Page 16 - Seniorstoday June2023
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never giving interviews, never expressing him.
opinions, never getting embroiled in scandals But Charles hardly helped his own cause,
and rarely putting the wrong foot forward. and across his 53 years as Prince of Wales,
That dedication resulted in the extraordinary dignity, sympathy and mystery were often
outpouring of affection after her death, and in short supply. Dysfunctional relationships
the sense that an era had passed. with his sons and extended family then, of
Now, a new chapter in the British storybook course, there were his traditionally minded
has opened, and on May 6, the late queen’s views on architecture, compost & climate
son was crowned King Charles III at change.
Westminster Abbey. But even as the final Queen Victoria spoke of the “disturbing
preparations were being made, dark clouds oscillation” of the gold state coach, a phrase
both real and metaphorical were gathering, that speaks just as well to the events leading
threatening to rain for even his most stalwart to the coronation. If the coronation was
defenders would have to concede that the ludicrous, it was also magnificent, the pomp,
new king is no Elizabeth II. the trumpets, the Pageantry, the Marches, if
The extraordinary, unchallenged transfer it reduced you to laughter, it may also have
of power from mother to son, legitimised by made you cry. Like millions of people, I too
a feudal tradition of primogeniture (absolute watched it on television. Charles and Camilla
primogeniture since 2013), which gives one looked like a couple of elderly polar bears on
family the right to be the heads of state of tour, the ermine-cloaked majesties were the
the United Kingdom and 15 Commonwealth centre of a day that was huge and hideous,
nations — in perpetuity — has passed almost exquisite and sacred, all at once. For a
entirely uncontested. In today’s day and age, movement on the balcony they were so close
it is extraordinary that the thing like this has to each other that I thought they would kiss,
passed without a vote. unfortunately they couldn’t even tilt their
While his mother grew up in an era of head to watch the ariel parade. Uneasy lies
extreme deference for the monarchy, Charles the head etc etc. As the soft drizzle in London
was raised in the unforgiving glare of the gave way to a downpour, the feeling came
mass media age over many if not all, that some things are
The awkward 1960s teenage prince the more marvelous for being a bit silly and
morphed into the world’s least likely jug- unfathomable.
eared playboy in the 1970s, before getting
recast as the pantomime villain in the
tragedy that was the Princess Diana show in
the 1980s and 1990s. And throughout that
doomed soap opera, as Charles conducted
an affair with the married Camilla Parker-
Bowles — while demonstrating epic
callousness toward his first wife, he fell out of
favour with the public.
At the time of Diana’s death, in Paris, So, while reports of the monarchy’s demise
August 1997, just 40 percent of the British might be exaggerated, any assessment would
population had a favourable attitude towards surely leave royal courtiers exchanging
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