Charles III of the United Kingdom
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King of the British and the other Commonwealth Realms
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| Reign | 7 July, 1951 - 15 January, 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coronation | 20 September, 1951 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Edward VII | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | William VI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Charles Frederick William Louis 15 January 1917 Haga Palace, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 2 March 2011 (aged 94) Edinburgh Castle, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | 5 March 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Lauren Bacall (m. 1946) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| House | Hanover | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | Edward VII | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mother | Victoria Louise of Prussia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Protestant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Branch/service |  United States Air Force | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1942-1951 (active service) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Brigadier General | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unit | 6th Air Intelligence Squadron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battles/wars | Pacific War | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charles III (Charles Frederick William Louis; 15 January, 1917 - 3 March, 2011), better known as "Charles the Great" was King of the British from 1951 to 1997. Known for his controversial marriage to the Jewish American actress Lauren Bacall, Charles was also known for his somewhat outspoken support for decolonisation, political and social liberalism, and his personal opposition against what he termed as American neocolonialism.
His reign, which spanned throughout most of the second half of the 20th century saw a series of wide-ranging and dramatic reforms that effectively transformed Britain's political and social climate, all of which were either personally directed and orchestrated by Charles himself or his wife. Prior to and during the Second World War, Charles respectively worked first as an actor in Hollywood before subsequently enlisting in the United States Air Force for the Pacific War.
A prolific tennis player, Charles competed several times in the Wimbledon championships, mostly alongside his adoptive sister, Princess Ingrid, with whom he won the championships several times in the year 1934, 1936, 1946, and the year 1947.
On January 15th 1997, following his 80th birthday, Charles formally abdicated the throne in favour of his son, William VI on the grounds of "ill health" and "personal issues", becoming the second British monarch to do so after Queen Victoria, his first cousin thrice removed in the year 1837, almost 160 years prior. Then, with unanimous approval, Charles retained his title of King which lasted until his death. Following his death, he was posthumously given the epithet the Great, thus becoming the second and first monarch in both English and British histories to be respectively bestowed with the epithet after his 9th-century predecessor, Alfred the Great.
At the time of his death, aged 94 years old, Charles is the longest-lived British monarch, and was also the oldest living former sovereign monarch. Upon his death, the designation passed to the former and last Sultan of Zanzibar, Jamshid bin Abdullah. On 1 June 2021, he was surpassed by the former Pope Benedict XVI of the Vatican City. Additionally, had he not chose to abdicate, the total length of his reign would have made him the second-longest reigning British monarch after King George III, and behind his great-grandfather, King William V, whom is also the longest-reigning British monarch to date. In a 2017 poll by the BBC, Charles was posthumously voted "Greatest British Monarch", defeating his great-grandfather, William V, and his father, Edward VII.
Early Life
Charles was born on January 15th 1917 to Edward, Prince of Wales and Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia. A member of the ruling House of Hanover, he was also closely related to the Hohenzollern royal family due to his mother's standing as the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II. However, following the implementation of the Royal Titles Revocation Act 1924 in the years following the First World War, Charles's exclusive Prussian title of Prince of Prussia, which was prior bestowed upon him by Wilhelm II himself, was ultimately revoked by his father as to placate British nationalists whom had been critical of the royal family's heavily Germanised background.
Presumably named Charles by his father after Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland of Sweden, his middle names and surname however were that of his mother's Prussian ancestors, German Emperors Frederick III, and Wilhelm I. Nevertheless, it most notably attracted large attention and controversy from the British government due to his given name's apparent associations with its two previous holders, both of whom had been marred with some controversy during their respective lives.
On January 5th 1913, around four years prior to his birth, Charles's parents, whom had then been recently married were forced to return to Sweden, thereby prolonging their initial exile to the country due to the rising political and social tensions in Europe. Thus, unlike his predecessors, Charles was born instead in the Swedish royal residence of Haga Palace in Stockholm. Events surrounding his birth, when relayed to the British wartime government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, initially became a subject of controversy as it had taken place within a foreign territory, prompting assumptions regarding Charles's potential inability to succeed to the throne as the heir apparent to his father, the then Prince of Wales. Ultimately, Charles's eligibility to succeed to the throne remained unaffected due to Sweden's application of the jus sanguinis principle, which did not automatically confirmed Charles as a Swedish citizen, though he was instead given a British citizenship by virtue of his father's undisputed nationality, thereby allowing him to naturally succeed to the throne.
For the first couple of years, Charles and his family lived under the protection of King Gustaf V and members of the Swedish royal family. In particular, his godparents, King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria of Sweden doted greatly on the infant Charles. At the same time, as a relatively young infant, Charles was occasionally looked after by the King's own granddaughter, Princess Ingrid, the daughter of the later King Gustaf VI Adolf and Princess Margaret of Connaught.
Prince of Wales
At the age of six, the death of Charles's grandfather, King George V led him to be subsequently created Prince of Wales as heir apparent to his father, the new King Edward VII. Upon their arrival in the United Kingdom, despite being mostly confined to the interiors of Buckingham Palace alongside his brother William and his adopted sister Ingrid, Charles's development as a young prince was relatively undeterred, with Ingrid in particular being a major figure behind his childhood development. While the young prince performed moderately well in his academic studies, Charles also proved to be particularly adept in horseback riding, and was considerably versed in the arts of hunting, having at times accompanied his father on private hunting trips in both the United Kingdom and Canada on several occasions.
