Thomas of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands

Thomas
Duke of Hanover Grand Duke Emeritus of the Luxembourgers Prince of the Netherlands
King of the British and of the People of his other Realms Canada 1997-2017 Australia 1997-2017 New Zealand 1997-2017 West Indies 1997-2017 Papua New Guinea 1997-2017 Solomon Islands 1997-2017 Tuvalu 1997-2017
Reign	15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017
Coronation	20 March 1997
Predecessor	Charles III
Successor	Alexandra
Prime Ministers	See list John Major Tony Blair Gordon Brown David Cameron
King of the Dutch
Reign	15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017
Inauguration	1 January 1998
Predecessor	Charles III
Successor	Alexandra
Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers
Reign	15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017
Coronation	1 January 1952
Predecessor	Charles III
Successor	Alexandra
Born	(1953-12-17) 17 December 1953 Balmoral Castle, Scotland
Spouse	Christy Turlington (m. 1995)
Issue	William Smith Jacqueline Smith Queen Alexandra Prince Richard Princess Nicole Princess Elle Princess Vivian
Full name Thomas Frederick Francis Albert Charles
House	Amsterdam-Windsor (until 2007) Hanover-Stuart-Orange-Nassau (from 2007)
Father	Charles III
Mother	Lauren Bacall
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	1979-1997 (active service)
Rank	Admiral of the Fleet
Battles/wars	The Troubles Falklands War Multinational Force in Lebanon Gulf War

Thomas (English: Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles; German: Thomas Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Albrecht Carl; Dutch: Thomas Willem Frederik Frans Albert Karel; French: Thomas Guillaume Frédéric François Albert Charles; born 17 December 1953) was King of the British, King of the Dutch, and Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers from 15 January 1997 to 13 October 2017.

A decorated Royal Navy officer and naval aviator in his youth, Thomas initially served in the country's naval forces for an almost two-decades-long period during which he saw involvement in several notable conflicts, namely the Falklands War, The Troubles conflict in Northern Ireland, and the Gulf War in which a US-led coalition successfully repelled Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein from neighbouring Kuwait. Besides this, Thomas also enjoyed a roughly two-decades-long successful career as a "charming" and "suave" Hollywood action star, having starred in several critically acclaimed films including Saving Private Ryan, Top Gun, The Hunt for Red October, The Last Tycoon, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Three Days of the Condor, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Marathon Man, Excalibur, A Few Good Men, and Love Actually. Throughout his nearly two-decades-long career, he won the Academy Awards five times, the BAFTA Film Awards four times, and the Golden Globe Awards thrice. In addition to acting, Thomas also has a growing 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 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 abolished the requirement for the first six persons in line to the throne to seek the monarch's permission to marry. In addition, Thomas was also somewhat of a fierce critic of the controversial Iraq War, a conflict he privately opposed, and was a leading figure behind the creation of the United Kingdom Supreme Court which assumed judicial functions previously undertaken by the House of Lords. In October 2017, following a health crisis in the final year of his reign, an aging Thomas ultimately abdicated the throne in favour of his daughter who subsequently ascended to the throne as Queen Alexandra, while otherwise styling himself as Duke of Hanover, as well as being given the title Grand Duke Emeritus in Luxembourg. Following his abdication, the Duke has since come to devote himself to both philanthropic and entrepreneurial causes.

Prior to his marriage, Thomas was involved in a long-term relationship with the American actress Jaclyn Smith, with whom he had two children that included a professional footballer and journalist. In December 1995, he married the American supermodel Christy Turlington, with whom he had five children including the reigning Queen Alexandra.

As one of the major shareholders of the multi-billion dollar holding company Atlantic Connection and also the sole shareholder of the Luxembourgish holding company LC Holdings, Thomas is estimated to be worth around $53 billion, making him one of the richest monarchs in the world.

Early Life

Thomas was born on 17 December 1953 to the then Charles, Prince of Wales and Lauren, Princess of Wales, formerly known as Lauren Bacall, during the reign of his grandfather, King Frederick. His godparents, in a manner previously unknown to that of his predecessors, consisted of both British and American nationals, whilst also including both members of royalty and non-royalty, such as his great-uncle and aunt, Prince Frederick, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Princess Astrid of Sweden, then-British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, then-New York governor and his namesake Thomas E. Dewey, and American Hollywood figures, actor Frank Sinatra, and actress Katharine Hepburn.

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.

Heir Apparent

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 both of his parents' more modern and liberal parenting styles, 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.

The American Prince

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, being a personal favourite and later a close friend of his.

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. Later on, in his memoirs, Thomas himself described his time of living in Hepburn's family home as a "wholly wild and fascinating experience". He also generally described the actress in a wholly positive light, having written in one instance, "While there were some minor, and understandable blunders from her, I could feel that we generally appreciated and cared for one another". Moreover, when living at the actress's Connecticut family home, Thomas was said to have generally fancied "dipping his toes every morning on the shores of the cold water", whilst also having much interest in sports such as golf and tennis, an interest made convenient with the presence of nearby golf courses and alike.

Interestingly, the supposed state of their "mother and son" relationship proved quick to gain a sizable degree of notoriety among the local community, so much so that Thomas was initially mistaken to be an alleged secret lovechild between Hepburn and her known romantic partner at the time, namely the actor Spencer Tracy, although these were quickly refuted by Hepburn's own family members who were already aware of the royal family's connections to the actress. Nevertheless, when the two were mostly apart, both Thomas and Hepburn maintained their lifelong friendship through the extensive use of telephones, and to a certain extent, an exchange of gifts, particularly during Christmas or during their own respective birthday celebrations. In later years, Thomas himself would often refer to Hepburn as "my mother on the other side of the pond" and sometimes as "my great Aunt Kate".

Moreover, while pursuing his university studies in the United States, Thomas himself largely lived together with the actress who essentially acted as the prince's de facto guardian overseeing his welfare and security while the latter was preoccupied with his academic studies, with Thomas himself having enrolled at the prestigious Yale University. Eventually, in 1975, Thomas graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in international relations, making him the first royal to ever earn an academic degree. Since then, one former educator of his at the university later recounted Thomas as a "bright and energetic young student always on the verge of asking important questions whenever possible". Similarly, a former friend of Thomas's at the university described the royal as a "very unassuming, talkative, and intelligent young man".

Military Career

In 1979, Thomas attended the Britannia Royal Navy College in Dartmouth, after which he was subsequently commissioned as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. However, with the exception of a few months or so, during which he played a largely minor role in The Troubles conflict in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, the prince would largely see minimal combat throughout most of his career in the Royal Navy. At the same time, in benefiting from the fact that he was less likely in general to ever see active combat, the prince, who in his capacity as a Royal Navy officer opted to otherwise embark on a long naval trip aboard, which he later did so onboard the Royal Navy flagship HMS Lauren, thereby allowing him to personally visit a number of countries located east of the European continent, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, 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 the prince agreeing to be under strict supervision by a fellow Royal Navy officer who in a later interview claimed that the prime minister ordered him to "protect the prince at all costs" and "have him be the first to be evacuated in case the ship sinks by enemy fire". 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.

