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"Charles, Prince of Wales" and "Prince Charles" redirect here. For other uses, see Charles, Prince of Wales (disambiguation); Prince Charles (disambiguation); and Charles III (disambiguation).
Charles III
Head of the Commonwealth
Photograph of Charles III
Formal portrait, 2019
King of the United Kingdom
and other Commonwealth realms[note 1]
Reign 8 September 2022 – present
Coronation 6 May 2023
Predecessor Elizabeth II
Heir apparent William, Prince of Wales
Born Prince Charles of Edinburgh
14 November 1948 (age 74)
Buckingham Palace, London, England
Spouses
Diana Spencer
(m. 1981; div. 1996)
Camilla Parker Bowles
(m. 2005)
Issue
Detail
William, Prince of Wales
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
Names
Charles Philip Arthur George[note 2]
House Windsor[1]
Father Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Mother Elizabeth II
Religion Protestant[note 3]
Signature Charles's signature in black ink
Education Gordonstoun School
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge (MA)
Charles III's voice
2:54
Speech to the Scottish Parliament following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II
Delivered 12 September 2022
Royal family of
the United Kingdom and the
other Commonwealth realms
Badge of the House of Windsor
The King
The Queen
The Prince of Wales
The Princess of Wales
Prince George of Wales
Princess Charlotte of Wales
Prince Louis of Wales
The Duke of Sussex
The Duchess of Sussex
Prince Archie of Sussex
Princess Lilibet of Sussex
The Princess Royal
The Duke of York
Princess Beatrice
Princess Eugenie
The Duke of Edinburgh
The Duchess of Edinburgh
Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor
James, Earl of Wessex
The Duke of Gloucester
The Duchess of Gloucester
The Duke of Kent
The Duchess of Kent
Princess Alexandra
Prince Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent
vte
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.[note 1]
Charles was born in Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, George VI, and was three years old when his mother, Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952, making him the heir apparent. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and his investiture was held in 1969. He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he has two sons: William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The couple divorced in 1996, after they had each engaged in well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash the following year. In 2005, Charles married his long-term partner, Camilla Parker Bowles.
As heir apparent, Charles undertook official duties and engagements on behalf of his mother. He founded the Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsored the Prince's Charities, and became patron or president of more than 800 other charities and organisations. He advocated for the conservation of historic buildings and the importance of architecture in society. In that vein, he generated the experimental new town of Poundbury. An environmentalist, Charles supported organic farming and action to prevent climate change during his time as the manager of the Duchy of Cornwall estates, earning him awards and recognition as well as both praise and criticism; he is also a prominent critic of the adoption of genetically modified food, while his support for alternative medicine has been criticised. He has authored or co-authored 17 books.
Charles became king upon his mother's death on 8 September 2022. At the age of 73, he became the oldest person to accede to the British throne, after having been the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales in British history. His coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.
Early life, family, and education
An infant Charles in a white christening gown with his parents and grandparents
Christening of Charles (centre, wearing the royal christening gown) in 1948: (from left to right) his grandfather King George VI; his mother, Princess Elizabeth, holding him; his father, Philip; and his grandmother Queen Elizabeth
Charles was born at 21:14 (GMT) on 14 November 1948,[2] during the reign of his maternal grandfather, George VI. He was the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (later Queen Elizabeth II), and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[3] His parents had three more children, Anne (born 1950), Andrew (born 1960) and Edward (born 1964). On 15 December 1948, at four weeks old, he was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.[note 4][5] He was given the name Charles Philip Arthur George, and as a titled member of the royal family made no use of any surname during his childhood (and only rarely since).[6][1]
Charles's grandfather died on 6 February 1952 and, consequently, Charles's mother acceded as Elizabeth II and Charles immediately became the heir apparent. Under a charter of King Edward III in 1337, and as the monarch's eldest son, he automatically assumed the traditional titles of Duke of Cornwall and, in the Scottish peerage, the titles Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.[7] On 2 June the following year, Charles attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey.[8]
When Charles turned five, a governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed to oversee his education at Buckingham Palace.[9] Charles then commenced classes at Hill House School in west London on 7 November 1956.[10] He was the first heir apparent to attend school, rather than be educated by a private tutor.[11] He did not receive preferential treatment from the school's founder and headmaster, Stuart Townend, who advised the Queen to have Charles train in football, because the boys were never deferential to anyone on the football field.[12] Charles subsequently attended two of his father's former schools: Cheam School in Hampshire,[13] from 1958,[10] followed by Gordonstoun, in the north-east of Scotland,[14] beginning classes there in April 1962.[10]
A young Prince Charles with his mother, Elizabeth II; his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; and his sister, Princess Anne
With his parents and sister Anne, October 1957
