Thomas
| Thomas | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| King of the British and of the People of his other Realms | |||||
| Reign | 15 January 1997 - 1 August 2019 | ||||
| Coronation | 17 December 1997 | ||||
| Predecessor | Charles III | ||||
| Successor | Alexandra | ||||
| Prime Ministers | |||||
| Born | 17 December 1960 Balmoral Castle, Scotland | ||||
| Spouse | Christy Turlington (m. 1995) | ||||
| Issue | |||||
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| House | Hanover | ||||
| Father | Charles III | ||||
| Mother | Lauren Bacall | ||||
| Religion | Protestant | ||||
| Military service | |||||
| Branch/service | |||||
| Years of service | 1981-1997 (active service) | ||||
| Rank | Admiral of the Fleet | ||||
| Battles/wars | Falklands War Multinational Force in Lebanon Gulf War | ||||
Thomas (English: Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles; German: Thomas Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Albrecht Carl; born 17 December 1960) was King of the British from 15 January 1997 to 1 August 2019.
A decorated naval aviator with the Royal Navy, Thomas's two-decades-long military career was marked by his involvement in several notable conflicts, namely the Falklands War and the Gulf War in which a US-led coalition successfully repelled Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein from neighbouring Kuwait. Besides this, under the alias "Charles T. Lawrence", Thomas also enjoyed a successful acting career in Hollywood, having starred in a number of critically acclaimed films including Out of Africa, Top Gun, The Untouchables, Sleepless in Seattle, My Best Friend's Wedding, You've Got Mail, and Love Actually. Considered to be one of the greatest British actors of all time, Thomas is the recipient of eight British Academy Film Awards, four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and is best known for his pairing with American actress Meg Ryan in the romantic comedy genre. Since his retirement from acting, Thomas has begun a new career as a filmmaker, having so far directed and produced the critically acclaimed heist thriller The Golden Trail and its follow-up prequel The Founding Trail. In 2023, he directed the award-winning and highly-acclaimed BBC One miniseries The Sea Wolf starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Admiral Thomas Cochrane. The following year, he directed another BBC One miniseries The Napoleon of Crime starring Andrew Scott as Professor Moriarty, the first time that the character was ever given a full series. On both occasions, he won the Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
In January 1997, Thomas ascended to the throne upon his father's abdication. In his early years, he came to acquire a reputation as a vocal figure for reform in the United Kingdom with his most notable success in that regard being the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 which lifted restrictions on marriages to Roman Catholics, instituted absolute primogeniture, and, most notably, abolished the longstanding restrictions on Roman Catholics being monarchs. Moreover, the notable passage of the Church of England Act 1998 resulted in the formal disestablishment of the Church of England, making Thomas the last monarch to serve as supreme governor since King Henry VIII separated England from the Holy See. Meanwhile, abroad, Thomas was also an instrumental figure behind the independence of East Timor and the unification of the island of New Guinea under Papua New Guinea, both of which saw him receive the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize award together with Indonesian President B. J. Habibie. In August 2019, following a health crisis a few years prior, Thomas abdicated the throne in favour of his daughter who subsequently ascended to the throne as Queen Alexandra. Following his abdication, Thomas has since come to devote himself to both philanthropic and entrepreneurial causes.
In 1995, Thomas married the American supermodel Christy Turlington, making him the first British monarch to marry a Roman Catholic following the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995. Together, the couple have five children, including the reigning Queen Alexandra. Prior to this, Thomas was in a relationship with the American actress Lynda Carter, with whom he had two children in total, namely William Carter, one of the most well-known and successful professional footballers in history, and Jacqueline Carter, a former BBC journalist currently serving as leader of the United Kingdom's Liberal Democrats and Leader of the Opposition.
As one of the major shareholders of the multi-billion dollar holding company Atlantic Connection, Thomas is estimated to be worth around $30 billion, making him one of the richest monarchs in the world. Since 1988, Thomas has been the sole owner of the National Football League franchise New England Patriots. Under his ownership, the franchise has gone on to win a total of eleven Super Bowl titles, the most of any team in the league's history, with head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady being central figures to their success, particularly as the New England Patriots became the first and only NFL team to have won the Super Bowl thrice in a row. With the exception of the Green Bay Packers, a publicly traded company, Thomas is currently the second-longest serving NFL owner behind Virginia Halas McCaskey, owner of the Chicago Bears since 1983.
Early Life
On 17 December 1960, roughly two years into his father's reign as monarch, Thomas was born as the eldest child of King Charles III and the American actress Lauren Bacall. Christened Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles upon his birth, his given name was derived from the Republican politician and New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, a two-time presidential nominee and who is both his godfather and a close friend of his father's. On the other hand, his middle names were reportedly chosen in honour of his maternal grandfather William Perske, the American singer Frank Sinatra, and his own father himself.
Soon after his birth, Thomas, being his father's heir apparent to the throne was immediately made Duke of Cornwall, which lasted until January 1st the following year, when he was then formally Prince of the Welsh by his father's behest. Notably, Thomas became the first heir apparent in British history to have ever used the princely title's much older styling, as his predecessors have all used the more common styling of Prince of Wales as opposed to Prince of the Welsh. Mirroring that of his own father's upbringing, Thomas's upbringing in Buckingham Palace was reportedly said to have been somewhat restrictive in the early years, as a consequence of fringe rumours espousing harmful plots targeting the royal family. Nevertheless, the prince was able to benefit from the more modern and liberal parenting style of his parents, with his father in particular emphasising qualities of "individuality, self-dependent, and survivability" in the young prince, while his mother generally added onto the efforts of Thomas's father in "liberalising" the young heir to the throne.
As his parents had previously been involved in the Hollywood industry as actors themselves, Thomas also grew up with a firm passion for American movies and films, an interest helped by his parents' convenient associations with various Hollywood celebrities. At the same time, he also became fond of locally-made British films as well with the famed English actress Audrey Hepburn reportedly being his favorite actress. Somewhat coincidentally, in 1955, Hepburn herself had married into the British royal family by marrying Thomas's first cousin once removed Prince Charles, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Meanwhile, owing to his parents' close association with the American actress Katharine Hepburn who had consistently been a close friend of the royal couple and also the prince's own godmother, Thomas would also occasionally spend some time living under the actress's care at her family residence in Fenwick, Connecticut where he later recounted in his memoirs exploring various type of sports including tennis, archery, golf, and swimming under the tutelage of the notoriously athletic Hepburn whom Thomas has also come to credit for shaping his somewhat liberal worldview that was later exemplified by his vocal support for same-sex marriage and very vocal insistence on abolishing the longstanding restriction on marriages between members of the British royal family and Roman Catholics. In this, the mother-son bond between Thomas and Hepburn was deemed to be so strong that, by Thomas's own admission, whenever he was staying with the actress at her Connecticut residence, he would be occasionally mistaken by some locals as Hepburn's son despite the actress herself never having had any children of her own. Later on, prior to her passing in June 2003, Hepburn was said to have bequeathed the ownership of her family home to Thomas, given that he spent some time growing up there, although he only officially assumed the ownership of the property following the subsequent death of his father, whom Hepburn initially entrusted with the maintenance of her family home in the event of her eventual passing. Since then, Thomas has come to describe the house as a "second home" for his own family who are said to have often loved spending their holidays there given its relative isolation from the general public, thereby giving them much-needed space and privacy as public figures.
Following the birth of Thomas's eldest daughter Jacqueline Carter in 1982, some media outlets have begun noting the apparent physical similarities between Carter and Katharine Hepburn, with whom his daughter is said to have shared a similarly diamond-shaped face, a high set of cheekbones, and a slim build. To that end, during an interview where he acknowledged the aforementioned similarities, Thomas admitted to finding the physical similarities between his daughter and the American actress "slightly eerie" at first before ultimately embracing them later on, adding that the late Hepburn herself found the similarities "amusing" and, in turn, greatly doted on the young Jacqueline.
