mother”. Readers variously described him as “encouraging and steady” and “confident and at ease”, but one said the “great worry” is his “climate thoughts and woke attitudes”.
Charles “isn’t adored, as his mother was”, said The Washington Post, as “even many people who object to the monarchy as an institution felt a fondness for Elizabeth”. A year after her death, a YouGov poll found she is “still the most popular British royal”, followed by Prince William, Princess Anne, the Princess of Wales and then Charles. But the King has been “unexpectedly popular” during the first year of his reign, countered The Wall Street Journal.
What next?
“More challenges are to come,” said AP, as the media demands “more information about royal spending and accountability”. He is also facing calls to make the palace staff “more representative of modern Britain” and to “acknowledge the monarchy’s role in slavery and imperialism”.
Charles will pay a state visit to Kenya in the autumn. David Anderson, professor of African history at the University of Warwick, told The Times that the trip “could be a bit ticklish” as there are concerns that activists could raise the issue of Britain’s treatment of the Mau Mau rebels in the 1950s.
Also this autumn, he will launch his “first big personal project as monarch” in the form of a national initiative to tackle food waste, said Davies in The Guardian. This could offer more clues as to his approach as “you wonder how political that might be”, Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, told her.