Arts & Music
Concurrently, an adolescent Charles took great interest aswell in the arts of music, an interest that was immediately fulfilled when an exquisitely made piano was gifted to him by his parents for his seventh birthday. For the next several years, with the guidance of a personal tutor, Charles was said to had regularly played the piano, during which he would often attempt to replicate songs composed by the likes of the famous German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, notable 17th century English composer, Henry Purcell, and with the additional intent of charming his adopted sister Ingrid, the Swedish composer, Dieterich Buxtehude. Despite an initially indifferent performance, Charles was able to gradually better himself overtime, eventually becoming a skilled pianist at the age of twelve.
The Two Crown Princes
From around October 1935 to April 1936, Charles became momentarily acquainted with the then Crown Prince Farouk of Egypt, whom had prior departed from his home country for England in order to attend the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. Initially, neither of the two crown princes were able to meet each other on a frequent basis as the Prince of Wales, whom in stark contrast to the Egyptian crown prince, took his military officer education seriously. However, the two royals would sometimes reportedly meet one another at local restaurants around London where both Charles and Farouk were said to had at times bond with one another over the grievances in their lives, with the latter having a generally restrictive childhood back home while on the other hand, Charles, despite being not generally restricted in his movements, suffered a great deal of being socially ostracised himself.
Ultimately, despite their perceived cordial friendship, the Prince of Wales generally rebuked his Egyptian counterpart, whilst citing Farouk's lax approach towards his educational commitments as the primary reason in him doing so. In the later years, Charles would also become generally bitter of the now King Farouk of Egypt's sexual promiscuity, which was of public knowledge in Egypt, thus culminating in his infamous eviction of his former friend from Buckingham Palace in the year 1952, around the same time when Farouk himself had been overthrown from his Egyptian throne.
Military Career
Upon reaching the age of majority, Charles was made a Counsellor of State by his father, thereby allowing him to fully exercise his royal functions. Initially, the prince sought a career in the British Army. However, despite being successfully commissioned as an officer himself, Charles unexpectedly abandoned any prospects of a prolonged military career, thereby denying himself of any sort of prior military experience when a revolt in the British Mandatory Palestine broke out the following year.
The Flying Prince
In the span of three years leading up to his eventual withdrawal to the United States, Charles, despite having publicly refused to actively serve in the military himself, was nevertheless able to benefit from both his status as a royal prince and a member of the British armed forces to pursue his newly sparked interest in aviation. To that end, in the early months of 1937, he first attended a civilian pilot training school in England before furthering his aviation training at the RAF's No. 1 Flying Training School in Shawbury, where he attended as as a Flying lieutenant. Subsequently, in almost daily reports sent by the training school administrator at that time to Charles's father, King Edward VII, the prince was thoroughly noted, such as in one of the reports, for being an "almost naturally talented pilot with bright hopes in the future".
At the end of his training, presumably due to his own personal request, Charles was personally gifted by his tutors with a specifically designed de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane, which notably bore the inscription Prince of Wales on the right side of its tailplane, signifying Charles's personal ownership of the aircraft. The aircraft, nicknamed Charlie by Charles himself, would go on to serve as the prince's personal vehicle for his exile to the United States, and later on, his main choice of aircraft for leisure flights by Charles himself and his later successors. Currently, the plane is said to be in a "generally well" condition, and is estimated to be roughly around eighty four years old since the year it was first manufactured for the prince.
Eastern Tour
Following his departure from the military, Charles undertook his first diplomatic tour when on December 1935, he traveled to the Malay state of Johor, where he met the Tunku Mahkota, or Crown Prince of Johor, Prince Ismail whom had then been entrusted with state affairs by his father, Sultan Ibrahim, whom frequently traveled abroad and was also a known friend of the British royal family. While there, he visited several local cities and villages alongside the crown prince, a trend that was repeated when he subsequently visited Singapore, then a part of the Straits Settlements, which he did so alongside its governor, Sir Thomas Shenton. In his memoirs, Charles repeatedly expressed much amazement and pride of the local scenery, whilst consistently referring to the island city as the "Venice of the East", alluding to its geographical importance and its harbour-like nature. Then, the prince went on a successive tour of Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo, where he met their respective rulers.
In the following months, the prince subsequently ventured on a land trip beginning from Afghanistan, before further continuing to neighbouring Iran and Iraq, and finally ending up in Turkey where he met the famed Turkish statesman, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk whom had prior met the prince's uncle, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale around a decade prior. Upon a week long stay, he ultimately departed back for the United Kingdom from a harbour in Istanbul.
United States
On September 1936, Charles was sent on a highly publicised trip to the United States, meeting the then President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Charles reportedly admired on a personal level, which was said to had been mostly due to Roosevelt's non-interventionist approach, specifically towards Latin America. The prince, then accompanied by some members of the United States government proceeded to tour first the northeastern region of the United States, during which he reportedly first met his soon-to-be close friend, actress Katharine Hepburn, before moving on westwards, where he met several other respected Hollywood figures of the time. The overall success of his tour around the country, coupled with the generally warm reception he received were said to had later been the driving factors behind his monumental decision to voluntarily exile himself to the United States.
The Netherlands
Around a year after his visit to the United States, the prince courted some controversy when during a visit to the Netherlands, Charles, upon meeting with his great uncle, Prince Consort Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife, Queen Wilhelmina, he then proceeded to privately visit his maternal grandfather, the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom had been living in exile at his personal Huis Doorn residence in the country. Reportedly, despite their familial ties, neither Charles nor his own grandfather were said to had displayed "even a tiny bit of care or respect for one another", with Charles's outwardly liberal character being a personal issue for the former Kaiser, while the latter's own starkly contrasting character, and his past record surrounding the First World War being of Charles's own points of contempt towards his grandfather. Sometime later, he was noted of having proclaimed, "I am proud enough to be the descendant of someone as noble as the German Emperor, Frederick III, my great-grandfather but not so as the descendant of someone as wretched and despicable as my grandfather, the German Emperor, Wilhelm II". Furthermore, his apparent rejection of his Hohenzollern ties was made prominent when with the exception of his own beloved mother, a member of the House of Hohenzollern herself, Charles invited no other members of the formerly ruling German royal house to either his subsequent wedding, or even his own coronation, as he largely believed in disassociating himself from their own past activities and association with Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler in particular and the Nazi leadership as a whole.