Adulthood
Military Career
In 1981, Thomas attended the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, after which he was subsequently commissioned as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. However, given that his royal status meant that he was largely kept away from active combat, Thomas instead used his commission in the Royal Navy to venture to multiple countries around the world including Canada, Brazil, Madagascar, India, Singapore, and Japan. Eventually, in 1982, with the onset of the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina, an opportunity for the prince to see his first active combat in the years since he was commissioned in the Royal Navy finally came about. However, the controversial decision to have Thomas on board the British task force sent to the Falkland Islands was initially met with considerable opposition by both the prince's father King Charles III and then-Prime Minister Edward Heath, both of whom were said to have opposed the prince's involvement in the conflict out of the need to protect the heir to the British throne. However, after a brief but overall contentious argument between Thomas himself and the prime minister, it was ultimately decided that the prince would be allowed to set sail on board the task force headed for the Falkland Islands in exchange for him agreeing to be under strict supervision by a senior Royal Navy officer whose main priority was to immediately evacuate the British royal to safety in the case of emergency. Regardless of this, with the conclusion of the war, Thomas was subsequently granted his first promotion as an officer in the Royal Navy, having been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Then, he subsequently joined an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which earned him another promotion, this time to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Later, from 1990 to 1991, Thomas would see his final active combat experience as a Royal Navy officer when he was deployed to the Middle East as part of an international coalition force, which in the span of a few months, managed to successfully push Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein out of neighbouring Kuwait. For his actions during the conflict, he was promoted to the rank of Commodore. Later, shortly after his ascension to the throne, he promptly resigned his commission in the Royal Navy although he was later made a Lord High Admiral as the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy itself.
Owing to his career in the armed forces, during the production of Top Gun, Thomas was thus the only cast member with actual military experience, namely as a naval aviator with the Royal Navy. To that end, it was later revealed by Thomas in a subsequent interview that during breaks between scenes, as an experienced fighter pilot himself, he occasionally took his fellow castmates Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Meg Ryan on joyrides in the sky onboard the film's real-life Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, thereby making him an immediate favourite among his fellow castmates.
Acting Career
Having been exposed to the acting industry from an early age by his parents, both of whom were former actors, and also by the influential and successful American actress Katharine Hepburn, in preparation for adulthood, Thomas took up private acting lessons with the eventual hope of becoming a successful actor in his own right with his early inspirations and idols being Cary Grant, Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper. Meanwhile, in order to hone his acting skills, Thomas went to the recently established Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, United States where he was taught in method acting in which actors seek to bring out expressive performances by connecting with their characters' emotions and purposes in a story. Meanwhile, it was also during this period that, in order to conceal his true identity, he adopted the alias of "Charles T. Lawrence" in which his given name refers to his own father, an acclaimed actor prior to assuming the kingship, whereas his surname is a tribute to the British actor Laurence Olivier, whom Thomas greatly idolised as a newcomer in the acting industry, while his middle name "T" was simply revealed to be a reference to his actual first name "Thomas". To that end, in 1980, at twenty years old, Thomas made his debut in the teen comedy film The Hollywood Knights opposite Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer, both of whom also made their acting debut in the film. Upon being met with immediate applause for his film debut, in the following year, Thomas took the lead role in the action comedy film Stripes which revolved around a couple of misfits who joined the American military, a role that later earned him his first nomination at the Academy Awards. Then, in 1983, after a brief one-year hiatus, Thomas returned to star in The Outsiders in which he portrayed Ponyboy Curtis, the younger brother of Darrel Curtis who was portrayed by Patrick Swayze. In the following year, Thomas starred in Birdy opposite Nicolas Cage while also appearing in The Bounty as the sailor Fletcher Christian, a role that later won him his first accolade at the British Academy Film Awards. In 1985, aside from starring in the romantic drama Out of Africa opposite Meryl Streep, a film that subsequently won him Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards, Thomas also appeared in the action film Top Gun alongside the likes of Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, and Val Kilmer where he played the relatively minor role of Lieutenant Michael "Bulldog" Lawrence whose nickname is a reference to the British bulldog breed which is considered a British national animal.
In 1987, Thomas was paired alongside James Bond actor Sean Connery in the crime film The Untouchables where he portrayed the real-life Prohibition agent Eliot Ness who famously brought down the notorious mobster Al Capone portrayed in the film by Robert De Niro. In this, his portrayal of Ness subsequently earned him nominations at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. During a later interview, Thomas said that he did not bother not winning an award for his role in the film given that his participation was merely so he could pair up with the famous Sean Connery, whom Thomas admired for his role as the British spy James Bond, but nonetheless considered the film to be his "finest work" yet. In that same year, Thomas also starred in the neo-noir thriller No Way Out where he portrayed a US Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell. Then, in 1988, Thomas starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man which subsequently won him Best Supporting Actor at the British Academy Film Awards. Buoyed by this success, Thomas was later cast by director Tim Burton to portray the DC Comics superhero Batman in 1989's Batman, a role he later reprised for its 1992 sequel Batman Returns and which also won him Best Actor at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. However, for reasons that reportedly included creative differences, Thomas did not reprise the role and was instead replaced by Val Kilmer for Batman Forever although he later did reprise the role in 2023's The Flash alongside other Batman actors Ben Affleck and George Clooney. Meanwhile, in between the two Batman films, Thomas reunited with Sean Connery to portray Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October while also starring opposite Annette Bening in Regarding Henry, two films that later won him nominations at the Academy Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards respectively.
Entering the 1990s, after appearing in the legal drama film A Few Good Men opposite Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson, his co-star from Batman, Thomas made another appearance in the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle alongside Meg Ryan as Sam Baldwin, a recently-widowed architect who came to be fancied by Ryan's character Annie Reed, a role that later won him Best Actor at the Academy Awards while also earning him praise from critics for his "instant chemistry" with Ryan. The following year, Thomas appeared alongside his future sister-in-law Jodie Foster in the western comedy film Maverick as Bret Maverick, a role that saw him further win Best Actor at the British Academy Film Awards, while also making an appearance in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral alongside fellow British actor Hugh Grant. In 1995, having seemingly confirmed his shift towards the romantic comedy genre, Thomas appeared as a supporting character in Sense and Sensibility alongside Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as Edward Ferrars, a role that earned him nominations at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards that same year. Then, in 1996, Thomas portrayed the Hungarian aristocrat and aviator László Almásy in the romantic war drama The English Patient, earning him nominations for Best Actor at the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards and, in the following year, the year that he was to ascend to the throne following his father's abdication, Thomas starred alongside Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding, a film that later won him Best Supporting Actor at both the British Academy Film Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
By that point, despite having officially announced his retirement from acting, Thomas subsequently announced that he would appear in one final film. To that end, after initial speculation, he reunited with Ryan in You've Got Mail, a film that subsequently won him Best Actor win at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. Nonetheless, even with You've Got Mail considered to be his last film as a leading man, Thomas went on to return to the big screen a few more times, namely for Richard Curtis's 2003 romantic comedyLove Actually, thereby reuniting him with fellow British actors Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, its 2017 sequel Red Nose Day Actually, and the 2001 romantic comedy Kate & Leopold where he was paired for the third and final time with Meg Ryan and portrayed a 19th-century aristocrat who time-travels to the 21st-century. In this, during a subsequent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Thomas revealed that he only starred in the film after Ryan personally asked for his participation, having felt that Thomas would naturally suit the role of Leopold in the film given his royal background which complemented the pre-existing on-screen familiarity between the two. For this, Thomas later won Best Actor at both the Golden Globe Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, his last few acting accolades throughout his two-decades-long career. As a close friend of the Kennedy family, Thomas also starred in the 2016 biographical drama Jackie opposite Natalie Portman who portrayed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy while Thomas portrayed his late father, who, in the days following the assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy, personally visited the Parkland Memorial Hospital and bonded with a distressed Jacqueline Kennedy, whom Thomas himself met at the mere age of three. To that end, as the only cast member with a firsthand account of the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, Thomas, in addition to portraying his father, was thus given the unique privilege of directing some of the film's scenes, particularly those involving Charles III and Jacqueline Kennedy, effectively making him a de facto co-director to some extent alongside Chilean-born Pablo Larraín, with Larraín later praising Thomas for his "incredible memory of the events that happened in the film" and his "meticulous and dramatic approach to the most impactful and powerful scenes". For his performance in the film, in which critics lauded his "emotionally powerful" portrayal and ability to accurately portray his "larger-than-life" late father, Thomas subsequently won Best Supporting Actor at the British Academy Film Awards while Portman won Best Actress at both the British Academy Film Awards and the Academy Awards. In this, the spouses of their respective characters, namely President John F. Kennedy and Queen Lauren, were portrayed by Matt Damon and Charlize Theron.