In Charles's 1994 authorised biography by Jonathan Dimbleby, Elizabeth and Philip were described as physically and emotionally distant parents and Philip was blamed for his disregard of Charles's sensitive nature, including forcing him to attend Gordonstoun, where he was bullied.[15] Though Charles reportedly described Gordonstoun, noted for its especially rigorous curriculum, as "Colditz in kilts",[13] he later praised the school, stating it had taught him "a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative." He said in a 1975 interview he was "glad" he had attended Gordonstoun and that the "toughness of the place" was "much exaggerated".[16] Charles spent two terms in 1966 at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, during which time he visited Papua New Guinea on a school trip with his history tutor, Michael Collins Persse.[17][18] In 1973, Charles described his time at Timbertop as the most enjoyable part of his whole education.[19] Upon his return to Gordonstoun, Charles emulated his father in becoming head boy and left in 1967, with six GCE O-levels and two A-levels in history and French, at grades B and C respectively.[17][20] On his early education, Charles later remarked, "I didn't enjoy school as much as I might have; but, that was only because I'm happier at home than anywhere else."[16]
Charles broke royal tradition a second time when he proceeded straight to university after his A-levels, rather than joining the British Armed Forces.[13] In October 1967, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied archaeology and anthropology for the first part of the Tripos and then switched to history for the second part.[5][17][21] During his second year, Charles attended the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, studying Welsh history and language for a term.[17] Charles became the first British heir apparent to earn a university degree, graduating on 23 June 1970 from the University of Cambridge with a 2:2 Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.[17][22] As is standard practice for Cambridge's undergraduate degrees, on 2 August 1975, his Bachelor of Arts was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree.[17]
Prince of Wales
Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 26 July 1958,[23] though his investiture was not held until 1 July 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle;[24] the investiture was controversial in Wales owing to growing Welsh nationalist sentiment.[25] He took his seat in the House of Lords the following year[26] and he delivered his maiden speech on 13 June 1974,[27] the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884.[28] He spoke again in 1975.[29]
Charles began to take on more public duties, founding the Prince's Trust in 1976[30] and travelling to the United States in 1981.[31] In the mid-1970s, Charles expressed an interest in serving as governor-general of Australia, at the suggestion of Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser; however, because of a lack of public enthusiasm, nothing came of the proposal.[32] In reaction, Charles commented, "so, what are you supposed to think when you are prepared to do something to help and you are just told you're not wanted?"[33]
Military training and career
Charles served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy. During his second year at Cambridge, he received Royal Air Force training, learning to fly the Chipmunk aircraft with the Cambridge University Air Squadron,[34][35] and was presented with his RAF wings in August 1971.[36]
Three county-class destroyers sailing in the English Channel
(Front to back) HMS Norfolk, London, and Antrim in the English Channel following joint exercises with the RAF in December 1971. Charles was serving aboard the Norfolk at this time.
After the passing-out parade that September, Charles embarked on a naval career and enrolled in a six-week course at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth. He then served from 1971 to 1972 on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk and the frigates HMS Minerva, from 1972 to 1973, and HMS Jupiter in 1974. That same year, he also qualified as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Yeovilton and subsequently joined 845 Naval Air Squadron, operating from HMS Hermes.[37] Charles spent his last 10 months of active service in the Navy commanding the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington, beginning on 9 February 1976.[37] He took part in a parachute training course at RAF Brize Norton two years later, after being appointed colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment in 1977.[38] Charles gave up flying after, as a passenger who was invited to fly the aircraft, crash-landing a BAe 146 in Islay in 1994, for which the crew was found negligent by a board of inquiry.[39]
Relationships and marriages
Bachelorhood
In his youth, Charles was amorously linked to a number of women. His girlfriends included Georgiana Russell, the daughter of Sir John Russell, who was the British ambassador to Spain;[40] Lady Jane Wellesley, the daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington;[41] Davina Sheffield;[42] Lady Sarah Spencer;[43] and Camilla Shand, who later became his second wife.[44]
Portrait of Charles, seated, taken in 1972
Photograph by Allan Warren, 1972
Charles's great-uncle Lord Mountbatten advised him to "sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down," but, for a wife, he "should choose a suitable, attractive, and sweet-charactered girl before she has met anyone else she might fall for ... It is disturbing for women to have experiences if they have to remain on a pedestal after marriage."[45] Early in 1974, Mountbatten began corresponding with 25-year-old Charles about a potential marriage to Amanda Knatchbull, Mountbatten's granddaughter.[46] Charles wrote to Amanda's mother, Lady Brabourne, who was also his godmother, expressing interest in her daughter. Lady Brabourne replied approvingly; though, she suggested that a courtship with a 16-year-old was premature.[47] Four years later, Mountbatten arranged for Amanda and himself to accompany Charles on his 1980 visit to India. Both fathers, however, objected; Prince Philip feared that his famous uncle[note 5] would eclipse Charles, while Lord Brabourne warned that a joint visit would concentrate media attention on the cousins before they could decide on becoming a couple.[48]
