KING CHARLES: A DATE WITH DESTINY

We take a closer look at the man who’s been preparing for his new role for seven decades

‘CHARLES HAS EARNED RESPECT AND IS GENERALLY VIEWED AS A HARD-WORKING INDIVIDUAL WHO’LL DO HIS MOTHER PROUD’

A TWEEDY radical. A fussy intellectual. A red-cheeked landowner who looks as if he’s stepped out of an 18th-century painting. These are just some of the words that have been used to describe the man who’s now the king of the United Kingdom after a seven-decade apprenticeship.

These descriptions might seem harsh but let’s not forget that over the years there was speculation about Charles ever becoming king. The collapse of his marriage to Princess Diana made him deeply unpopular – who could support a man who’d betrayed the People’s Princess, carrying on with his mistress while Diana grew increasingly fragile and unhappy?

Charles was also viewed as a bit of an eccentric, a dotty fellow who admitted he not only talked to plants but listened to them too.

And he was seen as spoilt, insisting on taking his own bedding, toilet seat and loo paper with him on tour