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No matter where King Charles went for his first trip outside the U.K., there was bound to be high scrutiny — both for the diplomatic signals the destination would send and for the opportunity to see how the new monarch would carry out his new role on the world stage.
Charles is hardly a stranger to that stage, given his travels through his decades as Prince of Wales. But his recent trip to Germany also offered a view of how he may try to forge his own way in a role that had been held by his mother, Queen Elizabeth, for an unprecedented 70 years.
The trip, initially planned for France and Germany, was seen by many as a signal of the importance the U.K. places on its relationship with Europe going forward.
“Diplomatically, in light of Brexit, this was viewed, I think, as an opportunity by the U.K. government to reset the relationship between the U.K. and France and the U.K. and Germany, who are in geopolitical terms the two main players in the EU,” Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Bangor University in Wales, said in an interview.
The trip ran into a significant hiccup before it even began, however, with the postponement of the French portion in the face of protests over pension reform rocking the country.
Still, Germany stayed on the itinerary, with King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, spending three days in Berlin and Hamburg.
King Charles travelled to Germany for his first foreign trip since becoming monarch. He received a ceremonial welcome with full military honours at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, becoming the first foreign head of state to do so since the Second World War.
And in those three days, which mixed the solemn and serious with lighter moments and the occasional behind-the-scenes glimpse, there were perhaps some hints of how Charles will bring his own approach to the role.
“Whereas the Queen always maintained distance and it was always just a bit more upright, just generally [with Charles] it seems to be a bit more relaxed, a bit more open and sort of more modern in a sense,” Prescott said.
Headlines noted the “historic address” Charles made as the first British monarch to speak in the German parliament, where he received a standing ovation.
In that speech, which was delivered mostly in German, he referenced the war in Ukraine and remembered Germans killed in air raids during the Second World War. But he also drew laughter from his audience with references to the victory by the U.K.’s women’s soccer team over Germany in the European Championship last year.
“The visit was an Anglo-German bonding session, offering reconciliation for past divisions and now recasting their roles as European democratic allies responding to the war in Ukraine,” the BBC reported.
As much as there was the diplomatic side to the tour, there was also the personal side for Charles and Camilla.
“We always see Charles and Camilla making clear that they’re not just in a country on a diplomatic mission, but they’re also really taking the time to get to know ordinary people and to really show that they’re having a good time there and are engaging with the local culture,” said Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris, noting similar experiences when they have been on visits to Canada.
This time around, Charles tried his hand at cheese-making at an organic farm. He and Camilla also visited a food market.
Inside and outside Germany, the visit seemed to be well received.
“I think it generally was viewed as being a success and arguably couldn’t have gone any better, both for the Germans and for the U.K. side,” Prescott said.
The world was watching, too.
“American press coverage, including CNN, was quite positive,” Harris said. “When there’s a new monarch, there’s a lot of interest in how they will conduct themselves on the world stage.”
Harris expects we’ll see many more European visits from Charles and other members of the Royal Family in the next few years.
“We see various monarchs at various points in their reigns emphasizing either more of a Commonwealth focus or more of a European focus,” she said.
“And at this time with the United Kingdom renegotiating its relationship with Europe and the aftermath of Brexit and with the war in Ukraine, we’re going to see a strong European focus going forward.”
No more doubt — it will be Queen Camilla
It had been a question shrouded in some curiosity and sensitivity for quite a while: Would Camilla be called Queen when Prince Charles became King?
Since his accession in September, Camilla has been formally identified as Queen Consort, a title Queen Elizabeth endorsed seven months before her death.
But with the release this week of the invitation to next month’s coronation, any lingering doubts about Camilla’s title have been removed.
Gone is the word “Consort,” as “Queen Camilla” is noted on the ornate and colourful card being sent to more than 2,000 guests ahead of the ceremony on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London.
Camilla’s title became problematic back in 2005, when she and Prince Charles were married, royal author and biographer Sally Bedell Smith said via email.
At that time, Buckingham Palace announced that Camilla’s title was “intended” to be Princess Consort.
“This decision was an effort to head off lingering antagonism” toward Camilla after the death of Charles’s first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, Bedell Smith said, noting that Camilla deliberately declined to use the Princess of Wales title for the same reason.
“The problem with ‘Princess Consort’ is that it is an invented title, with no precedent in British history,” Bedell Smith said.
To be called Princess Consort, an act of Parliament would have been needed.
“By settled law and tradition, the wife of a King is automatically titled Queen, as was the case with Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth [the wife of George VI], following the style and precedence of their husbands,” said Bedell Smith, whose book, George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy, was published this week.
When Charles’s mother said in February 2022 that it was her “sincere wish, that when the time came, Camilla would be known as Queen Consort,” it was an effort “to remove all traces of the Princess Consort idea and to provide a transitional title after Charles took the throne,” Bedell Smith said.
The coronation will in ways mark the culmination of the transition between reigns.
“During the period of mourning, there was potential for confusion if the More open and relaxed? Why King Charles’s debut on world stage could signal his style as monarch | CBC News Queen was used to refer to both the late Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Camilla,” Harris said.