A subject of much praise from critics for both his talent and versatility, Thomas has since been considered to be one of the United Kingdom's greatest actors irrespective of his royal background. Having starred in films that ranged from romantic comedies to action films, Thomas has been praised by multiple directors for his ability to almost seamlessly transition between roles, especially those that differ in genre, thereby allowing him to take on roles in various films and expand his acting range while simultaneously preventing himself from being typecast in one particular role. Meanwhile, regarding the fact that the second half of his acting career was largely filled with romantic comedies compared to the first half which saw him adopt a more varied approach regarding his roles, Thomas described his shift and consolidation into becoming a fully-fledged romantic comedy star as he entered the 1990s as a deliberate process, stating, "After about ten years of taking on different roles and doing different things in different types of movies, by that point, my guts feel that I should perhaps try and stick to one particular genre just to see what roles I would get with that sense of consistency. For me, if I wanted to be a full-on action star, I think I would have definitely taken the first chance at becoming James Bond, a role that I, as a Brit myself, felt that it was only right to take. However, I ultimately chose not to do so and, after having done Out of Africa before with a very talented woman like Meryl Streep, I felt that romantic comedies were my destiny and for that, fate sent me another talented woman by the name of Meg Ryan who, without much doubt, I will say that I had a very good time working with even if it was for just four films". Overall, Ryan is his most frequent female co-star throughout four films in total, followed by the Somali-American model Iman, American actress Michelle Pfeiffer, and the English actresses Emma Thompson and Keira Knightley with two films each.
Owing to his similarly good looks and British nationality, coupled with his transition to romantic comedies during the 1990s, for a while, Thomas was often compared to fellow British actor Hugh Grant, a well-known star in romantic comedies himself. Officially, the two first crossed paths when they were both included in the Richard Curtis-written Four Weddings and a Funeral and later in both Love Actually and its sequel Red Nose Day Actually. In the meantime, owing to their apparent similarities, the two promptly became subjects of constant comparison by media outlets who often speculated about a private but intense rivalry between the two stars. In this, the strongest rumours allege that Thomas narrowly beat out Grant for the role of Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility while Grant, in turn, reportedly prevailed over Thomas for the lead role in Notting Hill in which he starred opposite Julia Roberts, with whom Thomas he had previously starred in My Best Friend's Wedding. Later on, Thomas described the supposed rivalry between him and Grant as "nothing more than the usual competition that was otherwise somewhat exaggerated by tabloids", stating, "Personally, while my opinions, particularly those concerning actors who seemingly stuck playing one type of character only, might be somewhat negative, given that it otherwise made him famous and relevant, I have nothing but praise for Hugh for doing what he does best for as long as he enjoyed it". Meanwhile, in a 2023 interview, Thomas claimed that at one point, following the retirement of Roger Moore, he was briefly offered the chance to play the famous spy character James Bond, a role that, despite some strong inclinations, he ultimately rejected. Despite this, Thomas later starred alongside the inaugural James Bond actor Sean Connery in two films, namely The Untouchables and The Hunt for Red October, while his sister Catherine starred in Disobedience alongside Rachel Weisz, the wife of the most recent James Bond actor Daniel Craig, with whom she later starred in Knives Out. Moreover, having previously portrayed Batman in Batman and Batman Returns, his daughter-in-law Anne Hathaway later starred as Batman's love interest Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, the final entry to Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight trilogy" opposite English actor Christian Bale as the DC Comics superhero, while his son-in-law Henry Cavill starred alongside Tom Cruise, the royal's co-star from Top Gun, in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Despite his usual appearance on movies, from time to time, Thomas has appeared, usually in a cameo capacity, on several popular television series including Blackadder, Cheers, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Friends, and Law & Order. Later, when asked about which television series he enjoyed appearing the most in, Thomas named Law & Order as his favourite show to appear on, having heaped much praise on the show's realism concerning the legal system and the performance of its stars, namely his stated personal favourite Mariska Hargitay, daughter of the late actress Jayne Mansfield. In one interview, citing the early death of Hargitay's mother from an accident when she was only three and her subsequent work in both acting and philanthropy, Thomas has praised the actress for "successfully and credibly establishing herself as someone unique and beyond being the child of some famous individual", adding, "When you look at how her character in the show inspires people and what she does in real life, it's amazing to see just how far she has come from what was perhaps a not so easy childhood to become a star and a figure in her own right to the point that when you talk about her, you don't simply refer to her as Jayne Mansfield's daughter but that actress from Law & Order, a show that she is undoubtedly proud to be a part of". Meanwhile, owing to his real-life popularity, Thomas was also occasionally mentioned in television series including those he later appeared in as well such as the American sitcom Friends where in one episode, the character Rachel Green, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston, included Thomas in a celebrities list despite him later making a guest appearance on the show as "Richard Crosby" in two episodes.
Reign
Reforms & Projects
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Upon his father's abdication in January 1997, Thomas automatically ascended to the throne. Despite his longstanding ceremonial status, Thomas, in a manner similar to that of his father and predecessor Charles III, also partook to some degree in the country's political affairs while largely adhering to his position as a constitutional monarch. Among others, the most notable instance was the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995, a law that was actually passed roughly two years prior to his ascension to the throne, but in which Thomas himself had a rather prominent role in shaping it. Spurred by the opposition against his marriage to his Catholic-born wife, Thomas, in conjunction with several sympathetic politicians, campaigned for the removal of the longstanding restrictions on marriages between members of the royal family and Roman Catholic individuals, which he famously called an "immoral relic of the past" while also arguing that it would clash with the modernising image of the United Kingdom, particularly one that will host an ever-increasing number of religious minorities.
Meanwhile, in addressing concerns over the potential of having a Catholic monarch due to the lifting of the restrictions, Thomas asserted that the British monarch, as per longstanding convention, will generally remain an Anglican Protestant regardless of marriage to a Roman Catholic spouse, stating, "There's a clear and implicit difference between marrying a Catholic and being a Catholic, which I hope Parliament will soon realise and therefore take it upon themselves to correct this grievous injustice in a modern and increasingly tolerant country". Nonetheless, the bill itself was later followed by another landmark bill that amended the Act of Succession 1701 once more, namely by effectively removing the longstanding prohibition on Roman Catholic monarchs, thus legally allowing Thomas or any members of the royal family to be of either the Roman Catholic or Protestant faiths as long as they, by virtue of the bill's provisions, remain in the Christian faith and hold British citizenship. In the meantime, absolute primogeniture was also instituted, thereby ensuring that the next monarch is chosen purely based on seniority rather than gender, thus leading to the subsequent ascension of his daughter as the first British queen regnant in three centuries. However, despite the lifting of longstanding restrictions on Roman Catholics being monarchs, Franz von Bayern, the current head of the House of Wittelsbach and pretender to the British throne according to the Jacobite succession, was not immediately proclaimed as the new monarch on the basis that the changes in succession laws did not disqualify members of the ruling House of Hanover from holding the throne but rather simply expanded the pool to include those disqualified by their Roman Catholic faith. On his part, while welcoming the dramatic reforms, Franz publicly expressed his ambivalence about potentially assuming the throne, stating, "Ultimately, what happened a few centuries ago is what it is and does not concern me any longer. Now, even if Roman Catholics are allowed to sit on the throne again, thus making me the likely new monarch, I believe that the current line of rulers has done well to serve their nation as figureheads as the people demanded of them. Moreover, as a German citizen, my allegiance is to Germany rather than the United Kingdom".
In his advocacy for the basic principles of separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judiciary, Thomas was also a vocal figure calling for the establishment of a "supreme court", having once said, "As fine as everyone seems to be with it right now, does it not feel a little weird that all the supreme judicial stuff is being done by one half of the legislative branch rather than by the judicial branch itself". In this, Thomas proposed that each of the United Kingdom's five constituent countries, namely England, Scotland, Wales, Hanover, and Ireland be represented by one justice on the country's apex court while the chief justice would normally be from England. In addition, having learned from the politicisation of the United States Supreme Court, Thomas also proposed that the process of nominating justices should not involve elected parliamentarians, stating, "It is a basic and undeniable fact that every politician, man or woman, in the House of Commons have their own vested interest which might or might not be good for the nation and the people as a whole. Thus, to even let them have a say in how the country's highest court should be run or how it should look ideologically is therefore absolutely dangerous and would only serve to weaken the country's democracy rather than bolstering it while also irreparably politicising the country's judicial system like how the Americans did". Eventually, on 1 October 2009, via the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the United Kingdom Supreme Court was formally established and, despite not adopting the King's "one country, one justice" proposal, did make it that rather than being elected by lawmakers such as in the United States whose senators vote to confirm a new justice nominated by the president, an incoming justice would instead be nominated by an independent commission, followed by the Justice Secretary accepting or rejecting the nomination, which can only be done once, before later being officially appointed to the court by the issuing of letters patent by the nonarch. Moreover, unlike their American counterparts who are appointed for life, British justices are required to retire upon reaching the current mandated age of seventy-five as a countermeasure against deliberate appointments of young justices for potentially political purposes.