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 on, shortly after his ascension to the throne, he promptly resigned his commission in the Royal Navy, although he was nonetheless made an Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom as the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy itself.

In a 2018 interview with the BBC, Thomas publicly revealed that while serving in the British Armed Forces during the Gulf War in which a US-led coalition successfully repelled Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein from occupied Kuwait, he once suggested to then-US President George H. W. Bush to oust Hussein completely rather than simply repelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Citing the later controversy that surrounded the Iraq War, Thomas said, "Of course, at the time, no one including myself would have known that we would invade Iraq once again albeit on a rather dubious and questionable basis but at that time, some part of me just felt that we should have kept going and remove Saddam right at that moment. At least from our perspective, the fact that he invaded another country unprovoked meant that there was a genuine reason to take military action against him and therefore the United Nations wouldn't really be pestering us that much about some sort of justification for the war". In line with this, Thomas also sensationally revealed that in the months preceding the Iraq War, behind closed doors, he constantly asked and pressured then-Prime Minister Tony Blair about the conflict's actual justification until the very end, stating, "To simply put it, we all knew that Saddam was a ruthless and authoritarian dictator but weapons of mass destruction? As history would show, we never even saw one with our own two eyes and by the looks of it he couldn't even build a proper army that can fight well". Aside from this, Thomas also revealed that his late father, whose reign was to be marked by, among others, the disastrous Suez Crisis in 1956, was so disturbed and angered by Blair's participation in the conflict that he once threatened to "hang" the latter in public if he could.

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 the given name refers to his own father while the surname refers to British actor Laurence Olivier who is highly regarded by Thomas as one of the most talented British actors alive.

In 1975, at twenty-two, Thomas made his acting debut in the political thriller Three Days of the Condor, starring as Joseph "Joe" Turner, a bookish CIA analyst, opposite Faye Dunaway. Portraying a character set on finding an assassin who had murdered his co-workers, his portrayal of the role was met with critical acclaim as the film itself proved to be a massive commercial success in its own right. Rightfully so, at the ensuing 48th Academy Awards, his aforementioned role won Thomas his first award for Best Actor, beating out the likes of more established stars including Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino. Encouraged by this immediate success, Thomas then starred in The Last Tycoon, which also included his recent opponent Jack Nicholson, but the film itself proved rather disappointing among critics, thereby presenting a brief setback to his burgeoning acting career. However, in that same year, Thomas was cast as the lead actor in Marathon Man alongside his idol Laurence Olivier, a move that proved to be a net positive as he soon won his first award for Best Actor at the 30th British Academy Film Awards, once again beating out Jack Nicholson and fellow actor Dustin Hoffman. In 1977, Thomas was cast as the French aristocrat Armand d'Huber in the British period drama The Duellists. His role, which saw him undergo intense sword fighting lessons in order to achieve the desired sense of authenticity, was met with wide acclaim from critics and also proved to be one of the biggest successes of his career as it later saw him win his first Best Actor award at the 35th Golden Globe Awards as well as his second for the aforementioned category at both the Academy Awards and BAFTA Film Awards too, thereby immediately making him a well-known name at the rather young age of twenty-four. In the following year, Thomas took center stage in the epic war drama The Deer Hunter as Staff Sergeant Michael Vronsky, a role that, despite the film's overall success, failed to yield him any new immediate awards despite being nominated each time.

Following a three-year-long hiatus due to the birth of his son, Thomas returned to portray the legendary King Arthur in the 1981's epic medieval fantasy Excalibur. Then, in the following year, he was chosen by Richard Attenborough, who reportedly knew his true identity, to portray his late grandfather King Frederick in the critically acclaimed biographical film Gandhi in which Ben Kingsley portrays the eponymous Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. For this, while Kingsley won Best Actor at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Film Awards, Thomas himself won the award for Best Supporting Actor on both occasions and also a third at the Golden Globe Awards, a feat that saw him replicate the previous success that he had with The Duellists just several years prior. Then, in 1984, Thomas was reunited once again with Laurence Olivier, this time in the historical drama film The Bounty where his portrayal of English sailor Fletcher Christian, who famously seized the Royal Navy's HMS Bounty, was both widely acclaimed and also won him his third Best Actor award at the BAFTA Film Awards as well. In 1986, alongside a young Tom Cruise, Thomas was cast in the action film Top Gun in which he portrays LCDR Rick "Jester" Heatherly, a naval aviator and instructor. Meanwhile, two years later, Thomas portrayed the American inventor Preston Tucker in Tucker: The Man and His Dream, a film that, while only a lukewarm success with critics, nonetheless yielded him yet another Best Actor award at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Film Awards.

Entering the 90s, Thomas publicly indicated his willingness to transition away from his traditionally "tough" and "gritty" roles in action films to more "lighthearted" ones in the near future. To that end, after starring in 1990's The Hunt for Red October and 1992's A Few Good Men, the latter in which he was reunited with both Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, Thomas, as per his public statement, made his first step into the romantic comedy genre as the lead actor in Sleepless in Seattle opposite Meg Ryan in which he plays Sam Baldwin, a widowed architect fancied by Meg Ryan who portrays Annie Reed. The film, a massive commercial success with around $200 million made at the box office, saw Smith garner critical praise for his role in the film and also won him his last Best Actor award at the Academy Awards. Then, just a year later, Smith was cast by Richard Curtis in Four Weddings and a Funeral which subsequently won him his final awards at both the BAFTA Film Awards and the Golden Globe Awards respectively. At around this time, as his father's reign was nearing its end ahead of an expected abdication, Thomas publicly indicated that he would only star in "one or two more films", signifying an apparent end to his acting career. To that end, Thomas later appeared alongside Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding in which he plays the father of Diaz's character Kimberly "Kimmy" Wallace before capping off his career with his final role in the epic 1998 war film Saving Private Ryan in which he portrays United States Army general George C. Marshall. However, despite having announced the end of his acting career, while still a monarch, Thomas made a brief return to the acting industry to star in the 2003 romantic comedy film Love Actually alongside the likes of fellow British actors and actresses including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Emma Thompson, and Keira Knightley. Beforehand, despite strong rumours, Thomas did not appear in Steven Soderbergh's 2001 heist comedy film Ocean's Eleven despite later professing his fondness for the genre and even going on to direct a film based heavily on the movie itself.

