What to know about King Charles III, Britain’s new monarch

London — With passing of Queen Elizabeth II, her first son Charles has ascended the throne to formally turning into King Charles III. The new king, who’s 73, had been the Prince of Wales — the title reserved for future British kings-in-waiting — for longer than anybody else within the historical past of the United Kingdom’s monarchy.

“There is no way of getting around it, he is not in the first flush of youth,” mentioned CBS News royal contributor Julian Payne, who beforehand served as press secretary to then-Prince Charles. “What we will see instead of that is more than 50 years of experience on the world stage.”

He believes Charles will take the identical method to his position as king as his mom took to being queen.

“He, like his mother, takes the view that this is about duty and service,” Payne mentioned. “You do your duty. You provide the service to the nation when you’re asked to do it. You don’t seek it out, you don’t try and get hold of it, but when it comes to you, you take on that role, and you try and do it to the best of your ability.”

On Thursday, King Charles III issued an announcement expressing his unhappiness on the demise of his mom.

“The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” he mentioned. 

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.”

In some ways, Charles has been the primary trendy inheritor to the British throne: He was despatched off to faculty reasonably than being tutored privately on the palace, and after that he went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts diploma at Cambridge.

The younger prince then served in each the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, being deployed on a number of warships throughout the Nineteen Seventies.

But as CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reviews, Prince Charles’ position up to this level has largely been an train in ready, and in carving out a significant position whereas doing so.

Charles’ rocky, mission-critical love life

Charles’ life within the public eye has been outlined in some ways by the ladies with whom he has shared it. From early on, the boy-who-would-be-king’s most important responsibility was to discover a spouse and produce future heirs.

Lady Diana Spencer appeared to be the proper companion, although there have been hints of the troubles that may come from the very starting. He was 32, she was 20, and their wedding ceremony was a worldwide media spectacle.

Two sons, Princes William after which Harry, dutifully adopted.

But it turned apparent to the world that the royal couple wasn’t comfortable collectively. As increasingly pictures confirmed them trying distant, the tabloids labeled them “The Glums.”

In their very public divorce drama, Prince Charles usually unwittingly performed the position of villain for a voracious tabloid press.

Asked post-split whether or not she thought Charles’ long-time confidant and love curiosity Camilla Parker Bowles had been an element within the breakdown of her relationship, Diana mentioned: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

When Diana was killed in a Paris automotive crash in 1997, Charles’ public picture was so tarnished that many questioned if he may ever change into king in any respect. It took years of being seen because the devoted father to his two grieving sons for the prince to emerge from below the cloud.

But he did emerge, and he even went on to marry Camilla in 2005 within the first non-religious, civil ceremony ever for a British royal in England.

Early in 2022, Queen Elizabeth II herself, clearly wanting little doubt to linger over her intentions, mentioned that when Charles did change into king, it was her “sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service” to Britain.

Charles mentioned in an announcement that he and Camilla had been “deeply conscious of the honor represented by my mother’s wish.”

A prince’s “bonkers” pursuits 

Once his life companion and future heirs had been decided, Prince Charles concentrated his efforts on the varied charities and different causes that he is supported – not all of them massively widespread initiatives of their day.

“I suppose I have spent most of my life trying to propose and initiate things that very few people could see the point of or, frankly, thought were plain bonkers,” he mentioned in 2016. “Perhaps some of them are now beginning to recognize a spot of pioneering in all this apparent madness?”

The quip by the person doubtless to change into often known as King Charles III was each an illustration of his attribute wry humorousness, and an arguably permissible humblebrag by a royal who was forward of many in embracing ideas corresponding to natural farming, nature conservancy and the urgency of confronting local weather change.

He has continued to be a passionate advocate via his charity work for the whole lot from environmental conservation, to group empowerment. The Prince of Wales has been the patron or president of greater than 400 charitable organizations.

“I find myself born into this particular position,” he as soon as informed an interviewer. “I’m determined to make the most of it and do whatever I can to help and, I hope, leave things behind a little bit better than I found them.”

The prince and the presidents 

Prince Charles is not any stranger to the corridors of energy on the opposite aspect of the Atlantic. He’s visited Washington not less than 20 instances, and has met each American president since Jimmy Carter.

He met President Biden in November 2021, on the COP26 local weather convention in Scotland. Mr. Biden praised the prince for his management on environmental issues and reportedly informed him: “We need you badly… and I’m not just saying that,” crediting Charles for having bought “the whole thing going.”

During former President Donald Trump’s state go to to the U.Okay. in 2019, Charles was scheduled to sit down for about quarter-hour with the American chief, however they ended up speaking for an hour and a half.

Trump later mentioned the prince “did most of the talking,” however he described the inheritor to the British throne as “a very good person” who was “really into climate change.”

“What moved me is his passion for future generations,” mentioned Trump. “He wants to make sure future generations have climate that is good climate, as opposed to a disaster, and I agree.”

In 2015, Charles met with then-President Barack Obama for the second time throughout a three-day go to to the U.S. In the Oval Office, Obama commented that the American folks had been “quite fond of the royal family,” and even prompt they “like them much better than they like their own politicians.”

“I don’t believe that,” replied the royal.