A proponent of aggressive economic spending, Thomas has also actively called for the construction of "smart" and "useful" megaprojects via the Albion Investment Fund, the country's sovereign wealth fund, having once famously remarked during a 1993 BBC interview, "The overall wealth of the United Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund is currently in the hundreds of billions which could only rise to even a trillion in the near future. With the Cold War now essentially over, this level of wealth should be fully unleashed and not for building more nukes or superweapons but rather infrastructure that will benefit the entire British people regardless of where they are from or where they currently live". To that end, just a few months after the Channel Tunnel linking Great Britain and mainland Europe was opened in 1994, Thomas, in conjunction with newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, began an ambitious "Irish Sea Bridge" project with the aim of connecting the islands of Great Britain and Ireland which together form the British Isles. Officially started in 1999, the project, officially named "Celtic Crossing", was formally opened on 15 February 2007 to a final cost of £23 billion, thereby connecting the ports of Fishguard in Wales and Rosslare in Ireland. During the ensuing opening ceremony, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan simultaneously drove over the bridge from their respective ends before coming to a halt in the middle, a symbolic gesture intended to symbolise the newfound physical connection between the two islands that were previously separated at large by the Irish Sea. During the ensuing inauguration ceremony, in officially opening the bridge, Thomas declared, "For centuries, the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, along with its respective people who share a deep connection and history, have been physically separated from each other by nature for generations. Now, the advancement of technology allows these very same people to finally connect and reunite with each other physically, something that will hopefully last forever".
In 1999, as part of a series of reforms undertaken by the newly-elected prime minister Tony Blair, Police England and Wales came into being as a result of a merger of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales which included the well-known Metropolitan Police which generally policed the ceremonial county of Greater London. In line with this, the simultaneously defunct rank of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the Metropolitan Police and generally considered to be the highest in British policing, was reformed and renamed to "Chief Police Commissioner of the United Kingdom" and made the head of the United Kingdom Police Force, a directorate comprising all four of the country's national police forces, namely Police England and Wales, Police Scotland, Garda Síochána, and Police Hanover with the main aim of coordinating activities and responses between the four organisations which are each led by a chief constable.
Disestablishment of the Church of England
In the lead-up to the 1997 United Kingdom general election, which took place just several months into Thomas's reign as monarch, the opposing Labour Party, together with the Hanoverian Union Party, ran on a centrist platform that included a series of reforms which, among others, included a potential disestablishment of the Church of England, England's established church and to which Thomas, as the British monarch, is tied via his role as the Supreme Governor. Consequently, while not necessarily a theocratic state, together with Denmark and Greece, the United Kingdom is one of only a few European countries to officially have a state religion, something that the former King Charles III himself reportedly criticised, especially given that other European monarchies, namely the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Norway, and Sweden do not have state religions despite also being constitutional monarchies. In addition, the growing population of Roman Catholics, the majority of whom are concentrated in the constituent country of Ireland, also raised questions about the feasibility of a continuing Protestant state religion.
Eventually, in February 1998, following an expected Labour victory at the polls a year earlier that saw Tony Blair elected prime minister, the Hanoverian Union Party's Laurenz Aumann, whose party had entered into a confidence and supply agreement with the Labour Party on the premise of subsequently debating and potentially realising the disestablishment of the Church of England, brought forth what later came to be the Church of England Act 1998 that, after much intense debate and even considerable public commentary from the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, was subsequently passed by a firm majority in the House of Commons. Then, upon reaching the House of Lords, where twenty-five of the six hundred seats are explicitly reserved for the Lords Spiritual, a select group of bishops of the Church of England, the bill was once again met with considerable attention and scrutiny but was eventually passed, albeit by a narrow majority, and was subsequently granted royal assent by Thomas himself, thereby marking the end of the Church of England as an established church for almost four centuries long while also seemingly confirming the United Kingdom as a secular state in line with the growing trend among its religious demographics. To that end, the title of Defender of the Faith, first granted in 1521 by Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII, was consequently discontinued, effectively signifying the secularisation of the British monarchy. Meanwhile, despite being allowed to remain as the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, together with twenty-four other bishops, were also officially disqualified from sitting in the House of Lords in their capacity as the Lords Spiritual, a title that was itself abolished with their reserved twenty-five seats being given to and filled by crossbenchers at the next rearrangement of seats in the House of Lords.
Later, in August 2017, shortly after announcing his planned abdication within two years, Thomas publicly expressed his wish that his daughter and successor Alexandra, in a first for British history, have a civil ceremony rather than a religious one given that the British monarch is no longer formally associated with the Church of England save for a longstanding requirement to be of the Protestant faith in order to succeed to the throne. Such an idea was later realised when, in the absence of a coronation, a civil investiture ceremony for Alexandra instead took place in October 2019 at the Parliament Complex. Conducted by the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the ceremony saw the Queen pledge to "uphold the principles of the rule of law, representative democracy, the separation of powers, as well as ethnic, linguistic, racial, and religious inclusiveness" during which she also signed an accession oath, thereby formalising her status as monarch. In addition, unlike the religious nature of past coronations, its otherwise secular nature saw the participation of the leaders of all of the United Kingdom's major religious faiths including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.
Developments in East and Southeast Asia
On 1 July 1997, just several months into his reign as king, Thomas would personally be at the forefront of a monumental event in history with the British colony of Hong Kong, as per a 99-year lease agreed upon between the United Kingdom and Qing China, was to be officially handed back to China which is now currently administered by the Chinese Communist Party. To that end, a handover ceremony took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre where, in a move that surprised many observers, Thomas himself attended the ceremony as the British monarch while accompanied by his brother Nelson, newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, outgoing Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten, and Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie. In a major highlight of the ceremony, Thomas himself read out a prepared speech bidding farewell to the native Hong Kong population while also wishing them well under the new administration of the Chinese government via the "one country, two systems" policy. Later, in recent times, amidst increasing tensions between the two countries, anonymous sources have claimed that Thomas "detested" the whole occasion and instead preferred a fully democratic and fledgling capitalistic Hong Kong independent of any sovereign nation's control in any shape or form. Adding further, the sources also claimed that Thomas "breathed a huge sigh of relief" and "immediately drank a bottle of whiskey" right after the aircraft carrying the British monarch and his entourage left Hong Kong's airspace, adding, "The King was very relieved to be on his way back home after having to sit through an excruciating boastful display of communist pride and power right in front of his own two eyes". Nonetheless, in the wake of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, Thomas has vocally criticised the Chinese government for their "creeping violation and betrayal of the founding principles of Hong Kong's independence", adding, "The United Kingdom did not cede Hong Kong for it to essentially become a Chinese province or territory where they could do anything they want but rather a free and autonomous nation with its own set of laws and regulations free from Chinese interference". In response, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi publicly criticised Thomas's remarks, describing them as the "usual foreign meddling and interference in Chinese domestic matters".
A passionate supporter and advocate of decolonisation like his father, Thomas, together with Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, was an instrumental figure in the unification of the island of New Guinea under one single entity, namely the existing Papua New Guinea. In this, Thomas, who supported Papua New Guinea's independence from Britain while otherwise being critical of Indonesia's controversial Act of Free Choice referendum in which citizens of Indonesia's Western New Guinea region handpicked by the military voted unanimously in favour of Indonesian control, first publicly pressed for a second referendum following the fall of Suharto's "New Order" regime, an event that was followed by gradual democratisation in Indonesia under Suharto's own deputy and successor B. J. Habibie. To that end, just several months into Habibie's presidency, Thomas personally traveled to Indonesia to directly meet the Indonesian president where, after a week-long meeting behind closed doors that received heavy media coverage in both countries, he ultimately proved successful in convincing the Indonesian leader to agree to a free and fair referendum concerning Western New Guinea as well as East Timor, both of which are former European colonies that came under Indonesian control, as Habibie later announced the decision just several days after the meeting concluded.
Eventually, on 30 August 1999, under the sponsorship of the United Nations, joint referendums were simultaneously held in both East Timor and Western New Guinea asking voters to choose between greater autonomy within Indonesia or complete independence. In the end, the population in both areas voted decisively for independence, thereby resulting in East Timor becoming an independent nation several years later while Western New Guinea subsequently united with the independent Papua New Guinea, thereby uniting the island of New Guinea for the first time under a single political entity. Since then, for his role in directly meeting with President B. J. Habibie and successfully convincing the latter to grant independence to both areas respectively, Thomas has come to be well-regarded in both East Timor and Papua New Guinea, with the latter country, where he also reigns as monarch, later commissioning a statue of the King in the center of the capital of Port Moresby. Likewise, Bill Skate, whose premiership saw the country unite with the neighbouring Indonesian region, hailed Thomas as an "instrumental figure who publicly fought and advocated for the freedom and rights of Papuan islanders, be it those in Papua New Guinea itself or in the former Indonesian occupation region of Western New Guinea". Even more, both Thomas and Habibie were later nominated and jointly received the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize award for their successful diplomatic efforts regarding East Timor and Papua New Guinea, making the former the only monarch in history to ever receive the award. Meanwhile, Habibie himself left the presidency not long afterward in October 1999 while Indonesian nationalists have come to resent the independence of both East Timor and Western New Guinea, both of which they considered to be fundamentally Indonesian, a factor that reportedly led Thomas to avoid visiting Indonesia afterward for the entirety of his reign over fears of an assassination attempt by hardline Indonesian nationalists who allegedly blamed the royal for his role in precipitating both the independence of East Timor and the unification of the island of New Guinea.