Despite his royal status and background, both of which only came to light late into his career, Thomas has since been regarded by most critics to be a highly talented actor deserving of his accolades and awards with his Sleepless in Seattle co-star Meg Ryan regarding him as "a complete natural who can carry himself easily through situations". In addition, despite his British ancestry, Thomas has been met with much praise from critics for his ability to portray American characters with little to no fault, a feat which the royal himself attributed to years of mastering code-switching which thereby allows him to speak in an almost perfect American accent while masking his traditional British accent when necessary. Meanwhile, during a 2018 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Thomas revealed that at some point in 1987, when he was then a well-established actor, he was approached by the English director John Glen to portray the famous British spy character James Bond following the retirement of Roger Moore from playing the character over the course of seven films. However, despite being well favoured by Glen to assume the character's mantle, Thomas, who later starred in 1990's The Hunt for Red October alongside the inaugural James Bond actor Sean Connery, opted to turn down the role, the reason for which he later cited to be a desire to gradually move on from the action genre. Therefore, he chose not to be associated with the character for fear of "accidentally playing it for too long".

In 2013, in honour of his 60th birthday, Thomas was given his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame, becoming the second royal to receive such an honour after his father, the late King Charles III, who received his star in 1997 in honour of his 80th birthday given that he was previously an actor prior to becoming his country's monarch. Likewise, his mother, the late Queen Lauren, received her star around the same time as her husband did. In the ensuing unveiling ceremony, Thomas himself gave a brief speech reminiscing on his "glorious" acting days while also expressing his personal pride in "having made the great actors and actresses who taught me proud", namely his parents, who were former actors, his "aunt" Katharine Hepburn, and Laurence Olivier, his self-professed idol.

Reign

Reforms & Projects

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 whilst 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 a number of 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 the Parliament will soon realise and therefore take it upon themselves to correct this grievous injustice in a modern and increasingly tolerant country". Eventually, via votes from both Conservative and Labour parliamentarians, the bill proposed, which also included ending Hanover's longstanding semi-Salic succession laws, was successfully passed into law, thereby ensuring that Thomas would be allowed to marry his wife for as long as he remained a Protestant and that Hanover, in the event of the birth of a female heir, would not come to separate from the United Kingdom once again, hence securing a firm continuation of the union for the foreseeable future.

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 Northern 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, "Undoubtedly, 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. 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". 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 by the issuing of letters patent. 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 Crown Heritage Investment Fund (CHIF), 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". In this, despite unsuccessfully advocating for a bridge connecting Great Britain to the island of Ireland, Thomas, taking inspiration from the construction of the Channel Tunnel linking Great Britain to France, was successful in proposing for the eventual construction of the high-speed railway lines of High Speed 1 and High Speed 2, both of which serve to considerably reduce travel time between the United Kingdom's major cities. In addition, Thomas was a vocal supporter of the London Crossrail Project which was later completed in the form of the Alexandra line in May 2022 during the reign of his successor (and whom it was named after) Queen Alexandra. Consequently, Thomas has come to be nicknamed by some as the "Builder King" or "Tom the Builder", a play on the name of the famous British children's television series Bob the Builder, while critics of his megaprojects proposals reportedly refer to him as "Big Money Tommy".

In a rare 2000 interview with the BBC, Thomas publicly expressed his opposition towards calls for abolishing the House of Lords, the upper house of the United Kingdom's parliament, while asserting that he is personally open to "thoughtful reforms", citing the Tilgner Report and the ensuing House of Lords Reform Act 1980. In this, Thomas cited his firsthand experience of "intense political polarisation" in the United States whose upper house, the Senate, is a purely elected body but whose effectiveness has been an occasional source of doubt due to the practice of filibustering where one or more members prolong on a debate to either delay or oppose it from being decided on by lawmakers. Calling it "the number one killer of democracy", Thomas asserts that the House of Lords, as it currently stands, "must not be entirely filled or dominated by self-interested politicians who prefer upholding their name and reputation more than the democratic process itself".

Amidst the intense debate over declaring an official national day for the United Kingdom, one of the few countries alongside Denmark to not have one in the world, Thomas once suggested that, in its current incarnation, the United Kingdom should celebrate November 20th as the country's national day given that it is the date when in 1924 the Kingdom of Hanover formally united with the United Kingdom to become one of its five constituent countries and therefore give the country its current form. In addition, as an avid football fan, Thomas also suggested that the date of July 30th where in 1966 England won its first FIFA World Cup trophy, becoming the first and only constituent country of the United Kingdom to win the tournament. However, the proposal was criticised by non-English politicians who deem it to be "too Anglo-centric". Nonetheless, in the absence of one, the Queen's Official Birthday, traditionally celebrated sometime between the end of May and start of June, has served this purpose somewhat.

Hong Kong handover & End of The Troubles

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 Prince 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".

Meanwhile, on 10 April 1998, Thomas also oversaw the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement which officially brought the conflict known as The Troubles to an end as self-government was restored to Northern Ireland albeit on the principle of power-sharing. In addition, the British-Irish Council was established around a year later in a major step toward improving collaboration and relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Meanwhile, on a personal level, given the somewhat sectarian nature of the conflict and the fact that he recently wedded a Roman Catholic, Thomas later hailed the Good Friday Agreement as "the treaty to end all wars and avoid further suffering between the Irish people", adding, "As history would tell, there have been too many instances of unnecessary cruelty and violence between the two sides, each with their own agenda and means of achieving it. Without a doubt, to finally bring such dark episodes to an end after so long is a positive step forward and one that will hopefully last for eternity for the good of everyone".

East Timor & Papua New Guinea

A passionate supporter and advocate of decolonisation, Thomas, together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was an instrumental figure in the unification of the island of New Guinea under one single entity, namely 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, firstly under Suharto's own deputy 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, 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.

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 region of Western New Guinea". 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.

9/11 & Iraq War

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he publicly expressed his "greatest sympathies with the American people", stating that "innocent citizens should never be the target of such a heinous act of terror intended to promote a malicious goal". That same year, as head of state, he oversaw the Blair administration's participation in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, which effectively toppled the predominant Taliban regime in the country. Just a couple of years later, the United Kingdom would also participate in the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq, which in addition to sparking nationwide protests over the perceived justification for the invasion, also proved to be a source of controversy for the royal family themselves, when the King's sister, Catherine, Princess Royal infamously posed nude on the cover of a British Vogue magazine, in an act of personal protest against the invasion itself. The princess's manner of protest, which included draping herself with a Union Jack flag, as well as having herself leaning against a British Challenger 2 battle tank promptly became the source of condemnation and rebuke by some military officials who dubbed her manner to be "treasonous" while some sectors of the public dubbed the princess's manner of protest to be "shameful" and "unpatriotic". In response, the King himself was said to have afterward reluctantly rebuked his sister himself in order to preserve the royal family's prestige and standing among the British public, while rumours allege that he had otherwise been privately supportive and approving of his sister's act of protest against the invasion.