“With the coronation, there is only one King and Queen, Charles III and Queen Camilla.”
For Camilla, it has been a rare royal transformation, as she has gained more acceptance from a public that at one time showed little warmth for her, given her ongoing involvement with Charles during his ultimately doomed marriage to Diana.
“The initial press coverage of Camilla was extremely negative,” Harris said.
“And then gradually, after Charles and Diana’s divorce and then after Diana’s passing … there was sympathy for Charles as a single father. Gradually, there came to be the view that he should be able to find happiness later in life.”
Camilla has had a lot of time to come into her own as a public figure, Harris said, noting that she has taken on numerous charitable and military patronages and accompanied Charles on royal visits.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, she became quite a popular figure as she spoke very frankly about the challenges of not being able to see her grandchildren or of trying to keep active during periods of social distancing and quarantine, and concern for Charles, who had COVID twice.”
Still, the shadow of Diana remains.
“One of the challenges that has emerged in recent years, however, is there’s been a revival of interest in Diana in popular culture,” Harris said.
“There are very long memories of the breakdown of Charles’s first marriage, and the portrayals of Diana in popular culture are very sympathetic to Diana. Even as some of these portrayals make efforts to portray Camilla in a balanced fashion, but others are very focused on Diana.”
Harris said Charles and Camilla will likely address this through efforts to engage with the wider public.
“When we see Charles and Camilla on walkabouts and those who’ve met them are interviewed afterwards, often they comment on how warm and engaging Camilla is in person.”
Camilla stepped into the role with Charles later in life, and she has to some degree maintained a private life, keeping her own residence where she can spend time with her own children and grandchildren.
“We’re seeing her family incorporated into the coronation, that her grandsons and her grand-nephew [will be] there as page boys, just as Prince George is going to be a page boy to his grandfather,” Harris said.
“So it’s clear that her family has been a great support to her as well.”
On the coronation front
A few more coronation-related details emerged this week with the release of the invitation and the names of eight page boys who will support Charles and Camilla during the ceremony on May 6.
But without the release of the order of service or broader indications of how it all might unfold, larger questions remain over how a ceremony steeped in 1,000 years of history might be modified for the 21st century.
“Given that we’ve had further details about the service, such as the page boys, and the role for Prince George, it becomes increasingly curious that there is still a lack of information about the service itself,” Prescott said via email.
It’s widely thought the service will be shorter than the three hours for the coronation of Elizabeth in 1953. But will it be an hour? Maybe 90 minutes? Not even a starting time has been revealed, although royal ceremonies often begin around 10:30 or 11 a.m.
“We know that it will be a shorter ceremony than 1953,” Prescott said, but unlike that ceremony, this one will involve the crowning and anointing of both a King and Queen.
“So there is genuine interest in how the service will in some ways do more but in a shorter period of time. Which elements will be cut or reformulated?”
Also publicly unknown at this point is the guest list — and by extension what the decisions around who is invited will say about the priorities of King Charles and the British government.
Still, some attention has focused on one person who won’t be there: U.S. President Joe Biden. (His wife, Jill Biden, will attend.)
Some media speculation has swirled over what the presidential absence might indicate about the nature of the relationship between the U.K. and the United States.
But observers have also noted that for the two previous coronations — George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth in 1953 — the U.S. presidents in office at the time — Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower — weren’t there either.
“Presence at the coronation doesn’t really indicate whether the relationship is a close one,” Harris said, noting that both Roosevelt and Eisenhower had their own close relationships with the monarchs.
Even if Biden isn’t at the coronation, there is at least one get-together for Charles and him on their agendas.
Biden has accepted an invitation from Charles for a state visit, a White House spokesperson said earlier this week.
Royally quotable
“I’m really grateful that my mother took me and showed me another part of society that I probably wouldn’t have exposure to.”
— Prince William, speaking on a podcast by the homelessness charity Groundswell. William said that he has been interested in homelessness since his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, took him to a homelessness charity when he was eight or nine years old.
Royal watches and reads
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King Charles has for the first time signalled his support for research into the British monarchy’s historical links with transatlantic slavery, after the emergence of a document showing a predecessor’s stake in a slave-trading company. [The Guardian]
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King Charles and the late Queen Elizabeth II have received payments equivalent to more than £1 billion from two land and property estates that are at the centre of a centuries-old debate over whether their profits should be given to the public instead. That story is part of a larger investigative series by The Guardian exploring royal finances.
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Prince Harry and singer Elton John made a surprise appearance at London’s High Court as they and five others began a lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail paper over years of alleged phone-tapping and privacy breaches. [CBC]
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King Charles took part in a centuries-old Easter tradition for the first time as monarch, as he and Camilla handed out specially minted coins at York Minster cathedral in York. [BBC]
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King Charles has offered “heartfelt thanks” to people involved in the Queen’s Green Canopy project after the initiative announced it has planted more than three million trees. [ITV]
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And, looking back at previous coronations, the ceremony for King George IV was mired in controversy, as his big moment was threatened by the one person he did not want to bask in his reflected glory: his wife, Queen Caroline. [Vanity Fair]
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