Final Years
With the onset of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, a global recession that was considered to be the most serious recession since the Great Depression, Thomas personally had the tax rate for himself as the British monarch raised to a slightly higher amount as a way to contribute more financially to efforts in mending the recession's immediate effects. Meanwhile, in 2009, Thomas himself also played a notable part in making London the host city for legendary pop star Michael Jackson's This Is It concert, a comeback tour that saw Jackson perform some of his biggest hits including "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Smooth Criminal", and "Black or White" at a sold-out O2 Arena to much theatricality and widespread applause in his first tour since 1997.
Entering the 2010s, amidst widespread political unrest in the Middle East caused by the Arab Spring, in his capacity as the British monarch, Thomas personally met with the Bahraini Twelver Shia cleric Ali Salman during the latter's trip to Europe where he sought to gain foreign support for what later came to be known as the 2011 Bahraini Revolution in which Bahraini revolutionaries overthrew the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy in favour of a democratic and fully elected republican system of government, a feat that Thomas publicly hailed as the "prevailing of democracy over tyranny", a remark that that sparked some controversy with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which had opposed the Bahraini republican government before ultimately recognising it amidst American threats of discontinuing military support in the region. Then, around a year later, Thomas also met with the exiled Iranian royal Reza Pahlavi who, in the aftermath of the Green Revolution which restored the Pahlavi dynasty as a constitutional monarchy, returned to Iran where he later assumed the throne as Reza Shah II, thereby restoring the Iranian monarchy following its prior abolition in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. In this, Reza Pahlavi's accession came within a year after neighbouring Iraq was rocked by an Arab Spring-inspired revolution that overthrew the Ba'ath regime of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein whose death in December 2007 resulted in an ensuing civil war and a struggle for power between his two sons Uday and Qusay, thereby leading to Operation Unifying Democracy in which a US-led coalition sought to restore order to and establish democracy in a fractured Iraq, a goal achieved by January 2010 with the election of Jalal Talabani as the country's first democratically-elected president.
On 1 January 2016, following intense political debate and longstanding concerns over the Palace of Westminster's deteriorating condition and its accompanying maintenance costs, the United Kingdom's parliament was officially relocated from the Palace of Westminster, which was subsequently converted into a paid national museum, to the nearby King Charles III Centre, a building that was previously opened by the late King Charles III in 1986 which boasts a capacity of up to 2,500, making it twice as large than the Palace of Westminster in terms of overall capacity. The relocation, which symbolically took place on the 1000th anniversary of the Palace of Westminster's construction in 1016, saw Thomas deliver a farewell speech as parliamentarians were set to depart the building before later delivering a welcoming speech at the King Charles III Centre in honour of its new role as the country's parliamentary complex. In line with this, after a spontaneous vote among parliamentarians, the building was renamed to "Parliament Complex" whereas the names of the lower and upper chambers, the House of Commons and House of Lords, were retained on the basis of familiarity. A personal proponent of the decision to relocate the country's parliament, Thomas himself later declared in his welcoming speech, "At this precise moment, exactly a thousand years since the building that defined this country's legislature was first built, a new era begins for one of the country's three important branches. With a more modern-looking building to call home, perhaps the country's politics will emulate this relocation in its own distinctive way, namely in the direction of better and healthier dialogue between political parties that benefits the people and ultimately the nation". Meanwhile, with the change in venue to a more "modern" building, Thomas also had the State Opening of Parliament, an event formally marking the beginning of a new parliamentary session be updated as well by substituting the horse-drawn carriages with maroon Bentley vehicles and opting not to wear the Imperial State Crown at all while also simply wearing formal clothing instead of a Robe of State.
In the meantime, during the last few years of his reign, two significant nationwide referendums took place in the United Kingdom with one being a referendum on an alternate voting system and another on the United Kingdom's continued membership in the European Union. In this, a proposal for an alternative voting system to replace the traditional "first-past-the-post" was shelved amidst a resounding vote against it in the referendum while the country's membership in the European Union, which they joined back in 1973, was secured after a majority of voters voted for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Around that same time, the union, which currently consists of five constituent nations, came close to partial dissolution following an independence referendum in Scotland where a decisive majority otherwise voted to remain in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, in March 2018, the penultimate year of Thomas's reign, the United Kingdom made history with the election of its first female prime minister, namely Home Secretary Theresa May, having been elected to succeed the incumbent David Cameron after the latter pledged to step down and not seek a third term following the results of the 2015 United Kingdom general election and a referendum in 2016 concerning the country's continued membership in the European Union where the Remain side, which Cameron publicly backed, won against the opposing Leave side. In an ensuing speech made shortly after May was confirmed as Cameron's successor, Thomas said, "Within a year or so, I, a man, will no longer be on this throne but rather my daughter, a young, brilliant, and strong woman. As a father, I could not be happier than to see my own daughter, in her role as a constitutional monarch, work together with a brilliant woman like Theresa May who, with the support of her colleagues and the mandate of the people, will continue to lead the United Kingdom through the incoming years towards further prosperity and progress".
Abdication
On 6 October 2017, while in his bedroom, Thomas was suddenly hit by a stroke that appeared to have paralysed him. However, the swift response from his wife, who happened to be nearby, saw him immediately receive treatment for his condition. Subsequently, throughout the next few days or so, while his stroke was not publicly disclosed, the BBC and other media outlets began reporting on the King receiving treatment for an apparent illness that was vaguely described as having resulted in him being temporarily put out of work, thereby resulting in his brother Nelson, his traditional second-in-command, taking charge for the time being. Eventually, after about a week, Thomas began making a gradual and promising recovery while his stroke was also publicly disclosed to the public for the first time with Thomas himself subsequently addressing a crowd that had gathered outside of Buckingham Palace in anticipation of the monarch's return from his illness.
In the aftermath of the incident, Thomas, having reportedly seen it as a "divine intervention", began considering abdicating the throne just as how his own father did back on the latter's 80th birthday in 1997. Following this, Thomas consulted extensively with Prime Minister David Cameron and cabinet officials where it was eventually agreed that Thomas would formally abdicate the throne on 1 August 2019, the date fixed for the coronation of his daughter. To that end, in a public announcement made shortly after the agreement was reached, Thomas publicly disclosed his intention to abdicate the throne within two years, stating that while his recent health crisis had played some part in influencing his decision, he ultimately wanted to "pass the torch to a younger, more capable generation". Somewhat coincidentally, Thomas's abdication, although the last to take place during the 2010s, followed a series of prior abdications from other monarchs in the world, namely the Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, Belgium's King Albert II, Vatican City's Pope Benedict XVI, Qatar's Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Spain's King Juan Carlos I.
Post-Abdication
Return to Hollywood
In January 2019, having abdicated the throne roughly two years prior, Thomas made his directorial debut with the heist thriller film The Golden Trail which starred Gary Oldman as Michael Pearce, a retired master thief who recruits a group of individuals, each with their own expertise, led by Lawrence Spencer, portrayed by Henry Cavill, to recover a seemingly untraceable €100 million lost during an infamous 1970s bank robbery led by the notorious German thief Martin Ritschel (Christoph Waltz). Largely inspired by his own experience of watching the Ocean's heist films, the film, primarily shot in the United Kingdom as well as other countries including France, Switzerland, and Germany, proved to be both a critical and commercial success with praises directed towards the film's attention to detail, its ending twist, "witty" dialogue, and the particular performances of Henry Cavill, Daniel Kaluuya, and Lashana Lynch. Following this success, Thomas announced that a prequel exploring the past life of Michael Pearce is "under consideration" before later confirming its development sometime in June 2019 during an interview with The Guardian in which he offered a brief glimpse into the movie by summarising it as "a story where a man seemingly set for life suddenly finds himself extremely down on his luck and therefore decides to use his own instincts to uplift himself by any means necessary while sticking to his own set of morals". Later, during an interview in March 2020, Thomas revealed that production had wrapped in January with the film, titled The Founding Trail, being slated for a November release like its predecessor until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a temporary delay regarding the film's release. Eventually, in November 2022, starring Tom Hardy as the younger version of Gary Oldman's character, the film finally made its highly-anticipated debut to generally positive reviews with praises for Hardy's acting, its exploration of the English underclass, and its attention to detail for the robbery scenes, a trait carried over from the first film. However, despite the sustained success, Thomas announced that the sequel would be his last concerning the film, stating, "From the get-go, I always knew that in order to tell a compelling story like this one, it would need at least more than a single movie. Now, since the story is pretty much already told in its entirety across two critically acclaimed movies and judging by how the second movie ended, I've made it pretty clear that, as was intended, the story ends right where it should be and should not be expanded any further with an unnecessary sequel that could potentially erode or destroy the goodwill or enjoyment the public had with the first two titles".