End of the Amsterdam-Windsor Monarchy

On 1 May 2007, a date that was deliberately chosen given that it marks the three hundredth anniversary of the former Hanover-Stuart-Orange-Nassau dynasty, Thomas, by way of a royal proclamation, announced that the current royal family name of the "House of Amsterdam-Windsor" would be officially reverted back to the "House of Hanover", thereby effectively ending what was then the eighty three-year-long reign of the Amsterdam-Windsor monarchy, which began in 1924 with King Frederick's decision to change the family name in order to appease nationalist and anti-German sentiments in the aftermath of the First World War.

In implementing the change, Thomas remarked, "As of now, it has roughly been ninety years long since the First World War had begun, the very conflict that led to my grandfather changing the family name to an entirely new one in order to appease the nationalist few. Since then, and until now, my family has been effectively robbed of its own true identity and is instead being forced to assume an entirely new identity for reasons that are not necessarily of my family's fault. Therefore, from this point on, my family will effectively and officially reclaim the true and pure identity that it once held dear as the House of Hanover, not the House of Amsterdam-Windsor".

Final Years

With the onset of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, 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, so as to contribute more financially to efforts in mending the recession's immediate effects. Evidently, in an interview with the BBC around that same time, he remarked, "When the Second World War happened, my father broke royal convention and decided to go to war against Japan in the Pacific while my grandparents chose to bravely face the German bombings head-on, thus putting them both in grave danger just as the average soldier and citizen". He promptly declared that "while I would not be the King of England to face an armed invasion of our country, I would also not be the one to sit back and watch my own people face the hardships alone, for that is what Louis XVI of France did, and in the end, as we all know it, he ultimately lost his head". At the same time, in a manner deemed unconventional by many as the country's head of state, Thomas also openly encouraged the government under then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to pursue aggressive economic policies meant to combat the recession's immediate effects, declaring that "if God wills it, the United Kingdom would be the first country in the world to escape this burgeoning recession". Nonetheless, Brown himself was subsequently voted out of office in the 2010 general election, which saw him being replaced with the current Conservative prime minister David Cameron, with whom he was said to have later developed a close working relationship, one that continued well under his successor, the reigning Queen Alexandra.

Later on, Thomas openly praised the historic legalisation of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, as well as the Conservative government's healthcare and welfare reforms. Meanwhile, the last few years of his reign would come to be marked by three separate and notable referendums, with the first being a referendum on the method of electing Members of Parliaments at future general elections, the second concerning potential Scottish independence, while the third one otherwise revolved around the status of the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union. All three referendums went in the government's favour each time while Thomas himself, in contrast to the demeanor shown during his previous years, largely kept silent on the respective outcomes of each of the three separate referendums. At around the same time, both his father and his mother would each respectively pass away in March 2011 and August 2014. In one interview conducted sometime after his abdication, he went on to describe the last few years of his reign as "both eventful and also emotional in nature".

On 1 January 2016, following intense political debate and longstanding concerns over the Palace of Westminster's deteriorating condition, 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 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". A personal proponent of the decision to relocate the country's parliament, Thomas 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 itself, namely in the direction of better and healthier dialogue between parties that benefits the people".

Abdication

In the final year of his reign, despite already being sixty-seven years of age, Thomas was consistently described as being a "generally healthy, and well-conditioned man", as he was notably credited for almost regularly playing a game of polo with the palace staff and his close associates during his free time, leading him to be known as the "Polo King" among his close circles. However, on October 6th, having just gone back to his chambers alongside his wife, the King unexpectedly collapsed onto his bed while the latter had gone inside the chambers' bathroom. Around a minute later, royal doctors were immediately summoned following signs of a weakened pulse, leading him to be transferred instead to a special room for an operation. At the same time, by his own wife's insistence, any knowledge of the incident was kept secret from spreading outside of the palace itself, as to not force an immediate return for their daughter Alexandra from her university. Following an initially successful operation, he was declared to be in a "mildly stable" condition but soon afterward, subsequent operations were also conducted which lasted until just hours before his daughter Alexandra's return from her university, during which he was declared to had fully recovered from his illness, which was subsequently noted to have been a stroke but was otherwise kept secret from public knowledge.

In light of the incident, Thomas began seriously contemplating an abdication, during which he made it known to the then Prime Minister David Cameron who he had specifically invited to Buckingham Palace for the matter. Discussions between the two would continue until December 10th when in a coordinated manner, Thomas first declared his abdication at 10:30 AM in a BBC broadcast from Buckingham Palace before an Act of Parliament was granted royal assent by the King himself, thereby effectively formalising his abdication. In his abdication speech, Thomas chose not to publicly disclose the details of his illness leading to his abdication, having instead chosen to cite "ill-health and inability to sustain the continuation of royal duties" as his primary reasons for abdication. He subsequently attended the coronation of his daughter and successor, Queen Alexandra who then granted her father the title of Duke of Hanover following his abdication.

Post-Abdication

Atlantic Connection

Following his abdication, Thomas began taking a more active role in overseeing the interests of the American-British multibillion-dollar holding company Atlantic Connection which holds considerable stakes in various industries through its many subsidiary companies. Having inherited his late father's shares in the company upon the latter's passing in March 2011 to become one of the company's select few biggest shareholders, Thomas has overseen some further expansion of the company's portfolio since assuming his position on the board of directors, with his particular interest being in sports. To that end, the company established the Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC in 2014, and National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights in 2017.

As one of Atlantic Connection's biggest shareholders, Thomas has at times advocated for the company to pursue a "green and sustainable" strategy regarding its long-term future, stating, "Above all, there is the undeniable issue of climate change that regardless of everyone's opinions on it will ultimately bring only bad luck and terrible fortunes for all of humanity. At the same time, a solution rooted in both compromise and sustainability must and can be achieved so as to ensure that the company, in its current position, will be one of the foremost leaders in traversing a new and inclusive era where both consumers and companies can co-exist in peace while also providing mutual benefit for each other".

Around early 2024, amidst rumours of a plan for a new stadium concerning the English football club Manchester United, a project that was dubbed "Wembley of the North", Thomas publicly expressed in a BBC Sport interview his readiness to financially contribute to the construction of a new stadium if necessary and in conjunction with Manchester United's two major shareholders, namely the Glazer family and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the latter having recently acquired a minority stake in the club via his own company INEOS. In this, when asked if he was seeking anything in return as a major contributor to the stadium's design, Thomas replied by stating that he personally seeks no more than just 15% of the stadium's annual revenue upon completion while adding that his main motivation was to "see the football club that I supported for decades and counting to regain its lost status as England's greatest football club of all time".

