King Charles III & his firsts
For the first time in my life, I will be witnessing a true-to-life King’s coronation live, albeit electronically. Not on fairy-tale cartoon movies, not on Netflix, but on BBC.
The coronation of King Charles III tomorrow, May 6 will be the first of a British monarch in the 21st century, and the 40th to be held at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror’s coronation in 1066. Now, isn’t that history — even for non-Brits? How many real-life monarchs’ coronation can we witness in a lifetime? Queen Elizabeth II was crowned way before I was born, way before my parents even laid eyes on each other.
Following coronation tradition, Charles will wear St. Edward’s Crown, the oldest of the British royal crowns and the centerpiece of the so-called “Crown Jewels.”
Historic, indeed. After all, in these islands once colonized by Spain and the United States, when you said “Queen” in the past, you only thought of Queen Elizabeth II (other than the “queen” of your home.) And when you say “King” now, the first person you think of is the King of England. As for a Queen Consort, that is a first since 1937, and to me, a bittersweet subject. I am sure I am not alone in thinking that it would have been sweeter if the mother of the King’s children, the much-loved Princess Diana, were alive and crowned Queen along with him, and they all lived happily ever after. But fairy-tale endings have twists, too, at least for the Charles and Diana chapter.
But the stars, indeed, have aligned for the happily-ever-after of C and C.
Unlike his uncle King Edward VIII, Charles did not have to give up the throne to be by Camilla, the woman he loves. The song What I Did For Love comes to mind when I think of his love for her.
BBC reports that the King’s grandson, Prince George, will be among the pages at Westminster Abbey, alongside Camilla’s grandchildren Lola, Eliza, Gus, Louis and Freddy. Hmmm, I wonder why not four-year-old Prince Archie, Prince Harry’s firstborn? Too young or too much drama?
Charles is truly a 21st-century monarch. Official online sources say he is the first heir to the throne to earn a university degree. The King studied archaeology and anthropology in his first year at the University of Cambridge, switching to history for the remainder of his degree. Charles started a charity, The Prince’s Trust, with his Navy severance pay of just over £7,000 in 1976. The charity has now supported over one million young people.
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Prince Harry will reportedly be at the coronation. For me, it would be a shame if he didn’t attend and a poor reflection on his father Charles, and Prince William, his only brother and the heir to the throne.
I just re-read The Spare, Harry’s book. When he was born, Harry was the spare, but no longer. I suppose Princess Charlotte is now the “spare” to Prince George.
Harry shared some insights in the book about his father. He remembers when photos of him taken in Las Vegas while playing strip poker with his pals and some girls from the casino were splashed all over the front pages.
He feared his father’s wrath.
“To my surprise, to my relief, he was gentle. Even bemused. He felt for me, he said, he’d been there, though he’d never been naked on a front page. Actually, that was untrue. When I was about eight years old a German newspaper had published naked photos of him, taken with a telephoto lens while he was holidaying in France.
“But he and I had both put those photos out of our minds.
“Certainly he’d felt naked many times before the world, and that was our common ground. We sat by a window and talked for quite a long time about this strange existence of ours, while watching Birkhall’s red squirrels frolic on lawn.”
How did Diana’s baby react when Charles told him and his brother, whom he calls “Willy,” that he had received permission from the Queen to marry Camilla?
“Despite Willy and me urging him not to, Pa was going ahead. We pumped his hand, wished him well. No hard feelings. We recognized that he was finally going to be with the woman he loved, the woman he’d always loved, the woman Fate might’ve intended for him in the first place. Whatever bitterness or sorrow we felt over the closing of another loop in Mummy’s story, we understood that it was beside the point,” Harry wrote.
“Also, we sympathized with Pa and Camilla as a couple. They’d taken star-crossed to new levels. After years of thwarted longing, they were now just a few steps from happiness... and new obstacles kept appearing.”
For one, Pope John Paul II passed away and his father and Camilla didn’t want to get married on the same day the Pope was being laid to rest.
“Delay after delay… if you listened carefully you could hear, wafting across the Palace grounds, the shrieks and groans of despair. You just couldn’t tell whose they were: the wedding planner’s or Camilla’s (or Pa’s).”
This next narration tugged at my heartstrings because Harry’s grief at losing Diana remains raw to this day, and yet…
Harry wrote of the day his “Pa” wed: “When the wedding did finally take place —without Granny, who chose not to attend — it was almost cathartic for everyone, even me. Standing near the altar I mostly kept my head bowed, eyes on the floor, just as I had during Mummy’s funeral, but I did sneak several long peeks at the groom and the bride and each time I thought: Good for you.
“Though, also: Goodbye.
“I knew without question that this marriage would take Pa away from us. Not in any real sense, not in any deliberate or malicious way, but nevertheless — away. He was entering a new space, a closed space, a tightly insular space. Willy and I would see less of Pa, I predicted, and that left me with mixed feelings…”
“But I saw Pa’s smile and it was hard to argue with that, and harder still to deny the cause: Camilla. I wanted so many things, but I was surprised to discover at their wedding that one of the things I wanted most, still, was for my father to be happy.”
Tomorrow, Charles will be very happy — with the woman he loves, his sons by his side, despite their differences.
This modern-day fairy tale belongs to Charles and it is match-dissolving into reality.
(You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)
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