King Charles finding his purpose

Is the world ready for a ­philosopher king, one who goes outside the royal fold to seek alternative world views?

King Charles’s views, his successes and his failings are all well known to the public. He is not a mystery to ­anyone. Picture: AFP

He was the activist Prince of Wales who lobbied ministers, wrote books and advocated for the ­causes he believed in – organic farming, climate change and sustainability. So how will Charles the crusader make the transition to bystander King?

Unlike his mother, who ­acceded to the throne at the age of just 25, King Charles, 73, brings a lifetime of beliefs and passions to the role of sovereign, all of them known to his subjects. He once said he was “not that stupid’’ to think his activism could continue once he became king. But few think he can flick the switch and walk away from the decades of ­activism that defined him.

He has always chafed under the constraints of the royal establishment and sought the company and views of outsiders like Laurens van der Post, the late, controversial South African writer described as a “Jungian mystic’’ who became Charles’s spiritual adviser and later godfather to heir Prince William. So is the world ready for a ­philosopher king, one who goes outside the royal fold to seek alternative world views?

Or will King Charles be like his mother, who avoided giving opinions and lived by the royal family’s unwritten rule of “never complain, never explain’’, a strategy first enunciated by the late British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Giselle Bastin, associate professor of English at Flinders University who has studied the royal family for years, says King Charles is a deep thinker.

“He reads historical and philosophical texts and books on spiritualism voraciously,’’ Professor Bastin says. “I’m not sure how well his lofty ideals will go down with the public, however. Queen Elizabeth II’s messages were always ­expressed in simple and straightforward terms. By contrast, Charles often wraps himself in verbiage and hand-wringing which tends to lessen the impact of what he is saying.’’

Professor Bastin says she ­expects King Charles will honour his promise to end his activism – at least for the first few years of his reign.

“Whether or not he’ll be able to maintain his silence on political/world matters is yet to be seen,’’ she says. “King Charles III as Prince of Wales has spent the last 40 years making his personal ­beliefs about climate change, the environment, rural and urban conservation, architecture and sustainability very well known.

“He’s been particularly vocal about various issues in the past 30 years, and his public announcements and letters to politicians (known as the “black spider memos”) have been coming particularly thick and fast in the last 10 years. It’s as if he has wanted to ensure that his thoughts and views are out there in the public domain and firmly on the record before his elevation to sovereign effectively gags him.’’

There are many differences ­between King Charles and Queen Elizabeth. She was famously frugal, stored leftover food in Tupperware containers, and went around Windsor Castle at night turning off lights.

As prince, Charles travelled with a small army of footmen and reportedly took his own bed and toilet when he went away for the weekend. Their differences were briefly on show this week when Charles displayed a flash of temper when the fountain pen he was using to sign a book in Northern Ireland began to leak.

“Oh God, I hate this. I can’t bear this bloody thing, what they do every stinking time,” he said, walking out as Queen Consort Camilla stepped in to take the ­offending pen and offer a handkerchief.

On the day he was formally proclaimed as King, he bared his teeth and flicked his fingers at an inkpot on a table, summoning an aide to take it away. They were brief moments of frustration from a man under enormous stress and grieving his mother – but steely Queen ­Elizabeth would never have allowed her stiff upper lip to quiver like this.

The new King Charles has said he knows his days of campaigning would end once he became sovereign, telling the BBC in 2018: “I’m not that stupid. I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So of course I understand ­entirely how that should operate.”

Former senator Eric Abetz, the new chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, says he has “no doubt’’ King Charles will ­follow in its mother’s apolitical footsteps.

“King Charles III will undertake his duty as promised in his ­ascension speech, and follow his mother’s approach,’’ Mr Abetz says.

“The appeal of the Crown is its unifying force and trust by all, which is anchored in its being above the fray of day-to-day ­politics.’’

Anthony Albanese will meet King Charles in coming days in London, although what the pair will discuss is unknown. A republican, the Prime Minister shares King Charles’s views about climate change.

However, Mr Albanese will only say he intends to offer his condolences to King Charles on the death of his 96-year-old mother, and the loss of his father, Prince Philip, last year.

While Queen Elizabeth, a young woman, newly married and with two small children, was a relatively blank slate when she was crowned, King Charles is ­multi-dimensional – twice married, divorced, a widower, a father and a grandfather, who openly ­admitted to struggling to find purpose in his early years.

His views, his successes and his failings are all well known to the public. He is not a mystery to ­anyone.

In May, a YouGov poll showed 32 per cent of respondents thought Charles would make a good king, 32 thought he would not make a good king, and 36 per cent didn’t know.

Last week, the same poll showed 63 per cent now thought he’d make a good king, 15 per cent didn’t think he would make a good king, and 22 per cent didn’t know. Professor Bastin said she expects King Charles to choose his words very carefully in the future, as his mother had.

“He will shape any statements about his causes very carefully, much like his mother always did,” she says.

“Queen Elizabeth II and her private secretaries over the years were very good at scripting speeches and announcements in such a way that the Queen didn’t appear to breach any of the protocols of constitutional monarchy.”