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 past 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 natural 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 and the film, titled The Founding Trail, was slated for a November release like its predecessor but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to reconsiderations about its release. Eventually, in November 2022, the film, starring Tom Hardy as the younger version of Gary Oldman's character, finally made its highly-anticipated premiere 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 relative success enjoyed by both films, Thomas announced that he would not be producing a third one, stating, "Ultimately, it's a fun pet project for myself that I, as someone who grew up and loved watching great heist movies, just wanted to bring to the big screen once and for all. Now that I've finally done it and the people as well as the critics seemed to love it, it's fair to say that my job here is done". Despite this, Thomas did not rule out producing films of other genre with the sole condition that it is done "at the right place and the right time".

In 2022, Thomas served as one of the producers for the widely-acclaimed German anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, a movie that he later described as "undoubtedly intriguing" and a "great depiction of the ever obvious realities of war", citing the death of his own uncle in the Second World War. The following year, Thomas took center stage in realising the 2023 sports documentary Pax Anglicus: The Rise of Football's First Empire. Consisting of three seasons (one for the men's team, another for the women's team, and a third for the conclusion) and nine episodes, the series chronicles the beginning of both men's and women's football in England, their respective highs and lows, and their contemporary success as the national team for both genders currently remain unbeaten in international tournaments and are both presently ranked #1 in their respective global rankings.

Meanwhile, in January 2024, Thomas revealed his entry into the historical genre by announcing plans for a biopic of the 16th-century Dutch hero William the Silent who famously led a roughly eight-decades-long revolt against the Spanish Empire that later resulted in the independence of contemporary Netherlands. Describing the latter, from whom he is directly descended, as "the greatest rebel hero of Europe", Thomas explained that he initially tried pitching an idea for such a film back during his acting years but which was not accepted by any major producers who were reportedly less familiar with William the Silent than the likes of Napoleon and Alexander the Great. Consequently, with his newfound passion in directing, Thomas opted to make such a film himself in order to "uplift the legacy of Europe's greatest revolutionary before Napoleon" and also to honour his own direct ancestor for whom he held much personal pride. For this, initial casting announcements include Tom Hardy as the Dutch rebel hero, Benicio del Toro as King Philip II of Spain, Javier Bardem as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, and Tilda Swinton as Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Marriage

Katharine Houghton

Actress Katharine Houghton alongside co-star, the late actor Sidney Poitier in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Due to his parents' rather hands-off approach in regard to his potential choice of marriage, Thomas himself thus became consequently linked to a number of important women of the time, all of which were mostly either of American or British nationalities. During the early 1970s, Thomas was at first popularly associated with the young and rising actress Katharine Houghton who he had personally known through his father's close friend, namely the actress Katharine Hepburn, Houghton's own aunt, with whom Charles was also closely familiar. Even so, in a manner apparently mimicking that of his father's previous romantic relationship with Hepburn decades prior, the two generally dated in secrecy, with Thomas himself being the one mostly traveling in private to Houghton's Connecticut residence as the risks of the latter being spotted in public instead with the British royal back in his native home country were deemed to be great of a concern for either side. However, amidst the overwhelmingly positive encouragement in favour of a marriage between the two and despite the eight-year age difference between them, neither Thomas nor Houghton ultimately agreed to ever seek such an option, with Houghton herself eventually marrying actor Ken Jenkins in 1970. Ultimately, despite this setback, Houghton, in "inheriting" her aunt's close ties with the British royal family, has since continued to remain close with Thomas and the royal family as a whole, as evidenced by the actress being chosen as a godparent for the latter's seven children.

Jaclyn Smith

Jaclyn Smith, (left) photographed with costars Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson for the popular crime drama show Charlie's Angels

Around 1977, Thomas, who had then been residing in the United States for a while, first came into contact with the American actress who, in that year, had been steadily rising in prominence thanks to her role in the popular crime drama show, Charlie's Angels, in which she had a major role alongside fellow actresses Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Soon enough, Thomas, having been a somewhat regular watcher of the show, decided to personally meet Smith himself, an endeavour in which he proved successful when the prince was personally invited by one of the show's executive producers Aaron Spelling who subsequently arranged a meeting between the prince and the actress while the latter was in the midst of shooting for an episode of the show's second season.

In any case, the arranged meeting proved to be an instant success, with Smith, a divorcee from her first husband and actor Roger Davis, later describing Thomas as "very easy-going" and "impeccably charming" in their first encounter. Soon afterward, the two began a longstanding and passionate affair which would last throughout the following decade, although this relationship, upon the behest of Thomas himself, was kept largely secret from the media and the public, and its knowledge is restricted to only a select few, which included Smith's co-stars Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, both of whom agreed to remain silent on the affair and to never disclose it to the public, out of respect for the couple's privacy. On the other hand, the couple's relationship also allowed Thomas to appear on the show himself at the invitation of the show's producers who, reportedly with the couple's own agreement and supervision, gave the prince the role of Patrick Williams, a retired US Navy officer and briefly a romantic interest of Smith's character Kelly Garrett. At the same time, in order not to deliberately reveal his true identity, Thomas was otherwise cast in the show under his alias of "Charles T. Lawrence".

Then, roughly two years into their relationship, the couple would welcome their first child together, which is also Smith's firstborn child, that being a son William, a circumstance which led to the show temporarily halting its production for a few months or so, in order to give much-needed time for Smith to raise her firstborn son with the help of Thomas himself who, despite the accompanying risks and potential scandal should his affair with the actress ever be discovered and publicised, opted to remain close with his romantic partner. Later, in a 2005 interview with Larry King, the prince said, "Frankly, when Will was born, we initially had little idea in going forward with our relationship, and were kind of a little freaked out at the beginning, but then, we just soldiered up and decided that with what we have now, we are just going to do the best we could". A few years later, on 22 June 1983, the couple would welcome a daughter Jacqueline.

Eventually, despite the two enjoying a mutually happy relationship, the couple later parted ways mutually just a few months prior to Thomas's later marriage to his wife, thereby ending their almost nineteen-year-long relationship, although Thomas, despite his romantic partner's well-to-do status, continued to provide some unofficial form of "spousal aid" in the years that followed, which lasted well until both William and Jacqueline themselves graduated from their universities, at which point they are expected to be self-sufficient despite their father's immense wealth. Meanwhile, following an almost decade-long period of "separation", during which the two largely devoted themselves to their respective spouses, with Smith later marrying her current husband Brad Allen in 1997, the two later reconnected with one another around the year of 2004, when the career of their son with the English football club Manchester United brought Smith's family over to the United Kingdom where the two were reunited once again. Meanwhile, despite having since moved back to the United States, namely to her hometown state of Texas, the actress and her husband are said to have maintained a house in London relatively close to Buckingham Palace for matters of convenience when the couple are in the United Kingdom again.