Trials & Tribulations
At the same time, as Charles began to mature significantly in terms of appearance, his apparent likeness to the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II earned him mixed responses from his contemporaries, as some of them praised his "good looking, and captivating" appearance, while others, particularly those among nationalist circles, largely used his likeness to the former Russian monarch as means of ridicule. However, perhaps the most notable consequence of his likeness to the last Tsar of Russia, was when he became the subject of a brief, but intense investigation by the MI5 agency, following a rumour purportedly labeling the prince as a supposedly escaped Tsar Nicholas II, though this was promptly disproven soon afterward.
Furthermore, Charles's heavily German background, compounded by his familial ties to the German Hohenzollern royal family also made him a frequent target of anti-German jibes by his overwhelmingly British-born aristocratic peers. Consequently, like his father, King Edward VII, he would at times be referred to as Kaiser Charles, or alternatively, Tsar Charles aswell by some of his contemporary critics, with the nicknames alluding first to his German background, and secondly to the similarity of his appearance to the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Later on, in his memoirs, Charles reportedly summarised his childhood years by describing it as a "rather cold and gruesome period with only the dimmest lights of hope nearby", with the latter part alluding to his close relationship with his mother and adoptive sister. In regards to his own father, Charles also enjoyed a generally warm familial relationship, albeit less so due to the former's preoccupation with his royal duties. Regardless, on a personal level, the two mostly bonded over their somewhat common anti-war feelings, their mutual dislike towards Nazism, and their shared apathy towards Germans living in the United Kingdom, particularly in Hanover.
Anti-Nazism
Similar to his father, King Edward VII, the young Charles quickly became an outspoken opponent of Nazism, an ideology founded and popularised by the Nazi Party in neighbouring Germany. Additionally, Charles, having been a fervent admirer of his late great-grandfather, German Emperor, Frederick III, also wholly identified with the latter's strong sympathy for the Jewish population in Europe, particularly in contemporary Nazi Germany, where they were critically persecuted by authorities. Evidently, his support and concurrent defence of the Jewish population generally came about in his various speeches criticising widespread anti-Semitism, whilst also notably attending a number of Jewish synagogues around the United Kingdom. Most notably, from around June 1936 to at least March 1937, in using his inherited wealth and position as a royal prince, Charles, along with several MI6 agents orchestrated a modestly successful covert operation, later named "Operation F", in which the group was said to had facilitated the rescue of roughly hundreds of Jews living near the British-German border, situated at the northeastern part of the country. According to later declassified reports, methods such as purposely disguising said rescues as "randomised kidnappings" or "state-sanctioned evictions" were most notably employed by the group in facilitating their operations. In addition, it was claimed that the group also employed a "non-confrontational policy", in regards towards the local security forces, as they believed that a much directly confrontational approach would have provided an easy justification for war by the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. Later on, his own marriage to a Jewish woman, and his lifelong support for the Jewish community, particularly in the United Kingdom, helped solidify his image as an immensely respected figure among both Jews living in Britain and outside of the country aswell.
However, in contrast to his father whom was more slightly reserved in his opposition, Charles, upon reaching the age of eighteen was said to had travelled back and forth to the German-majority state of Hanover on multiple occasions wherein the presence of the German majority public there, he would then make fiery speeches condemning Nazism while emphasising the need for unity between the largely German state with the rest of the United Kingdom. To that end, Charles's speeches were generally well-received by the German-speaking public, while on the other hand, the prince's infamous speeches were instead seen with much skepticism by the British government, with then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain in particular expressing concern surrounding the prince's much provocative approach towards the Nazis, during which he said, "The only thing that I do understandably fear from the Prince of Wales's words is that we might be fighting an unnecessarily aggravated war too soon for it to be in our favour".
Consequently, Charles was also rumoured to had been a high-priority target by the Abwehr, the German military intelligence unit of the Nazi Party, though it was unclear regarding the Abwehr's actual approach in confronting the prince's criticisms, with rumours alleging that the agency had been ordered to initially coerce the prince into secrecy, before ultimately engineering a fatal accident as a last resort, while others suggest that the Prince of Wales was to be coerced into silence by one of his own German uncles, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, a member of the NSDAP himself. Reportedly, sometime on December 1935, the two privately met one another at the city of Wiltz in Luxembourg, where the former Prussian prince ultimately failed to convince his nephew to abandon his anti-Nazi rhetoric. Following this, he was reported of having later confided in his private secretary of a "final solution to a grave crisis", thus implying an assassination attempt which, despite the prince's fears, never came about.
On March 13th 1938, just a day after the peaceful German annexation of Austria, Charles famously declared in one of his speeches at the time, "The Kingdom of Hanover is forever part of the United Kingdom since the days of the German-born King George the First and his descendants. The National Socialists, in the eyes of the Hanoverian people, are as treacherous as those of the Paris Commune fighting against their own brethren almost seventy years ago. Both are undeniably extremists and malicious radicals against their own fellow kind".