In 2021, Thomas, having previously portrayed his father in the 2016 biographical drama Jackie, portrayed the latter once more in the 2021 biographical drama Albion: Against All Odds, a film directed by the noted British filmmaker Christopher Nolan chronicling the historic moon landing of the United Kingdom's Albion spacecraft on 1 January 1971. The film, released on what was the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, was met with critical acclaim and, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, was first exclusively screened for the surviving members of the Albion mission before later being released to the public.
Later, in July 2023, Thomas produced and directed The Sea Wolf, a four-part BBC One miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the legendary British naval officer and mercenary Admiral Thomas Cochrane, one of the United Kingdom's most celebrated naval figure of the Napoleonic Wars alongside Horatio Nelson and John Jervis. An immediate success among critics upon its release, the show subsequently saw Cumberbatch win Best Actor at both the Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Primetime Emmy Awards while the show itself was nominated for Best Limited Series at both the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Buoyed by this success, in November 2023, Thomas announced that he was developing another miniseries, also for BBC One, that revolves around the infamous Sherlock Holmes villain Professor Moriarty, thereby making it the first time that the character was ever fully explored on film or television. In announcing the project, Thomas cited the overwhelming number of media portrayals of Moriarty's archnemesis Sherlock Holmes including two films starring Robert Downey Jr. and two separate drama series led by Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch respectively which, in turn, led Thomas to attempt to fully explore and study Professor Moriarty in the character's own right. Following this, Thomas announced that the Irish actor Andrew Scott, who portrayed the character opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2010 miniseries Sherlock to much critical acclaim, would reprise the role again after fourteen years. At the same time, Thomas explained that Scott's return would not mean a revival of the Sherlock series itself but rather the creation of a new, separate Sherlock Holmes universe with Professor Moriarty as the central character, adding that he ultimately chose Scott for the role out of fascination with the latter's work in Sherlock as the character itself. Envisioned largely as an origin story of the famed archnemesis and officially titled The Napoleon of Crime, a nickname popularly associated with the character, the series made its debut on BBC One on 21 April 2024 to largely positive reviews.
Business Career
New England Patriots
In 1988, amidst financial struggles plaguing the National Football League franchise New England Patriots, then under the ownership of its founder Billy Sullivan, Thomas, having inherited his father's position as a principal shareholder of Atlantic Connection, a multibillion-dollar holding company founded jointly by the British royal family and the Rockefeller family, expressed his interest in acquiring the team. Almost immediately, his status as a member of a foreign royal family, coupled with him being only twenty-eight at the time, soon sparked considerable media interest in his planned acquisition of the New England Patriots. In response, while acknowledging his foreign background, Thomas, who had spent a considerable part of his childhood in Connecticut under the care of the American actress Katharine Hepburn, declared himself as a "New Englander through and through", adding that despite the skepticism, he personally wanted to be the one responsible for delivering the Super Bowl title to the only National Football League franchise representing the New England region. Prior to his acquisition, the New England Patriots, formerly known as the "Boston Patriots", had only made the playoffs a total of six times and, following the introduction of the Super Bowl in 1967, only reached the final once in 1985 where they lost to the Chicago Bears. Nonetheless, on 10 May 1998, the takeover was officially formalised as Thomas symbolically marked his arrival as the new New England Patriots owner with a ceremony at a sold-out Foxboro Stadium where he delivered a rousing speech vowing to bring a "grand longstanding era" for the franchise during which he famously declared, "Regardless of whether it will take a decade or a century-long, as long as my name is officially listed as this franchise's owner, the Patriots will taste Super Bowl glory not just once but many times to come with the right coach and players that will give it all for the franchise".
In his first season as chairman, the New England Patriots posted a promising 11-5 record but failed to make the playoffs, having fallen one game short behind the Buffalo Bills. Then, in the following season, a 10-6 record saw them finally make the playoffs where they went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos to make the final where they narrowly lost 35-36 to the San Francisco 49ers in a dramatic Super Bowl affair. Following this, the ensuing 1990 season saw the team post a disappointing regular season record of 5-11 but not before promptly rebounding in the subsequent 1991 season where on the back of a 13-3 regular season finish, the New England Patriots eliminated the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos in the playoffs to subsequently defeat the Buffalo Bills 38-34 to become conference champions, a status that allowed it to reach the Super Bowl for just the second time where they eventually defeated the Washington Redskins 40-38 to claim their first-ever Super Bowl title. Despite this, the remaining seasons of the 1990s proved rather fruitless for the New England Patriots who despite making the playoffs for six seasons straight, failed to immediately secure a second Super Bowl title.
Beginning in 2000, under the long two-decade tenure of Bill Belichick, following a 20-34 loss to the Oakland Raiders in the divisional playoffs, the ensuing 2001 season saw the New England Patriots come off a dominant 15-1 regular season to finally win their second Super Bowl title by a close 20-17 win over the St. Louis Rams. Then, despite the immediate 2002 season resulting in another loss to the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs, 2003 saw the New England Patriots clinch their third title with a narrow 32-29 win over the Carolina Panthers and, in turn, successfully defend their title the following season by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21, becoming the most recent NFL team to win the championship back-to-back. Then, after the 2005 and 2006 seasons saw the New England Patriots fail to immediately replicate their back-to-back successes, the team went on to make history in 2007 when after going 16-0 undefeated in the regular season, only the second time after 2004, the New England Patriots dramatically defeated the New York Giants 19-17 to win their fourth overall title. Then, in 2011, the New England Patriots went on to defeat the New York Giants once again by a final score of 29-24 to win their fifth Super Bowl title which they, in turn, successfully defended with a 39-30 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the following edition. Following this, from 2013 to 2018, during which their only two losses in the playoffs came at the hands of the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl a further four times during which they made history yet again by becoming the first-ever NFL team to win the Super Bowl thrice in a row, defeating the Atlanta Falcons in 2016, the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017, and the Los Angeles Rams in 2018, the final year that the team would also win the Super Bowl prior to star quarterback Tom Brady's transfer in 2020 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a franchise owned by the Glazer family, whom Thomas particularly resented for their ownership of Manchester United, and the subsequent departure of longtime head coach Bill Belichick whom Thomas later described as "America's Fergie", a reference to the longtime Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson who departed Manchester United in 2013, bringing to an end his twenty-seven-year tenure at the English football club with Belichick's twenty-three-year tenure at the New England Patriots being a close parallel of it.
Despite his foreign and royal background, being only one of two foreign-born NFL owners alongside the Pakistani-born Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, the unprecedented success achieved by the New England Patriots since the franchise's acquisition by Thomas in 1988 has come to cement him as one of the league's most popular owners. In this, ESPN claimed that an "effective" and "strategic" use of the siege mentality by Thomas, who often framed the New England Patriots as the region's sole fighter against its many "foreign" opponents in the league, has made him a relatively popular figure among the franchise's faithful who have also responded well to Thomas's long-running public relations strategy of marketing himself as a proper New Englander by virtue of him having spent a considerable part of his childhood in the region despite being born in the United Kingdom. Moreover, despite his duties as the British monarch, having reigned from 1997 to 2017, Thomas is known for having never missed a single playoff game involving the New England Patriots and who was always in attendance at all of the franchise's twelve Super Bowl appearances during which they only lost once, namely in their maiden appearance in 1989. Meanwhile, in notable contrast to his peers in the league, Thomas is known for having personally rejected holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy first upon their franchise's victory as per the league's tradition. During a 2018 interview with ESPN, Thomas explained that given his British roots and the fact that owners of European football clubs are not as celebrated as their American counterparts are for their team's successes, he found the American sporting tradition of owners holding the trophy first rather than the coach or players to be somewhat "very strange" and "weirdly eccentric", adding that he believes that as the ones who are responsible for delivering their team's glory, the players and head coach should be the only ones having their hands on the trophy rather than the franchise owner.