During an interview in 2013 held on Thomas's 60th birthday, in recollecting their past life together, Smith described the former as "one of the kindest man I have ever met", adding, "When the whole separation thing happened, which was obviously very difficult for both of us, I knew from the start just how much he tried to be there for the people he cared about the most, especially his two children". In this, Smith further revealed that up until their reunion, Thomas would often call his two children on a monthly basis and also on special holidays as well as their respective birthdays, stating, "During those years, we all definitely missed his voice and presence of course. Out of us three, Jacqueline was definitely the most excited one each time to hear her dearest daddy's voice". Likewise, William Smith himself has also heaped praise on his father's character, describing the latter as "very gentlemanly" and "the best loving father anyone could ever ask for".

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy, the only daughter and surviving child of former President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Due to his father's strong and close ties to the prominent Kennedy family, it was even rumoured at some point by some media outlets that Thomas was supposedly planning on marrying the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, who Thomas had first met while accompanying his father to the state funeral of Kennedy's father who in November 1963 was mortally wounded from assassination while in the city of Dallas, Texas. Ultimately, perhaps due to Kennedy's deeply entrenched and longstanding Catholic faith, coupled with the overwhelming publicity and media coverage that would be expected from a hypothetical marriage involving an heir to the British throne and a member of the prominent Kennedy family, no marriage proposals were ever brought forward by either side although the two families, even to this day, are said to have nonetheless remained in close contact with one another. Later on, Thomas himself enlisted Caroline Kennedy's uncle Senator Ted Kennedy as one of his groomsmen for his wedding to the American supermodel Christy Turlington.

Incidentally, it was later reported that for a while, Kennedy's firstborn son Jack Schlossberg was romantically involved with Thomas's eldest daughter by his wife, the reigning Queen Alexandra. In the end, the relationship, despite frequent comparisons to that between Caroline's brother John Jr. and wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, proved to be short-lived, with the couple themselves mutually agreeing to terminate the relationship over challenges posed particularly by their respective careers which often kept them physically apart from one another.

Christy Turlington

The American supermodel Christy Turlington at the Christian Lacroix Spring Summer 1994

Sometime around January 1994, while accompanying his sister, the Princess Royal, to an exclusive gala in Paris, France, Thomas was first introduced to the American supermodel Christy Turlington by none other than his own younger sister who was rather familiar with Turlington and other well-known fashion models of the time. To that end, Thomas, by then a highly successful actor in his own right, proved quick to establish an initially cordial and unassuming friendship with the American supermodel who had previously ended a relationship with American actor Roger Wilson the year before. In this, despite soon appearing to be well-suited for each other, the two initially chose to remain as friends only whereas Thomas, as per a later revelation, said that the fateful meeting "left me with little to no doubt that Christy will be my long-awaited wife". Eventually, under much secrecy, the couple reportedly spent the ensuing Valentine's Day together in Hawaii during which they officially agreed to commit to a serious romantic relationship. However, fears of an immediate conservative backlash owing to Turlington's line of work and her Roman Catholic faith, a major obstacle for any marital prospects, saw them conduct the affair under much secrecy with the expectation that the romance would eventually be made public after a few years or so. Eventually, later that December, while giving a brief speech on his 41st birthday, Thomas opted to disclose his relationship with the American supermodel for the first time, stating, "For quite a while, a number of factors and complications have prevented me from finding the one true love that my heart desires. Now, after about a year or so, I'm happy to say that I have found the lovely lady that I desired for so long".

Almost immediately, Turlington's status as a fashion model, coupled with her Roman Catholic faith, made the revelation a source of considerable controversy as critics, particularly those in favour of "classical" queen consorts, claimed that the American supermodel "lacked the proper character and image for a queen consort" while others also expressed their worry over the latter's Roman Catholic faith given that it meant a marriage between the two would come into direct conflict with the terms laid out by the Act of Settlement 1701 which legally disqualifies any member of the royal family who either converts to or marries a partner of the Roman Catholic faith. In response, during an interview with the BBC, Thomas publicly accused his critics of "social bigotry", stating, "Regardless of who my future wife would be, it cannot be ignored that my own mother, who I love dearly until the very end, was of a background that one would not necessarily expect for the wife of a British king. The daughter of a pair of Jewish Romanian immigrants, my mother bravely faced those prejudicial people who wished to prevent her from seeking happiness in marrying my father until they all finally relented and allowed her to do so as she wishes. Yet, it seems that just a few decades later, such a conflict appears to be inevitable once again, which says a lot about the society of this country as a whole". Eventually, both Prime Minister John Major and Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey jointly agreed to approve such a union under the strict condition that Turlington herself would ultimately convert to Anglicanism in order to avoid any further complications, a condition that Turlington herself seemed content on abiding. Meanwhile, Thomas's own father King Charles III also personally came out in support of the union, claiming that "it is wrong for me to say that having a Catholic-turned-Anglican convert as my very own daughter-in-law would be something entirely strange or a new concept for myself for my own beloved wife is a Jew, an identity that no one shall absolutely be able to take away by any possible means". In the end, such a conversion proved unnecessary when, after much lobbying, the prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms, countries that still recognise the British monarch as its head of state, unilaterally agreed to amend the succession laws where, in the United Kingdom, the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 resulted in, among others, the lifting of restrictions on marriages to Roman Catholics which meant that Turlington was no longer required to convert to Anglicanism upon marriage although Thomas, as the head of the Church of England, is still required to be of the Anglican faith, a condition that also applies to his future successors.

On 14 June 1995, the couple was wedded in a private and intimate ceremony at Oheka Castle, New York, the site where Thomas's parents were previously wedded themselves almost five decades prior. The ceremony was attended (and officiated) by the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, British Prime Minister John Major, US President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well their closest friends and relatives which included the groom's parents King Charles III and Queen Lauren, American politician and Secretary of the Treasury Jane Rockefeller, and several European royals including the crown princes of Norway, Denmark, and Spain, the kings of Sweden and Greece, and the reigning Prince of Monaco. Described by the New York Times as "the wedding of the century", the ceremony featured an appropriately star-studded lineup of groomsmen and bridesmaids that consisted of the likes of the groom's own brother Prince Nelson, US Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain, attorney John F. Kennedy Jr., actors Hugh Grant, George Clooney, and Pierce Brosnan, singers Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, along with fellow well-known supermodels including Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Elle Macpherson. In addition to this, several of the prince's former servicemen from the Royal Navy were also in attendance and who even later took part in the saber arch wedding tradition afterward where the newlyweds walk under an arch made up of sabers held up in unison. Meanwhile, regarding their respective outfits, Thomas opted to don a Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, hence acknowledging his military background, which he paired with a peaked cap and a gilded sabre tightly held at waist-level. In the meantime, drawing much inspiration from the iconic wedding dress of the American actress Grace Kelly, Turlington donned an elaborate ivory satin bodice designed by an up-and-coming British fashion designer Alexander McQueen with the estimated £430,000 cost that accompanied it reportedly paid by Thomas himself. Following this, the couple later spent their honeymoon together for a month long in the US island state of Hawaii, reportedly under fake aliases so as to attract minimal attention during their stay there