The Polyglot Prince
Having been born to both an English father and a German mother, a young Charles proved quick to master both of his parents' respective native languages by the age of nine, thereby fulfilling expectations arising from his mixed Anglo-German ancestry. At the same time, in order to better familiarise himself with his Swedish-born adoptive sister, Charles also took up a solid interest in mastering the language aswell, in which by the age of thirteen, he was reportedly able to have almost daily conversations with his adoptive sister in her native language, albeit with an apparent English accent.
When Charles was around eighteen years old, he, with the encouragement of his father, had initially accepted an offer by the British government to help educate him in the Russian language, although unbeknownst to both father and son, the effort had merely been a ruse to shield the government's real intent on supposedly proving a theory alleging that the prince had been the last Tsar of Russia all along. When this clandestine effort subsequently fell apart, a then reportedly humiliated Charles initially had the government-sponsored agents sent away from the palace, though he would then soon after reinvite the said agents to the palace, as a means to genuinely learn the Russian language itself, which he reportedly achieved within a span of one and a half year long.
At the same time, as with his appointment as Counsellor of State, Charles began to first take up a series of international visits around the globe meant to better the standings between his country and the international community. Thus, following his maiden visit to the Malay state of Johor, Charles's interest in the language was quick to spark, although his subsequent desire to immediately learn the language was cut short by a lack of experienced European tutors.
In addition to his interest in other European languages, namely French, Italian, and Danish, his other interests in non-European languages, such as the Hindustani, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages, persisted throughout his lifetime, with Charles himself utilising his interest in said languages to a great degree, thereby allowing him, in his own words, "to speak to those people so different from myself with as much humility as possible".
Tennis Career
Beginning from the age of five, Charles's interest in sports began to cultivate, primarily from the influence of his sports enthusiastic sister, Princess Ingrid, and later, his own father, with the latter being an initially avid hockey player up until his own accesion as sovereign, having been initially exposed to it while residing in Canada, where the sport is immensely popular. Furthermore, in addition to hockey, Charles also grew up playing other types of sports such as horse riding, polo, and tennis, with Ingrid being his principal coaching figure and at times, his competitor in their friendly matches.
Eventually, having initially deliberated over pursuing a career in either tennis or hockey, a sixteen year old Charles opted for the former when on June 1933, he, alongside Ingrid competed at Wimbledon for the first time in the mixed doubles tournament, in which the pair came out as runner-ups following a loss to the victorious German pair, Gottfried von Cramm and Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling. A year later, the two competed together again, and this time, they were able to successfully become champions in that year's tournament although, in the subsequent year, Charles himself competed alone as Ingrid opted to first settle into her new marriage, in which he narrowly won the runner up spot against his German rival, Gottfried von Cramm, but lost against fellow British tennis player, Fred Perry for the champion spot. In 1936, the two reunited once more to successfully win that year's championships.
However, following the 1936 championships, neither Charles nor Ingrid participated in the subsequent Wimbledon championships as the former in particular, chose to concentrate more on his princely duties, although for a brief moment in the year 1939, while living in the United States, Charles competed in the US Open championships, which he won alongside the American actress, Katharine Hepburn. Nevertheless, in what would be both their last two participations in Wimbledon, the two paired up together once more to successively win the 1946 and 1947 championships, before subsequently declaring their simultaneous retirement from professional tennis.
Left-wing Politics & Liberalism
While the prince had been obviously born a royal and mostly grew up in a generally right-wing environment, with the upper British nobility being an integral part of his upbringing due to his royal status, Charles's drift towards left-wing politics was initially considered to had been caused by his past relationship with Jessica Mitford, a British noblewoman whom, despite her status, later became a devout communist herself. However, it was believed that the prince's frequent enduring of racial prejudice during his childhood may have contributed to his drift into left-wing ideologies, namely socialism. Thus, Charles's childhood grievances, coupled with his own remarkably liberal character, which was further solidified throughout the years, were considered as being the most likely reasons for the eventual perceptions alluding to the king as being that of a socialist, although in his memoirs, he frequently labeled himself to be more of a liberal rather than a socialist.
Throughout his reign, despite it being done in a generally private manner, Charles reportedly enjoyed several warm, though complicated relationships with several left-wing political leaders of the time, such as Fidel Castro of Cuba, Yugoslavian leader, Josip Broz Tito (whom Charles was said to had favoured the most), his own then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and Vietnamese guerilla leader, Ho Chi Minh, whom the prince never physically met with, but rather interacted with solely through the use of letters.
Life in the United States
Sometime in the middle of 1938, hoping to escape the distressing anti-German sentiment back home, Charles, upon receiving a much reluctantly handed approval from his parents, promptly arranged for a silent retreat to the United States, whereby the prince and a group of selectively chosen confidantes would enter the country via air under the cover of night. Thus, under the basis of the respective British and American timezones, the group, consisting of approximately ten people including Charles himself departed from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland at approximately 5:00 A.M., as it would provide the group with at least a six hours long window for their arrival in the United States, which was five hours behind Britain. After a lengthy flight, at exactly 5:20 A.M. local time, the group touched down at the McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County, New Jersey, where they were privately welcomed by the then Secretary of War, Harry Hines Woodring.
Almost immediately following his arrival, a series of impromptu confidential agreements were struck with the United States government whereby the knowledge of Charles's actual identity was to be strictly restricted among cabinet officials while in the public eye, or at least, in official records, he would instead be registered as a citizen under his assumed alias, Robert Clarke. His cover, which was solidly preserved through cosmetic modifications and through the government's own intervention, remained undiscovered until sometime in early 1940, albeit by Charles's own initiative, when he began publicly appearing on local televisions and radios as himself, offering and encouraging support for the Allied war effort.
