Being King of a country like Britain must be one of the most demanding jobs there are, and Charles, the eldest son of late Queen Elizabeth II, has been given the privilege to run the kingdom following the passing of his mother, the longest reigning monarch the country has ever seen.
One would say that having the Queen as a mother made things easy for her children. But for King Charles, that wasn’t always the case.
Ever since he acceded to the throne, King Charles’ popularity started growing. Recent research conducted by the Daily Mail revealed that a whooping 58 percent of Britons believe he would be a great king who would follow into Queen Elizabeth’s footsteps, no matter how hard it is to fill her shoes.
Besides being a ruler of a powerful kingdom, deep down, King Charles, as well as the rest of the members of the royalty, is just a human being like you and I.
King Charles has been blessed with two sons and five grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Archie, and the youngest of all, Lilibet Diana. That he is a fun and engaging grandpa speaks the fact that most of his grandchildren call him ‘grandpa Wales.’
“It’s a different part of your life. The great thing is to encourage [grandchildren],” Charles told The Telegraph about being a grandfather in 2013.
“Show them things to take their interest. My grandmother did that, she was wonderful. It is very important to create a bond when they are very young.”
His wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, spoke of the King’s love for his grandchildren.
“He will get down on his knees and crawl about with them for hours — you know, making funny noises and laughing,” she explained.
“We had a picture the other day with Louis pulling on his hair, and he’s not one of those people who says ‘take your hand away’. He loves it.”
Further, the Queen Consort added, “He’s exceptionally good with very small children and babies. He loves to really make them laugh. Getting them out in the garden and showing them things.”
Royal experts believe that the King’s strong affection towards his grandchildren comes from the fact that his own childhood was ‘heartbreakingly lonely,’ as he spent most of his young years at boarding schools away from home.
“There was never a cozy relationship between Charles and the queen,” Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of King Charles III told US Weekly. “That’s because the [royal] family is not set up to be cozy.”
Apparently, things at school weren’t easy for young Charles.
A new ITV documentary named Charles: Our New King, features John Stonborough, former classmate of the monarch at the boarding school Gordonstoun in Scotland, who claimed Charles was mistreated by some of the other boys.
According to Stonborough, Charles was a target of bullies because they blamed him and his family for some of the strict rules they were forced to follow.
“One of the mistakes that was made when Charles arrived at Gordonstoun was that we were all told he was just to be treated like everybody else. But he wasn’t everybody else, was he? He was going to be King of England,” Stonborough said in the documentary, as reported by Mirror.
“He had a private detective, we didn’t have private detectives. And when he came, they strengthened all of the rules and it became a stricter school and I think that some people took it out on him.”
The students, who were supposed to be Charles’ friends punched him and teased him occasionally.
“I actually witnessed one straight attack on Prince Charles during a rugby game when he was in the scrum and one guy pulled his ear and another guy punched him – right in the scrum,” he said, adding that Charles didn’t have a lot of friends.
“He found it difficult to make friends, partly because people found it difficult to make friends with him because they got teased if they tried to be his friend.”
Apparently, the King himself remembers those days of his life entirely differently.
Some forty years ago, Charles spoke of his time at Gordonstoun and said he was lucky to had attended it.
“I am always astonished by the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés used to describe it. It was only tough in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools did – mentally or physically,” Charles said.
“I am lucky in that I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative.”
Those days of hardship are long gone and Charles will be crowned King on June 6, 2023 during an operation with the code name “Operation Golden Orb.”
It is an event eagerly anticipated by millions of people from all over the world.
We are certain King Charles would serve his country and people at the best of his abilities.
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