For entertainment purposes, at Thomas's request, the couple was serenaded by the well-known American singer Whitney Houston who sang her 1992 hit single "I Will Always Love You". Regarding this, Thomas later joked that as a huge fan of the late George Michael, he initially thought of having the latter's iconic 1984 single "Careless Whisper" sang at his eventual wedding but ultimately decided against it after reconsidering its appropriateness and having also come across Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", a song that he felt would be better suited for an intimate wedding ceremony. Consequently, Houston became the first black artist to perform at a royal wedding, an honour that only further increased her already burgeoning popularity as a widely-acclaimed singer and also helped establish a long-lasting friendship, in spite of their differences, that lasted well until Houston's death in February 2012. As one of the several high-profile figures invited to the late singer's funeral, Thomas remarked, "At only forty-eight, an irreplaceable singer with a truly enchanting voice has left us all for good. Now, while others may perhaps thank and remember her for their own respective reasons, I would like to personally thank Miss Houston for one final time for having made the day with my beloved wife a moment that I will remember for a lifetime". Nonetheless, aside from Houston, other artists also took part including the Canadian singer Bryan Adams, who sang "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", English rock band The Police, which sang "Every Breath You Take", and the American singer Lionel Richie who, together with fellow singer Diana Ross, sang their 1981 hit duet "Endless Love".

Actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair as their respective characters Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington from the 2001 film Legally Blonde, after whom Thomas's twin daughters were named

In just a year into their marriage, the couple would welcome the birth of their first child together, the future Queen Alexandra, although this was in turn followed by a roughly three-year long period during which the couple chose to live separately from one another so as to accommodate for Turlington's decision to focus on her university studies back in the United States which in turn led to rumours falsely claiming that the couple's marriage was in an allegedly terrible state as several media outlets began claiming, often without basis, that both Thomas and Turlington have begun seeing another romantic partner in order to overcome their supposedly miserable state of affairs. Nonetheless, it was also during this period that Thomas's father-in-law Dwain Turlington passed away in June 1997 at the age of sixty-four from lung cancer, just a year after the birth of the latter's granddaughter. Eventually, following Turlington's graduation from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in New York in 1999, the two would finally begin to live together, initially starting as a family of three. Then, in the following year, Turlington gave birth to their only son Richard, followed by another daughter Nicole in 2003. The year afterward, the couple further welcomed a pair of fraternal twins Elle and Vivian, who were respectively named after the two female characters from the 2001 film Legally Blonde, namely Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington, portrayed by American actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair respectively.

Given the couple's unique dynamic, namely their differing social statuses and the slight sixteen-year age gap, their relationship has consequently made them a subject of comparison to a few other prominent couples at the time which included former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, the Italian-born singer and model Carla Bruni, who was herself a close friend of Turlington in the modeling industry. Evidently, a photograph of the two high-profile couples standing side by side in front of the Élysée Palace taken during a state visit by Sarkozy to the United Kingdom in 2008 quickly gained much media attention, with copies of the original photograph itself said to be later auctioned at prices reaching up to €150,000 (£130,714). Similarly, the couple was also later frequently compared to former US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump, a model of Slovenian descent who served as First Lady of the United States during her husband's presidency, with media outlets often noting the similar age gap between Trump and his wife, who is twenty-four years younger, and the fact that Melania herself once actively worked in the modeling industry. In response, Thomas himself appeared mostly critical of the comparisons, stating, "While I would personally have nothing much to say about Melania, I would say that between her husband and myself, a number of differences should be made clear with them being that I'm not a serial cheater and I'm absolutely not a bigoted and frankly racist man like he appears to be, often without seemingly much shame and regret". Meanwhile, around the time that the couple's relationship was first publicised by the media, they were then often compared to another famous couple consisting of Hollywood actor Richard Gere and supermodel Cindy Crawford. Like Thomas, Gere was roughly seventeen years older than Crawford, a fact that did not otherwise deter the couple from officially marrying in December 1991 although they later divorced in December 1995, the same month that Thomas and Turlington were married in. Somewhat ironically, during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Thomas later revealed that just prior to his wedding, Gere himself told the royal to "learn from my mistakes", referencing his divorce from Crawford, and extended his well wishes to the royal couple whom he deemed to be "absolutely perfect for each other". Despite this, Thomas also clarified that the couple's only son was not named after the Hollywood actor but rather after the legendary English ruler King Richard I, better known as "Richard the Lionheart".

On 14 December 2005, the couple privately celebrated their tenth anniversary together with a private trip to Iceland, a country particularly favoured by Thomas for its somewhat cold temperature, relative isolation, and breathtaking scenery, where the couple met with President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and subsequently spent roughly a month long in relative privacy touring the island country and mingling with the common Icelandic people, often with little to no security detail present. Meanwhile, for their twentieth anniversary, the couple opted for a month-long vacation at the East African island nation of Seychelles where the couple basked in the country's many famous beaches while also exploring some of its hundred or so islands.

On 3 February 1997, roughly two years after the couple's wedding, fellow "big five" supermodel Claudia Schiffer and Thomas's own younger brother Prince Nelson were wedded in a comparatively smaller ceremony at Oheka Castle. The two had reportedly met during the 1995 royal wedding and after a few months or so agreed to pursue a romantic relationship. In this, much like Thomas and Turlington, Nelson and Schiffer both possess a comparable gap of fourteen years in age, are a couple that consists of a British royal and a well-known fashion model of commoner background, and Schiffer herself personally identified as Roman Catholic. However, with the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995, which was enacted in the wake of Thomas and Turlington's relationship, the position of Nelson and his children in the line of succession remain unaffected given that British royals are allowed to marry Roman Catholics provided that they remain Anglican themselves and that Nelson, being second in line to the throne at the time just behind his one-year-old niece Alexandra, Princess of the Welsh, had sought approval for the marriage from the reigning monarch which turned out to be Thomas himself who had ascended to the throne a month prior on January 1st. Almost immediately, Thomas granted his required approval for the marriage and the couple was married with little to no drama that previously surrounded his own marriage beforehand.

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 Vantage, a second-generation Dodge Challenger, a Ferrari F40, and a Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R. Despite this, for leisurely purposes, Thomas would usually ride his longtime Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he first acquired back in 1971, especially around the United Kingdom's less populous regions where he would enjoy better peace and otherwise less disturbance.

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 Smith, who later went on to become an extremely successful professional footballer, often held leisure football practices with him in the family's backyard. Regardless, in a 1998 interview with the BBC, Thomas revealed himself to be a lifelong fan of Premier League club Manchester United whose legendary Northern Irish former player George Best was named by Thomas as his favourite player of all time.