Although the situation, in terms of anti-German sentiment proved somewhat indifferent, this was alleviated by the prince's decision to assume an entirely different identity altogether. Then, Charles, whom had been traveling under the alias of Robert Clarke, chose to acquire a residence of his own in the north-eastern state of New York. At the same time, he chose to take up acting as a means of making additional money. To that end, he promptly took lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he considerably excelled in his lessons despite his distinctive accent, before gradually establishing himself as a rising actor in the Hollywood scene. As an actor, he was recognised for his distinguishable upper-class persona and his unique Anglo-German accent, alongside his Mid-Atlantic accent aswell, which he perfected overtime.
Second World War: The Pacific
Death of a Prince
On May 24th 1941, at around midnight, while residing at the house of his close friend, Katharine Hepburn, the prince, upon being hastily awakened by the actress, was first informed via one of his own entourage members of the death of his brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, whom had been killed in service during a naval confrontation at the Denmark Strait. The news of his brother's death, which was described as being "profoundly mood-changing, and devastating", initially led Charles to strongly abstain from ever enlisting for the Second World War, as it was deemed necessary for him to live in order to properly succeed his father, King Edward VII. Regardless of this, after a brief period of "personal exile", Charles went on to become heavily invested in the Allied war effort, as he would often address both the American and British public over NBC, and would hold almost daily discussions with the then United States President, Franklin D. Roosevelt and several other Allied leaders whom had taken refuge in the United States, with later rumours suggesting that the prince had been covertly involved in several espionage activities for the American government due to his natural proficiency in German. Furthermore, despite the difficulties, he also consistently maintained contact with his parents, the King and Queen back home, with the royal couple having refused to leave the country amidst constant aerial German bombardment.
USAF Service
Eventually, around March 1942, despite having initially abstained from enlisting for the Second World War, Charles chose to ultimately enlist as an officer in the United States Air Force, a decision that reportedly arose from the prince's own personal desire to fly both civilian and military aircrafts in his own lifetime, and his additional desire to honour his late brother. To that end, his enlistment into the military was done so under his assumed alias, as both the prince and the United States government sought to avoid knowledge of such an important royal being in the frontlines from being leaked to either the German or Japanese intelligence agencies, lest risking an assassination attempt on his life.
Nevertheless, for the next two years, due to the overwhelming concerns surrounding his likelihood of survival when in direct combat, Charles was intentionally diverted from ever participating in the major battles in the Pacific, namely the battles of Midway and Okinawa, and was instead relegated to a defensive post in northern Australia, albeit after a much bitter compromise, where he partook in the defence of Australia alongside fellow Allied servicemen against Japanese air raids. While in Australia, as he piloted a Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, Charles partook extensively in his squadron's reconnaissance activities around the area of the Southwest Pacific, photographing enemy logistics and bases during which he amassed a confirmed total amount of five downed Japanese fighter aircrafts, with each one of them having been first intercepted during patrols before being subsequently shot down, thus earning him an Air Medal award, alongside several other decorations. At the same time, whilst remaining under his assumed alias in the general public, Charles also secretly met with members of the Australian, and later New Zealand governments.
Before being ultimately recalled back to the United States in February 1944, Charles was promoted to the rank of Colonel for his wartime efforts by his superiors before being subsequently promoted to the ranks of Lieutenant General and Air commodore in the British Army and Royal Air Force respectively. On the day of his marriage, he was last promoted to Brigadier General by President Truman, making him the only British royal to achieve such a distinction in the United States military. On the day of his ascension to the throne, Charles ultimately retired from the United States Air Force.
War's End
Following his return to the United States, his active involvement in wartime matters remained generally consistent and interrupted. For instance, aside from the usual speeches on public radios, Charles himself, on October 3rd 1944, visited Egypt, which had then saw the major battle of El-Alamein between German and Fremch forces around two years prior, where under much-closed circumstances, he held several private meetings with the kingdom's King Farouk.
A couple of weeks later, having presumably learned of a supposed plot by Jewish militant groups to assassinate him, Charles promptly headed up north to the Allied-occupied island of Sicily, where apart from reportedly keeping himself busy with wartime briefings by local Allied soldiers, he was said to had also frequented local Sicilian towns, offering voluntary assistance in rebuilding efforts whenever he would pass by one. However, by the early days of the following November, Charles had already returned back to the United States, having initially planned on a brief visit to his British home country, a plan ultimately denied due to security concerns.
Reign
Despite Charles's return to the United Kingdom on January 1949, it was at first deemed unlikely for Charles to succeed his father in the vicinity though at times, he would occasionally serve as a stand-in for the latter at public events. However, following a hunting incident which, despite leaving the King with only minor and non-worrisome injuries, Charles himself began to take up his role as Prince of Wales in a more frequent manner, as he then notably spearheaded efforts in further strengthening the Commonwealth of Nations, through several visits to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean states including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and The Bahamas respectively. Exactly two months before his ascension to the throne, Charles and his wife went on a visit to India where they exchanged brief, but friendly dialogues with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whom Charles greatly admired and somewhat sympathised with.
On the afternoon of July 7th 1951, when King Edward VII died in his sleep, the princely couple, whom were then in the midst of a hunting trip at the Scottish Highlands, was promptly informed of the former's death, leading them to immediately abort the hunting trip and return back to Edinburgh Castle, before subsequently departing for London onboard the Royal Train. When questioned by his private secretary, Lord Davies regarding his regnal name, Charles immediately declared that he would be using his own given name, thereby becoming Charles the Third. When this was promptly relayed to the government and ultimately to the public itself, it incurred a sizable degree of controversy, which was largely due to the name's negative associations with its two previous respective holders. In particular, the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee was said to had initially advised the new king to instead adopt one of his own middle names, with the name William being the most preferred choice, as he would be theoretically honouring his revered late great-grandfather, King William V. In response, just a few hours after his arrival at Buckingham Palace, Charles notably declared in a televised speech his right to choose his own regnal name and his own starkly contrasting image to the two previous Charles's, during which he famously proclaimed, "I am neither an enemy to my own country like the first, and neither am I a philanderer like the second. First and foremost, I am Charles the Third, the reformer".