In August 1979, before Charles would depart alone for India, Mountbatten was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army. When Charles returned, he proposed to Amanda. But in addition to her grandfather, she had lost her paternal grandmother and youngest brother in the bomb attack and was now reluctant to join the royal family.[48]
Lady Diana Spencer
Main article: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
refer to caption
Charles and Diana visit Uluru in Australia, March 1983
Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977, while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was then the companion of her elder sister Sarah and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend's barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. Soon, according to Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride" and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.[49]
Charles's cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her.[50] Meanwhile, the couple's continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana's reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten's criteria), Charles construed his father's advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.[51]
Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981, with their engagement becoming official on 24 February; the wedding took place in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits of the Duchy of Cornwall from 50 per cent to 25 per cent.[52] The couple lived at Kensington Palace and Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Prince William, in 1982, and Prince Harry, in 1984.[11]
Charles giving a speech at a podium in Edmonton, with Diana standing to his right
Charles and Diana at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, Canada, June 1983
Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple's incompatibility and near 13-year age difference.[53][54] By November 1986, Charles had fully resumed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.[55] In a videotape recorded by Peter Settelen in 1992, Diana admitted that she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment."[56][57] It was assumed that she was referring to Barry Mannakee,[58] who had been transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986, after his managers determined his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate.[57][59] Diana later commenced a relationship with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor.[60]
Charles and Diana's evident discomfort in each other's company led to them being dubbed "The Glums" by the press.[61] Diana exposed Charles's affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story. Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced,[61] as did persistent suggestions that Hewitt is Prince Harry's father, based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time Diana's affair with Hewitt began.[62]
In December 1992, John Major announced the couple's legal separation in the House of Commons. Early the following year, the British press published transcripts of a passionate, bugged telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla that had taken place in 1989, which was dubbed "Camillagate" and "Tampongate".[63] Charles subsequently sought public understanding in a television film with Dimbleby, Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role, broadcast on 29 June 1994. In an interview in the film, Charles confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla, saying that he had rekindled their association in 1986, only after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down".[64][65] This was followed by Diana's own admission of marital troubles in an interview on the BBC current affairs show Panorama, broadcast on 20 November 1995.[66] Referring to Charles's relationship with Camilla, she said, "well, there were three of us in this marriage. So, it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship.[67] Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996,[68] after being advised by the Queen in December 1995 to end the marriage.[69] The couple shared custody of their children.[70]
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Charles flew to Paris with Diana's sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.[71] In 2003, Diana's butler Paul Burrell published a note that he claimed had been written by Diana in 1995, in which there were allegations that Charles was "planning 'an accident' in [Diana's] car, brake failure and serious head injury", so that he could marry again.[72] When questioned by the Metropolitan Police inquiry team as a part of Operation Paget, Charles told the authorities that he did not know about his former wife's note from 1995 and could not understand why she had those feelings.[73]
Camilla Parker Bowles
Main article: Wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles
Charles and Camilla stand next to each other in Jamaica
Charles and Camilla in Jamaica, March 2008
The engagement of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005.[74] The Queen's consent to the marriage – as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772 – was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on 2 March.[75] In Canada, the Department of Justice determined the consent of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada was not required, as the union would not produce any heirs to the Canadian throne.[76]
Charles was the only member of the royal family to have a civil, rather than a church, wedding in England. British government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by the BBC, stated that such a marriage was illegal; these claims were dismissed by Charles's spokesman[77] and explained by the sitting government to have been repealed by the Registration Service Act 1953.[78]