Meanwhile, despite his purported 100% attendance record at the franchise's playoff games, including their twelve Super Bowl appearances, real-life duties, coupled with the game's long average length of up to three hours meant that in most cases, he actually attended them virtually rather than in-person with the franchise's matches in London being an exception to this trend. In this, during a 2018 interview with BBC Sport, Thomas, a lifelong football fan, criticised the "overt commercialisation" of the Super Bowl, particularly the sixteen mandated television timeouts for commercials, stating, "Ultimately, money is money but as a Brit myself, to have two completely different watching experiences always feels bizarre to me. On one hand, when I watch football, except for the halftime break, I am always guaranteed straight, uninterrupted ninety-minute action with no breaks for ads and commercials whatsoever. On the other hand, when I watch American football, it always feels like I am trying to watch a sports game but then some giant corporation like Amazon or Walmart suddenly barges in every few minutes to sell their stuff, which I probably won't even buy anyway, and that I have to just wait it out before the game restarts again. Frankly, as much as I love seeing my team win, the constant interruptions are undoubtedly quite a challenge themselves". Otherwise, given his British background, Thomas naturally became a vocal proponent of the National Football League's overseas expansion, namely to London, England, thereby resulting in the birth of the NFL London Games in 2007 where two teams play a regular game season at Wembley Stadium, Twickenham Stadium, or, following its completion in 2019, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, all of which are based in London. Consequently, as the franchise owner, Thomas subsequently kickstarted an annual tradition of the New England Patriots playing one game each in London against a different opponent each year. Then, amidst rumours of a London-based NFL franchise, a proposal that has been met with support from the British government itself, Thomas was among its earliest and loudest backers, stating in a 2018 interview with ESPN, "Fundamentally, in terms of sports, the United States might be crazy about American football while the United Kingdom is more crazy about association football. However, in the ten years since the NFL first visited London annually, it is an unmistakable fact that the sport is a huge attraction to the people here in London who, much like those living in the US, are willing to pay good money to watch their favourite teams battle it out on the pitch. With that in mind, I think a NFL team in London would have not many problems in trying to curry a fanbase right in the capital city and, if any existing challenges are dealt with, should be a reality by at least the end of the decade". At the same time, citing the constant risks of brain injury suffered by NFL players, Thomas, amidst plans for a London-based NFL team, called for better research into and safety measures against such risks, stating, "As the father of three professional athletes, the issue of player safety and welfare is one that I undeniably care about a lot. Thus, if actual British athletes are going to be subject to the same risks as the Americans are in playing American football, they should have all the effort from the British government and organisations to ensure that they are protected well and reasonably taken care of. Ultimately, to treat athletes like actual humans rather than robots or animals is basic decency and a right that they should absolutely enjoy".
In the year 2000, in his capacity as New England Patriots chairman, Thomas spearheaded the construction of a new stadium to replace the longstanding Foxboro Stadium, the original home of the New England Patriots since 1971. Under the guise of "progressive transformation", plans for a 70,000-seater multi-purpose stadium were approved by the local town council of Foxborough and, after a period of two years, ultimately resulted in the opening of a stadium on 11 May 2002, the biggest in the state. For naming purposes, while the stadium was originally named "CMGI Field" upon its opening, by Thomas's personal discretion, it was officially named "John F. Kennedy Stadium" similar to the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. During a subsequent interview explaining the naming choice, Thomas pointed to the late John F. Kennedy's prominence in Massachusetts as its federal senator and later its state governor following two successful terms as president, thus seemingly warranting such a tribute to the American politician. Nonetheless, since its opening, the stadium has served as the home of both the National Football League and Major League Soccer franchises New England Patriots and New England Revolution respectively and is also set to host several matches of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. Otherwise, a few years after acquiring the New England Patriots, Thomas also founded New England Air, a first-of-its-kind NFL charter airline consisting of two Boeing 767s meant exclusively for transporting the team's players and staff members to matches across the United States. Then, following the introduction of the NFL to London, where the New England Patriots would play one regular game each season, the airline's importance thus grew considerably with the purpose of transporting the team back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, prior to the start of the 2024 season, Thomas announced the appointment of his son William Carter, a highly decorated former professional footballer, as the franchise's deputy chairman, a move speculated by many to be the British royal preparing his son for an eventual change in the chairmanship of the New England Patriots. Although the announcement lacked any further details, several media outlets, most notably ESPN, speculated that much like his father, Carter would also operate in a similar hands-off manner and appear in each of the team's playoff games when necessary, an approach that Thomas himself publicly confirmed in several interviews where he also revealed that despite officially being the team chairman, much of the day-to-day work is done by a group of "business and sports technocrats" hired and trusted by the royal himself who otherwise receives monthly reports on the team's performance while making any important decisions when necessary. During an interview with BBC Sport, when asked about his opinion on the ownership model involving different teams across various sports exemplified by Stan Kroenke with Arsenal and the Los Angeles Rams and Malcolm Glazer with Manchester United and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Thomas expressed his personal disdain towards such a model, stating, "Of course, anyone with enough money can own as many teams as they wish as long as they are legally allowed to do so. However, unlike some who see the sports teams they own as a brand or a business, I see the New England Patriots as a community that shares my personal view on wanting to see the great region of New England dominate one of the country's most popular sports nationwide. Consequently, with that in mind, I really can't justify reducing my time with the community simply to cater to another one in an entirely different environment for it feels like I'm not being very loyal and was not taking my time and effort with the community very seriously. Ultimately, loyalty to someone or something is one of the strongest values I dearly hold in my life". Despite this, in 1995, the Major League Soccer franchise New England Revolution was founded, albeit without Thomas as the presiding club president as per his wish to be solely involved with the New England Patriots.
In 2021, in collaboration with the streaming platform Netflix, Thomas helped produce The Patriots: An American Sporting Dynasty, a sports documentary chronicling the beginning and subsequent domination of the National Football League by the New England Patriots who notably became the only franchise so far to win the Super Bowl thrice in a row. Released on the thirtieth anniversary of the team's maiden Super Bowl victory and amidst the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the documentary was met with immediate critical acclaim and won several accolades at the British Academy Television Craft Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, and the Sports Emmy Awards.
Personal Life
A noted collector of cars, Thomas is known to have possessed a modest collection of both vintage and luxury vehicles, some of which include the iconic Jaguar E-Type, along with several others such as an Aston Martin V8, a third-generation Chevrolet Camaro, a Ferrari F40, and a Porsche 959. Meanwhile, for leisurely purposes, Thomas is known to have favoured riding his Ducati motorcycle, often alongside two of his closest confidants who normally serve as his bodyguards during his occasional motorcycle rides. Otherwise, Thomas normally drives a BMW i8 hybrid sports car which he often uses to attend events and other official functions. As a former naval aviator with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, Thomas is capable of operating various modern fighter jets and helicopters including the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, AgustaWestland AW101, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
In a 2006 interview with the BBC, Thomas revealed that had it not been for his royal background, he would have preferred to play professional football in his youth, a career he ultimately never pursued owing to an inherent sense of nervousness originating from him likely being the only royal in a football team filled mostly by individuals of commoner background coupled with the sport's considerable physicality at the time which was deemed to be a safety risk for an heir to the throne although he has nonetheless described himself as "fairly adept in it but perhaps not enough to necessarily play for a big football club", adding that during his teenage years, his son William Carter, who later went on to become an extremely successful professional footballer, often practiced football with him in the family's backyard. Meanwhile, in a 1998 interview with the BBC, Thomas revealed himself to be a lifelong fan of Premier League club Manchester United with its Irish legend George Best, who famously led Ireland to victory at the UEFA Euro 1968, being named by Thomas as his favourite player of all time. Moreover, Thomas has been a longtime season ticket holder for decades and has also vocally spoken out on the club's apparent issues, namely its decline in performance following the retirement of longtime manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012. Meanwhile, having partially grown up in the region of New England, namely in the state of Connecticut under the care of the late American actress Katharine Hepburn, Thomas has since considered himself to be a "New Englander through and through", a sentiment that notably led him to acquire the National Football League franchise New England Patriots from its founder Billy Sullivan in 1988, a purchase that sparked much attention at the time given that he is the first member of a royal family and the first non-American to acquire a team in the NFL. With an estimated net worth of $30 billion, Thomas is reportedly the second-richest franchise owner in the National Football League behind Walmart heir and Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton and the second-longest serving owner behind Virginia Halas McCaskey, owner of the Chicago Bears since 1983.