On October 25th 1951, Charles's coronation was held at the traditional site of Westminster Abbey. The ceremony, which saw the expected amount of various foreign dignitaries of multiple backgrounds was also the first to be televised by Charles's strict insistence though with the exception of the anointing and the communion processes. Prior to the coronation, upon discovering from the list of attendees that his mother-in-law, Natalie Bacall was to be excluded from the list as to not upstage the other attendees whom were mostly of nobility and royalty background led a reportedly outraged Charles to successfully pressure the then Duke of Norfolk, whom simultaneously holds the position of Earl Marshal, into whitelisting Bacall's mother instead. Ultimately, the older Bacall attended the coronation ceremony, where she was accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Clarence and Avondale. She was later granted her own apartment in Buckingham Palace, where she primarily resided in until her own death in 1972, and was also made a marchioness by Charles himself. Later on, following the death of his mother-in-law, Charles himself personally oversaw the former's funeral arrangements during which, amidst much initial controversy, he was able to successfully have the older Bacall be buried in Westminster Abbey despite her own Jewish identity, as to not separate mother and daughter, for later on, Charles and Bacall themselves were also buried alongside the older Bacall in Westminster Abbey upon their respective deaths in the year 2011 and 2014.
With his ascension as King of the British, Charles was simultaneously the ceremonial head of the United Kingdom and various other member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, which had arisen from the gradual decolonisation process undertaken by the British government. Just a year after his ascension to the throne, Charles resumed his Commonwealth-oriented tour by undertaking state visits to Pakistan, South Africa, Nigeria, and several other African countries with the likes of Sudan and Tanganyika. He also paid brief visits to Malaya, the island city of Singapore, and Brunei, becoming the second British monarch to do so after his great-grandfather, King William V, whom had first visited the peninsula in the year 1875. During his visit to the peninsula, Charles successively met with the Malay rulers, with the ruler of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim reputedly being his closest acquaintance, mirroring the latter's father's friendship with Charles's great-grandfather, King William V. At the same time, he also paid a brief visit to the Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III, whom had recently succeeded to the throne a couple of years earlier.
The Suez Crisis
In light of the revolution which overthrew the Egyptian King Farouk, Charles, on the advice of the then Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden had initially offered asylum to the former Egyptian monarch in Buckingham Palace, under the premise of a possible restoration of the latter to the Egyptian throne. However, despite this decision, the king himself was said to had been personally skeptical towards such an initiative, as he was primarily concerned by the former Egyptian king's known promiscuity, a stark contrast towards his own chaste character. Eventually, despite an initially warm acceptance of the former King Farouk upon his arrival in the United Kingdom, the former Egyptian monarch was ultimately evicted from Buckingham Palace just three days later by the insistence of Queen Lauren whom reportedly found the former king a "strikingly repulsive, dangerous, and unruly bloated fellow". When Farouk himself later passed away almost a decade later in the year 1965 while staying at his new residence in England, both Charles and his wife immediately abstained from attending the former king's funeral, with Bacall herself having reportedly said, "he [King Farouk] deserves no rights to our sympathy".
On October 1956, a tripartite invasion by Britain, France and Israel sought to topple popular Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser under the pretext of Nasser's seizure of the Suez Canal held by the British and French governments. Despite Eden's later claim that the King had been considerably in favour of the invasion, it was later revealed that the latter had instead been somewhat critical of the decision due to his own prior lack of knowledge regarding the invasion itself and his own opposition to what he saw as a "preservation of imperialism", though Charles himself reportedly chose to concede as to not cause a dangerous division between the monarchy and government.
Prince of the Welsh
On July 22nd 1951, as the king was about to create his eldest son, the then Duke of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, the former abruptly declared that all heir apparent to the British throne, including the then Prince William was to be formally known as the Prince of the Welsh, rather than in its current form. Almost immediately, when questioned regarding his rationale behind the change, the king promptly stated that it was in line with the changes made by his father and predecessor, the late King Edward VII whom had prior altered the title of King of the United Kingdom to that of King of the British instead with much public and government support himself. The change ultimately resided with his successor, while his granddaughter Alexandra was subsequently referred to as the Princess of the Welsh upon becoming heir apparent to her own father.
Charles & Hollywood
In addition to his relations with various political leaders around the world, Charles himself maintained a sizable degree of connections within the Hollywood industry, as a consequence of him and his wife's prior acting careers. For instance, Charles was generally close to the likes of former actresses, Hedy Lamarr and Grace Kelly, both of whom had married into European royalty. However, Charles was generally known for his particularly close friendship with the American singer and actor, Frank Sinatra, the latter having been initially employed as one of the main musicians at Charles's wedding before being invited to perform both publicly and privately in London by Charles's own behest on several occasions. Furthermore, the two were said to had frequented various private resorts alongside their respective wives, and were also said to had particularly enjoyed a game of golf at almost every opportunity. Notably enough, upon the birth of Charles's firstborn son, the later King William VI on December 1950, Charles himself personally included Sinatra's own first name and middle name in the naming of his firstborn son.
Among other names included actors Marlon Brando, Orson Welles, Elvis Presley, and actresses Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, the famed Marilyn Monroe (whom Charles was briefly associated with through generally malicious rumours at the time), and others.