The union was scheduled to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at the castle's St George's Chapel. The wedding venue was changed to Windsor Guildhall after it was realised a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone who wished to be married there. Four days before the event, it was postponed from the originally scheduled date of 8 April until the following day in order to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.[79]
Charles's parents did not attend the marriage ceremony; the Queen's reluctance to attend possibly arose from her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.[80] The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh did attend the service of blessing and held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle.[81] The blessing by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was televised.[82]
Official duties
See also: List of official overseas trips made by Charles III
Black and white photograph of Charles in Gujarat with a crowd of people, 1980
With Harichand Megha Dalaya at Amul, in Anand, Gujarat, December 1980
In 1965, Charles undertook his first public engagement by attending a student garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.[83] During his time as Prince of Wales, Charles undertook official duties on behalf of the Queen,[84] completing 10,934 engagements between 2002 and 2022.[85] He officiated at investitures and attended the funerals of foreign dignitaries.[86] Charles made regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd.[87] The six trustees of the Royal Collection Trust met three times a year under his chairmanship.[88] Charles also represented his mother at the independence celebrations in Fiji in 1970,[89] the Bahamas in 1973,[90] Papua New Guinea in 1975,[91] Zimbabwe in 1980,[92] and Brunei in 1984.[93]
In 1983, Christopher John Lewis, who had fired a shot with a .22 rifle at the Queen in 1981, attempted to escape a psychiatric hospital in order to assassinate Charles, who was visiting New Zealand with his first wife, Diana, and son William.[94] While Charles was visiting Australia on Australia Day in January 1994, David Kang fired two shots at him from a starting pistol in protest of the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps.[95] In 1995, Charles became the first member of the royal family to visit the Republic of Ireland in an official capacity.[96] In 1997, Charles represented the Queen at the Hong Kong handover ceremony.[97][98]
Charles shaking hands with a crowd in New Zealand in 2015
Charles's ninth tour of New Zealand in 2015
At the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Charles caused controversy when he shook hands with the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who had been seated next to him. Charles's office subsequently released a statement saying that he could not avoid shaking Mugabe's hand and that he "finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent."[99]
Charles represented the Queen at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.[100] In November 2010, he and Camilla were indirectly involved in student protests when their car was attacked by protesters.[101] From 15 to 17 November 2013, he represented the Queen for the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.[102]
Charles and Camilla made their first joint trip to the Republic of Ireland in May 2015. The trip was called an important step in "promoting peace and reconciliation" by the British Embassy.[103] During the trip, Charles shook hands in Galway with Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin and widely believed to be the leader of the IRA, the militant group that had assassinated Lord Mountbatten in 1979. The event was described by the media as a "historic handshake" and a "significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations".[104]
Seated left to right are: Governor-General of New Zealand Patsy Reddy, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prince Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May, Charles, Prince of Wales, Elizabeth II, President of the United States Donald Trump, President of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte
With Queen Elizabeth II and other world leaders to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day on 5 June 2019
Commonwealth heads of government decided at their 2018 meeting that Charles would be the next Head of the Commonwealth after the Queen.[105] The head is chosen and therefore not hereditary.[106] In March 2019, at the request of the British government, Charles and Camilla went on an official tour of Cuba, making them the first British royals to visit the country. The tour was seen as an effort to form a closer relationship between the United Kingdom and Cuba.[107]
Charles contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic in March 2020.[108][109] Several newspapers were critical that Charles and Camilla were tested promptly at a time when many NHS doctors, nurses and patients had been unable to be tested expeditiously.[110] He tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time in February 2022.[111] He and Camilla, who also tested positive, had received doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.[112]
Charles seated on the Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords during the 2022 state opening of the British Parliament. Next to him is the Imperial State Crown.
Delivering the Queen's Speech to the British Parliament on behalf of his mother, May 2022
Charles attended the November 2021 ceremonies to mark Barbados's transition into a parliamentary republic, abolishing the position of monarch of Barbados.[113] He was invited by Prime Minister Mia Mottley as the future Head of the Commonwealth;[114] it was the first time that a member of the royal family attended the transition of a realm to a republic.[115] In May of the following year, Charles attended the State Opening of the British Parliament, delivering the Queen's Speech on behalf of his mother, as a counsellor of state.[116]
Reign
Accession and coronation
Main articles: Proclamation of accession of Charles III and Coronation of Charles III and Camilla
Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament Alison Johnstone is seated next to the King.