Known for his physically active lifestyle, in addition to football, Thomas is known to have enjoyed a variety of other sports including swimming, polo, golf, and tennis. Moreover, since its introduction in 1981, save for only a few instances, Thomas has consistently run in almost every edition of the London Marathon, often alongside his wife, a fellow marathon enthusiast, since the couple's marriage in 1995. In addition, the two are almost always frequently spotted doing morning jogs together, a habit that Thomas said allowed them to easily prepare for the day while also allowing them to calmly work out any issues in the comfort of their own privacy, stating, "Even if we have been married for two decades long and counting, from time to time, we will occasionally run into some trivial issues here and there but, be it during meals, jogs, or when we're simply in bed together, we always calmly and smoothly work these issues out because we ultimately love each other a lot and could also set a good example to our children who could look to how happy and loving their parents are with each other when they decide to get married and have their own families later". Otherwise, while previously a habitual smoker, since becoming a father and especially following the death of his father-in-law from smoking-induced lung cancer, Thomas has since long abstained from smoking and, in turn, has been a vocal advocate against the habit himself to the point of even once calling for a complete, outright ban on cigarettes. In November 2017, while addressing a stroke that briefly paralysed him the previous month, Thomas jokingly claimed that he would have been "dead for good" if not for his decision to quit smoking beforehand, adding, "Since at least 1979, I have a solid purpose to live for a very long time which is to see my children grow up and have their own children afterward. Because of that, I'm doing everything possible so that like my father, who passed away late into his 90s, I'll live long enough to see my family grow and enjoy what life has to offer me next". In the meantime, Thomas is also said to be trained in martial arts, namely in Krav Maga, boxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, all of which he was said to have learned during his time in the military as part of the armed forces self-defense classes as well as for preparation for his action roles.
While initially seen by observers and media outlets in his youth as the stereotypical "playboy prince", owing to his good looks and the fact that he later married a well-known American supermodel, since ascending to the throne and even after abdicating afterward, Thomas is deemed by observers to have successfully reinvented his image and persona from that of a "playboy prince", a label that he has since contested, to more of an attentive and mindful monarch, owing to his role in the United Kingdom's mid-2000s constitutional reforms, and also that of a loving father and family man, particularly to his seven children, each of whom has mostly described Thomas in relatively glowing terms. In this, regarding the past public perception of him, Thomas said, "Sure, I was fairly good-looking, rich, and knew a lot of women, some famous and some not so, but to call me a playboy or the sort is stretching the truth a little. Like any other normal person, I had my fair share of romantic crushes but, as those who know me deeply will say, once I find a particular woman that I love, I will be absolutely loyal to that person until the end for I'm not necessarily the type of person to fool around when I shouldn't be, especially with a woman's heart because that's not what my parents taught me and that's not how I should be remembered, especially to my children who naturally look up to me as their father".
Despite his largely British upbringing and aristocratic lifestyle, owing to him being bidialectal, a skill he honed from an early age, Thomas is known for his ability to seamlessly switch between American and British accents, a unique trait that allows him to convincingly play non-English characters including the DC Comics superhero Batman, the American spy character Jack Ryan, and the American Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, a real-life law enforcement icon born in Chicago, Illinois, a fact that led Thomas to meticulously perfect the so-called "Chicago accent" in preparation for his role in The Untouchables, a film that Thomas himself later called his "finest work". Meanwhile, owing to his upbringing under Katharine Hepburn, when residing in the United States, Thomas often spoke with a New England accent, namely its Western variety which, somewhat ironically, results in him speaking with a rhotic accent as opposed to a non-rhotic accent which he often did when using the Received Pronunciation accent, his standard choice of accent in the presence of British speakers.
Romances
Considered to be one of the world's most eligible bachelors, in his youth, Thomas was variously linked to many different famous women of both royal and non-royal lineages. However, since his marriage to the American supermodel Christy Turlington, Thomas has only ever acknowledged two other prior relationships, namely one with the American actress Lynda Carter and the other with the American politician Caroline Kennedy. Otherwise, since 1996, Thomas has been married to the American supermodel Christy Turlington, with whom he has five children in total.
From 1978 to 1992, a period of almost two decades long, Thomas engaged in a long-term relationship with the American actress Lynda Carter. In this, the two had first met each other while Carter was in the midst of starring in the popular superhero television series Wonder Woman as the titular character. Subsequently, in 1979, the couple welcomed their first child together, namely a son named William, and in 1982, a daughter named Jacqueline. However, despite the births of their two children, Carter's status as a divorcee, coupled with her ex-husband still being alive at the time, meant that the two could not practically marry without triggering a constitutional crisis back home in the United Kingdom where Thomas, being next in line to the throne, was expected to marry a Protestant woman who is neither married nor divorced in line with his eventual status as the supreme head of the Church of England. Eventually, by 1992, the couple decided to part ways on mutual terms, thereby leading to a brief period of separation before they were reunited around a decade later due to their son's decision to further his career as a professional footballer in England.
In addition to Carter, for a brief period from 1975 to 1976, Thomas was also briefly romantically involved with the American politician Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. However, despite some encouraging signs, coupled with traditionally close relations between the British royal family and the Kennedy family, the latter family's Roman Catholic identity, coupled with Kennedy's intention to avoid the spotlight of being a queen consort, resulted in the two ending their short-lived romance although they have since remained close lifelong friends on generally warm terms. Meanwhile, given his high-profile pairing with actress Meg Ryan in three acclaimed romantic comedies, all of which came about while either Thomas or Ryan were already married at one point or another. For several years throughout the 1990s, Ryan, who previously dated Thomas's brother Nelson for a while before later marrying actor Dennis Quaid in 1991, was often rumoured to be Thomas's love interest both on-screen and off-screen given their apparent friendliness towards each other in general and their widely-praised on-screen chemistry, both of which led to the popular portmanteau "Megmas", a play on the name of the annual Christmas festival. However, Thomas, who later married the American supermodel Christy Turlington in 1995, has since strongly denied such rumours while otherwise describing themselves as "two actors who simply clicked with each other", adding that despite Ryan's previous romance with his younger brother for a while, the two generally regard each other as very close friends. In this, several media outlets have since drawn comparisons between Meg Ryan and fellow actress Katharine Hepburn who, much like Ryan, is a close friend of a British monarch, namely Thomas's father, with the two said to have enjoyed a decade-long romance throughout the 1940s before later remaining as close friends for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, following her divorce in 2001 from Dennis Quaid, with whom she had a son Jack, Ryan later remarried singer-songwriter John Mellencamp two decades later in 2021, becoming a stepmother to the latter's five children from his previous relationships.
Beginning in 1992, following a chance encounter at the Met Gala in New York, United States Thomas began a romantic relationship with the American supermodel Christy Turlington, to whom he was initially introduced by his sister, namely the Princess Royal. In this, despite issues over Christy's Roman Catholic belief and her suitability as a queen consort, the couple enjoyed a firm and strong relationship which eventually translated into an official wedding on 14 July 1995, an event that saw the American supermodel become the first British royal consort of the Roman Catholic faith, a feat made possible by the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 which, among others, replaced male-preference primogeniture in favour of absolute primogeniture while also lifting the longstanding restrictions on British royals marrying a Roman Catholic spouse, something that was previously forbidden by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Following this, in 1996, the couple then welcomed their first child together, namely the future Queen Alexandra, followed by their only son Richard in 1999, and three further daughters, namely Nicole in 2003 as well as twins Elle and Vivian in 2004 who are named after the Legally Blonde characters Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington, played by actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair respectively.
Titles & Honours
- 17 December 1960 - 17 December 1961 His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall
- 17 December 1961 - 15 January 1997 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
- 15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017 His Majesty The King of the British
- 14 October 2017 - Present His Majesty The King Emeritus
Honours
National & Commonwealth
United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Williamite Order
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Thomas
- United Kingdom - Recipient of the Royal Family Order of King Charles III
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Charles III
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Guelphic Order
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Order of St. George
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Order of the British Empire
- United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order
Canada - Sovereign of the Order of Canada
Australia - Sovereign of the Order of Australia
New Zealand - Sovereign of the Order of New Zealand
West Indies - Sovereign of the Order of West Indies
Philippines - Sovereign of the Order of the Philippines
Solomon Islands - Sovereign of the Order of Solomon Islands
Tuvalu - Sovereign of the Order of Tuvalu
Papua New Guinea - Sovereign of the Order of Logohu
Foreign
Spain - Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
Portugal - Grand Collar of the Order of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, and of Valour, Loyalty and Merit
Norway - Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St Olav
Sweden - Member of the Royal Order of the Seraphim- Sweden - Commander Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword
Denmark - Knight of the Order of the Elephant- Denmark - Grand Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog
Greece - Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
Germany - Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle
Netherlands - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Belgium - Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
Italy - Dame of the Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Japan - Collar and Grand Order of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
France - Grand Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
Malaysia - Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm
Singapore - Honorary First Class of the Order of Temasek
South Africa - Companion in Gold of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
Mexico - Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Guadalupe- Mexico - Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle
Iran - Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi
Ancestry
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