Interestingly, despite his persistent relations with the Hollywood industry, Charles ironically shared a much more mixed and complicated relationship with the government of the United States itself, with the Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and Republican Ronald Reagan respectively being Charles's supposed "political rivals", while on several occasions, he nevertheless praised both men for some of their achievements which he personally found "commendable and tolerable", such as Johnson's progress in regards to civil rights in the United States, and Reagan's own success in ending the decades-long Cold War conflict. Additionally, Charles reportedly most resented prime ministers Anthony Eden and Tony Blair, both of whom he sharply criticised for their involvement in the Suez Crisis and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Cold War Monarch
Around a couple of years into his reign, the death of Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin led to a brief power struggle within the USSR, although this was quickly patched up with the subsequent rise of Nikita Khrushchev, whom notably embarked on a campaign of de-Stalinization, marking an apparent departure from the former Soviet leader's rule. Concurrently, Charles, sensing an opportunity to de-escalate the Cold War through the new Soviet leadership, embarked on a state visit to Moscow on September that year, during which he reportedly established cordial relations with the Soviet politburo although ironically enough, his apparent likeness to the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II earned the ire of several Soviet officials. However, following his visit, Charles notably became the then most recent British monarch to set foot in Russia after his great-grandfather, King William V.
Throughout much of the duration of the Cold War, Charles, despite his constitutional status, was said to had been overwhelmingly in favour of a much Third World-centred approach in regards to the United Kingdom's foreign policies. Reportedly, this belief was said to had emerged from his generally liberal character and his close associations with several notable figures of the Third World faction itself, namely Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, and Jawaharlal Nehru of India. Furthermore, on several private occasions atleast, he further espoused this belief to his respective prime ministers, with one instance being during the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, in which he reportedly told the newly succeeding Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, "As important as it might be, Britain must never become America's, or even the Soviet's puppet, but only a cordial ally of theirs. Or else, we will risk hurling ourselves into an indefinite amount of unnecessary political shenanigans this conflict has led to".
Abdication
By the late 1990s, despite already being almost eighty years of age, at the start, Charles reportedly abstained from contemplating on the idea of abdication, as there were no underlying factors compelling him to do so, with the King being in a generally healthy condition, even at an advanced age. Nevertheless, on January 15th 1997, on his 80th birthday, Charles formally announced his abdication from his residence of Buckingham Palace. His abdication, which came out as an unexpected development among the British public, but less so by members of the government was subsequently commemorated with a special event honouring the former sovereign, which was held around a week after his abdication. Additionally, a day after his abdication, the former king and queen held a symbolic visit to the island nation of Tonga, whose sovereign, King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, was the son of the royal couple's close friend, the late Queen Sālote Tupou III.
While the primary reason for his abdication remained a point of contention, it was somewhat believed however that the King's abdication was primarily orchestrated by none other than his own wife, the then Queen Lauren whom reputedly coerced her husband into abdicating on his 80th birthday out of the concern and need to prolong the latter's livelihood, which was done so through relieving the latter of his royal duties, which were judged to had been hazardous to his health in his later years. Regardless, following his abdication, Charles continued to retain some degree of activity as the most senior member of the royal family. On March 2003, the former king was rumoured to had been involved in a personal and private feud with then Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, whom the former monarch was said to had derisively likened to Blair's predecessor, Anthony Eden, whom was Prime Minister himself during the infamous Suez Crisis.
On June 2014, around three years after his death, Charles's abdication briefly became a subject of comparison alongside the then-recent abdication of the Spanish monarch, King Juan Carlos I of Spain as the latter's abdication from the throne, in a manner similar to that of Charles's own abdication almost two decades earlier also left the country with two kings, with one of them being the former while the other as the currently reigning monarch, as the subsequent ascension of King Felipe VI was in turn generally likened to that of his own son, King William VI's. However, at the same time, it was later noted that, unlike the former Spanish monarch, Charles's own post abdication life generally remained spotless with minimal controversies, with the former British monarch himself being consistently regarded as a highly celebrated figure well after his death.
Soon after his abdication, after consulting with the then Prime Minister, John Major, alongside his eldest son and immediate successor, the new King William VI, then followed by a historic public referendum among the general British public, Charles, instead of being bestowed upon with a dukedom, was ultimately allowed to retain his title of King of the British, thereby establishing the period between the years 1997 to 2011 as the only period in British history where there were two legally recognised kings at the same time.
Death
On March 3rd 2011, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Charles died in his sleep while residing in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, which had been the former king's preferred residence since his abdication. His death, which was first reported by the now widowed Queen Lauren was promptly followed by a day of mourning, whilst his body was first flown from Edinburgh to London, before being laid in state at Westminster Hall. Ultimately, on March 5th, his body was finally laid to rest at Westminster Abbey, alongside his mother-in-law, Natalie Bacall. Three years later, the then-deceased Queen Lauren was subsequently interred alongside him and the former.
On January 15th 2017, his posthumous 100th birthday celebration was held across the United Kingdom during which a number of the Royal Family members privately visited his tomb to pay their respects while the BBC notably aired a special documentary surrounding the late king's life. Additionally, a BBC poll concurrently held that day saw the late monarch being voted "Greatest British Monarch", with a 52% share of the vote, while trailed by the likes of his great-grandfather, William V (39%), and his father, Edward VII (9%).