Addressing the Scottish Parliament following his accession as king
Charles acceded to the British throne on his mother's death on 8 September 2022. He was the longest-serving British heir apparent, having surpassed Edward VII's record of 59 years on 20 April 2011.[117] When he became monarch at the age of 73, Charles was the oldest person to do so, the previous record holder being William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830.[118]
Charles gave his first speech to the nation on 9 September, at 18:00 BST, in which he paid tribute to his mother and announced the appointment of his elder son, William, as Prince of Wales.[119] The following day, the Accession Council publicly proclaimed Charles as king, the ceremony being televised for the first time.[120][105] Attendees included the new queen consort, Camilla; William, Prince of Wales; and Prime Minister Liz Truss and her six living prime ministerial predecessors.[121] The proclamation was also read out by local authorities around the United Kingdom. Other realms signed and read their own proclamations, as did Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, British Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies, Canadian provinces, and Australian states.[122]
Charles and Camilla wearing their crowns and coronation robes waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace
Charles and Camilla after their coronation
Charles's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.[123] Plans had been made for many years, under the code name Operation Golden Orb.[124][125] Reports before his accession suggested that Charles's coronation would be simpler than his mother's in 1953,[126] with the ceremony expected to be "shorter, smaller, less expensive, and more representative of different faiths and community groups – falling in line with the King's wish to reflect the ethnic diversity of modern Britain."[127] Nonetheless, the coronation was a Church of England rite, including the coronation oath, the anointment, delivery of the orb, and enthronement.[128]
Philanthropy and charity
Since founding the Prince's Trust in 1976, using his £7,500 of severance pay from the Navy,[129] Charles has established 16 more charitable organisations and now serves as president of each.[130][84] Together, they form a loose alliance, the Prince's Charities, which describes itself as "the largest multi-cause charitable enterprise in the United Kingdom, raising over £100 million annually ... [and is] active across a broad range of areas including education and young people, environmental sustainability, the built environment, responsible business and enterprise, and international."[130] As Prince of Wales, Charles became patron or president of over 800 other charities and organisations.[83]
The Prince's Charities Canada was established in 2010, in a similar fashion to its namesake in Britain.[131] Charles uses his tours of Canada as a way to help draw attention to youth, the disabled, the environment, the arts, medicine, the elderly, heritage conservation, and education.[132] Charles has also set up the Prince's Charities Australia, based in Melbourne, to provide a coordinating presence for his Australian and international charitable endeavours.[133]
refer to caption
Charles and Camilla visit the African American Heritage Center in Louisville, Kentucky, March 2015
Charles has supported humanitarian projects; for example, he, along with his two sons, took part in ceremonies that marked the 1998 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.[132] Charles was one of the first public figures to express strong concerns about the human rights record of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, initiating objections in the international arena,[134] and subsequently supported the FARA Foundation,[5] a charity for Romanian orphans and abandoned children.[135]
Investigations of donations
Main articles: The Prince's Foundation § Cash for honours allegations and other donations, and The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund § Qatari donations
Two of Charles's charities, the Prince's Foundation and the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund, came under scrutiny in 2021 and 2022 for accepting donations the media deemed inappropriate. In August 2021, it was announced that the Prince's Foundation was launching an investigation into the reports,[136] with Charles's support.[137] The Charity Commission also launched an investigation into allegations that the donations meant for the Prince's Foundation had been instead sent to the Mahfouz Foundation.[138] In February 2022, the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into the cash-for-honours allegations linked to the foundation,[139] passing their evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service for deliberation on 31 October.[140]
The Times reported in June 2022 that, between 2011 and 2015, Charles accepted €3 million in cash from Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.[141][142] There was no evidence that the payments were illegal or that it was not intended for the money to go to the charity,[142] although, the Charity Commission stated it would review the information[143] and announced in July 2022 that there would be no further investigation.[144] In the same month, The Times reported that the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund received a donation of £1 million from Bakr bin Laden and Shafiq bin Laden – both half-brothers of Osama bin Laden – during a private meeting in 2013.[145][146] The Charity Commission described the decision to accept donations as a "matter for trustees" and added that no investigation was required.[147]
Personal interests
Charles standing next to Boris Johnson with the flag of the Commonwealth of Nations behind them
With Boris Johnson at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda
From young adulthood, Charles encouraged understanding of Indigenous voices, claiming they held crucial messages about preservation of the land, respecting community and shared values, resolving conflict, and recognising and making good on past iniquities.[148] Charles dovetailed this view with his efforts against climate change,[149] as well as reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and his charitable work in Canada.[150][151] At CHOGM 2022, Charles, who was representing the Queen, raised that reconciliation process as an example for dealing with the history of slavery in the British Empire,[152] for which he expressed his sorrow.[153]
Letters sent by Charles to government ministers in 2004 and 2005 expressing his concerns over various policy issues – the so-called black spider memos – presented potential embarrassment following a challenge by The Guardian newspaper to release the letters under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In March 2015, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom decided that Charles's letters must be released[154] and the letters were published by the Cabinet Office on 13 May.[155] The reaction was largely supportive of Charles, with little criticism of him;[156] the press variously described the memos as "underwhelming"[157] and "harmless",[158] and concluded that