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. Morevor, since its introduction in 1981, save for only a few instances, Thomas has consistently ran in almost every edition of the London Marathon, often alongside his wife, a fellow marathon enthusiast , since the couple's marriage in 1995. Aside from this, 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 long abstained from smoking and, in turn, has been a vocal advocate against the habit himself. 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 had a very solid purpose to live for a 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 while in his 90s, I'll live long enough to see my family grow and enjoy what life has to offer me next". Aside from this, in an interview shortly after he turned seventy, Thomas has also credited his active lifestyle in "making me the fittest man in his 70s in the world", adding, "Among the things that I admired about my late father the most was that even when he was in his 90s and until the day he passed away, he never really lost his senses or could not speak and walk at all. If anything, he was quite healthy and tough for his age, always a fighter until the very end".

Owing to his previous career as a navy pilot in the Royal Navy, when he was signed onto the 1986 action film Top Gun, Thomas was therefore the only cast member with an actual military background and capability to fly a fighter jet. Because of this, as was later revealed during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Thomas explicitly demanded a role where his character would be seen piloting a fighter jet in the film. To that end, he initially sought the lead role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell which eventually went to the much younger Tom Cruise, whom producers had largely favoured for the role, whereas Thomas himself received the role of Rick "Jester" Heatherly as compensation. Nonetheless, after some negotiations with director Tony Scott, in scenes where his character flies a fighter jet, Thomas himself was really piloting one in actuality, thereby leading to a filming experience which he later described as "one of the best I have ever had in my entire life".

Known to be a close friend of the Iranian royal and religious leader Aga Khan IV, Thomas is said to have played a part in setting the latter up with British supermodel Naomi Campbell, which he reportedly did at his own 1995 wedding that was attended by both Campbell and the Aga Khan IV. Subsequently, despite the almost three decades age gap, the two went on to marry in May 1998 and had a son together in March 2000 before later divorcing in June 2007. As of current, Campbell has been married to the Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, who is twenty years her senior and who formerly owned the English football club Queens Park Rangers alongside British businessman Bernie Ecclestone, himself married to the five-decades-younger Israeli model Bar Refaeli, whereas the Aga Khan IV later remarried for a fourth time to fellow English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who is roughly five decades younger, after previously being married to the thirty-eight years younger English journalist Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of Pakistani cricketer and premier Imran Khan. Later, when the Aga Khan's two sons by his first wife, also a former model, Rahim and Hussain remarried to fashion models Alexina Graham and Lily Donaldson, also English models, the family has been dubbed the media as "the world's preetiest and hottest", owing to the fact that its recent male members have all married beautiful fashion models, all of whom have specifically been of English nationality.

In addition to his royal status, his good looks in his youth made him a popular and widely-photographed figure of the 1970s and 1980s with various media outlets often dubbing him "the world's most eligible bachelor". For several years, he was named as one of the best dressed men in the world. Meanwhile, as an actor, Thomas was often compared by media outlets to fellow English actor Hugh Grant owing to their common nationalities and good looks. In fact, the two actually starred together in two films, namely Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually, both of which involved the noted British screenwriter Richard Curtis who once described the two men as "Britain's two greatest heartthrobs of all-time". However, in this context, Thomas himself instead mostly idolised the likes of Sean Connery (whose first name is also coincidentally Thomas as well), whom he became aware of through the latter's widely-acclaimed role as James Bond, and Laurence Olivier whose versatility and physicality as an actor was greatly idolised by Thomas.

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, The Guardian claimed that Thomas has 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 have mostly described their father 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 for around a decade long I was solely and loyally committed to a single woman. Now, I'm very much prouder than ever to have my wife as the only woman in my life for three decades and counting". During his bachelorhood, Thomas was often compared to Monaco's Prince Albert II, both of whom are well-known European royals and are the sons of American actresses, namely Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly respectively.

Titles & Honours

• 17 December 1953 - 1 January 1954 His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Orange, and Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• 1 January 1954 - 15 January 1997 His Royal Highness The Prince of the Welsh, Prince of Orange, and Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• 15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017 His Majesty The King of the British, King of the Dutch, and Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers
• 14 October 2017 - Present His Royal Highness The Duke of Hanover, Prince of the Netherlands, and Grand Duke Emeritus of Luxembourg

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
• Netherlands - Grand Master of the Military William Order
• Netherlands - Grand Master and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• Netherlands - Grand Master of the Order of the Crown
• Netherlands - Grand Master of the Order for Loyalty and Merit
• Netherlands - Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Ark
• Netherlands - Honorary Commander of the Order of Saint John in the Netherlands
• Luxembourg - Grand Master and Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown
• Luxembourg - Grand Master of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
• 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
• Solomon Islands - Sovereign of the Order of Solomon Islands
• Belize - Sovereign of the Order of Belize
• Tuvalu - Sovereign of the Order of Tuvalu
• Puerto Rico - Sovereign of the Order of Puerto Rico

Foreign

• Spain - Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
• Norway - Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St Olav
• Norway - ​Recipient of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Olav V
• Norway - Recipient of the Royal House Centenary Medal
• Norway - ​Recipient of the King Harald V Silver Jubilee Medal
• 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
• Germany - Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Japan - Collar and Grand Order of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
• Japan - Golden Medal of Merit Japanese Red Cross
• Japan - Golden Medal of Honorary Member of Japanese Red Cross
• France - Grand Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
• Malaysia - Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm
• China - Recipient of the Order of Friendship
• Republic of China - Recipient of the Order of Brilliant Jade

Military Appointments

United Kingdom
3 June 1979 - 28 May 1980: Officer Cadet, Royal Navy
28 May 1980 - 25 June 1982: Midshipman, Royal Navy
25 June 1982 - 11 January 1984: Lieutenant, Royal Navy
11 January 1984 - 5 May 1985: Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy
5 May 1985 - 15 June 1991: Captain, Royal Navy
15 June 1991 - 14 December 1995: Commodore, Royal Navy
14 December 1995 - 15 January 1997: Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Lord High Admiral, Royal Navy
13 October 2017 - Present: Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
25 June 1982 - 3 June 1986: Colonel, British Army
3 June 1986 - 12 November 1990: Brigadier, British Army
3 June 1986 - 15 January 1997: Major General, British Army
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces
13 October 2017 - Present: Field Marshal, British Army
5 June 1986 - 15 January 1997: Air Marshal, Royal Air Force
15 January 1997 - Present: Marshal of the Royal Air Force

Canada
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Army
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Navy
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Air Force

Australia
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Army
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Navy
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force

New Zealand
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy
15 January 1997 - 13 October 2017: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Air Force

Ancestry

Ancestors of Thomas of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands

8. George IV and V of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 4. Frederick of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 9. Princess Sophia of Prussia 2. Charles III of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 10. Wilhelm II, German Emperor 5. Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia 11. Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg 1. Thomas of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 12. Zalman Perski 6. William Perske 13. Sheyna Yofa 3. Lauren Bacall 14. Max Weinstein 7. Natalie Bacall 15. Sophia Bacall