Charles has spent virtually his entire life waiting to succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, even as he took on more of her duties and responsibilities as she aged.
But the late monarch’s eldest son, 73, made the most of his record-breaking time as the longest-serving heir to the throne by forging his own path.
“The trouble is, there isn’t a job description, so you have to rather make it up as you go along,” he once said.
Manically active on a range of topics — though often under the radar — Charles sees himself as a “dissident” working against the prevailing political consensus, an ex-aide revealed in 2006.
Shouldering the burden of expectation, his life has been plagued by low self-esteem but driven by a relentless drive to do the right thing.
Charles has seen it as his duty to help improve the lives of his mother’s subjects, and been outspoken on issues close to his heart, notably architecture, the environment, farming, faith and alternative medicine.
His views were often dismissed and derided as eccentric or unfashionable, but others think he is ahead of the curve.
In January 2020, he warned business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos about global warming and environmental damage.
“What good is all the extra wealth in the world gained from business as usual if you can do nothing with it, except watch it burn in catastrophic conditions?” he said.
He put his principles into practice by building a new town in southwest England and launching an organic food range.
He bombarded government ministers with lobbying letters on topics ranging from inadequate army equipment to the plight of the Patagonian Toothfish.
A 10-year press freedom battle resulted in the letters’ publication in May 2015 described by one commentator as “a plaintive sigh of woe at a world going to the dogs”.
The British satirical magazine Private Eye nicknamed him “Brian” after likening a 1969 BBC documentary about the royals’ day-to-day family life to a soap opera.
The unwavering worldview of Charles — and his belief in recycling — is reflected in his sartorial style.
He has stuck with the same side hair parting from the age of five, shoes from 1968 and coat from 1985 and wears immaculate double-breasted Anderson and Sheppard bespoke suits.
– ‘Action man’ –
Charles Philip Arthur George was born November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace.
He was second in line to the throne and became the heir when his grandfather king George VI died on February 6, 1952, and his mother became Queen Elizabeth II.
As a boy, his governess, Catherine Peebles, described him as “hypersensitive, lonely, excessively shy and given to quiet pursuits like reading and painting”.
With his parents often on lengthy overseas tours, he grew close to his grandmother, king George’s widow queen Elizabeth, and to his mentor, his great-uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten.
To his bewilderment, at aged nine in 1958 he was created Prince of Wales — the…