Marriage
Charles & Ingrid
In contrast to his father, King Edward VII, following the death of his great-grandfather, King William V, Charles's future marital prospects were left entirely to his own parents by his grandfather, King George V whom, due to the complications surrounding the aftermath of the First World War desired for the young Charles to be married off to a Scandinavian princess instead as to exhibit a more neutral image surrounding the future king. Initially, such prospects were deemed likely following rumours of a possible engagement between Charles and the much older Princess Ingrid whom, following the death of her mother, Princess Margaret when she was only ten years old was adopted by the princely couple through a private arrangement with Ingrid's father, Prince Gustaf Adolf and was entrusted in looking after the young Charles and his brother William whom were in turn taught with a strong sense of self-discipline and various household skills by Ingrid herself. Consequently, Charles proved quick to grow fond of the Swedish princess whom he generally came to saw as his principal sister figure, as he would often spend much of his daily time with the latter while occasionally seeking assistance from the much older Ingrid regarding household chores and at times, his daily loads of homework given to him by his private tutors. Genealogy-wise, through the paternal line, Ingrid is the prince's fourth cousin via a shared third great grandfather, King George III, while the latter is in turn, Charles's third cousin via a common great great grandfather, the German Emperor, Wilhelm I.
In around mid-1919, as Charles and his parents were about to depart back for the United Kingdom due to his grandfather, King George V's worsening condition, an "emotionally devastated" two year old Charles was immediately overjoyed upon learning that Ingrid whom, with her grandfather's permission was allowed to accompany him and his family back to their home country, a decision supported by Charles's own parents whom had already valued the princess as a vital companion to the young Charles. Thus, for the next sixteen years, both Charles and Ingrid continued to grow up together at the royal family's primary residence of Buckingham Palace. When Ingrid herself turned eighteen years old, an adolescent Charles was often seen accompanying the princess on her usual drive around London, where the two would occasionally stop at the local shops to run their respective errands. On a near-daily basis, Charles and Ingrid would compete against each other in various sports, with tennis in particular being a favourite of the two, so much so that the two would go on to compete several times in the Wimbledon championships, accumulating general success in their decade long career together.
Reportedly, around a year prior to Ingrid's marriage to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, both Charles and Ingrid were said to had unanimously brushed off proposals of a marriage between them, stating that the two "felt more like a brother and a sister, rather than a husband and a wife". During the latter's subsequent marriage to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Charles himself served as one of the crown prince's groomsmen, at Ingrid's own personal behest.
Eventually, for reasons most likely due to Ingrid's own departure for Denmark, compounded by the rampant Germanophobia at the time, ultimately compelled a twenty-one year old Charles to voluntarily exile himself in secrecy to the United States alongside a small, personal entourage, after having decided against initially exiling himself to Denmark instead as to not burden his adoptive sister. Nevertheless, in the early months of 1939, just a few months prior to the Second World War, Charles was reunited with Ingrid during the latter's visit to the United States, during which she was reunited with the prince at his New York residence, where she later chose to reside at for her month-long tour, discarding the usual tradition of residing at the Blair House as a foreign visitor to the country.
During the Second World War, with Denmark under Nazi occupation, Charles, whom was personally concerned of his now captive adopted sister's life, once reportedly proposed to the British government for a covert military operation to specifically rescue the Crown Princess of Denmark whom, alongside members of the Danish royal family had been left relatively unharmed by the occupying Germans. The operation, codenamed "Operation Maroon", had envisaged a small group of Royal Marines servicemen being deployed approximately 3km from the city of Copenhagen where from there, at exactly night time, the soldiers, posed as ordinary Danish soldiers would enter the Danish royal residence of Amalienborg in the capital city before promptly evacuating the crown princess, firstly by land to a remote coastal area, before subsequently evacuating the latter back to the United Kingdom by boat. However, the plan itself was ultimately struck down out of fear of jeopardising Denmark's warm relations with Nazi Germany, and thus, its people's security, and later on, by the crown princess's own refusal to leave her own people behind.
In the second half of the 20th century, both Charles and Ingrid maintained a well-preserved cordial relationship, lasting until the latter's death on November 2000.
Pre-Exile
Prior to his own self-exile to the United States, the prince, despite being somewhat socially ostracised due to his family's German connections, was said to had surprisingly enjoyed some degree of attraction from the women of the upper-class gentry. For instance, at the age of eighteen, Charles's first romantic relationship came about when he was introduced to a similarly aged Jessica Mitford, the fifth eldest of the infamous Mitford sisters. Reportedly, amidst strong reservations held by Charles's parents due to Mitford's older sisters' affiliations with the right-wing British Union of Fascists and the Nazi Party in Germany respectively, the pair's relationship remained generally unaffected by the surrounding circumstances, made evident by Charles's then contemporary writings regarding his relationship with Mitford, whom he would often write of in a positive light. In particular, on November 5th 1937, when a local French newspaper wrote of the aristocrat's sighting with the prince during his work trip to France, rumours of an actively physical relationship began to pick up pace, resulting in Mitford herself being promptly recalled back to England, while the prince himself was said to had mostly ignored the rumours throughout the duration of his visit to the country.
Ultimately, the couple unexpectedly separated around February 1938 when Mitford was revealed by a close associate to had begun eloping instead with her second cousin, Esmond Romilly, whom had prior served in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the left-wing Republicans. Almost immediately, word of their separation incurred a sizable degree of controversy among the upper British elite, which had begun to perceive the Prince of Wales as a communist sympathiser due to his past affiliation with the openly left-wing Jessica Mitford, though this too was also rebuked with Charles labeling the Paris Commune as "treacherous" and an "extremist" in a particular speech, thereby dispelling rumours of him being a supposed "communist sympathiser". At the same time, Charles, also reportedly rebuked Mitford heavily among his close circles, as he supposedly designated the socialite as being "untruthful enough to a relationship as she was to her own aristocratic background".
Soon after their separation, an initially "emotionally scarred" Charles had refused to immediately seek a new love interest although, after much persistent persuasion by his parents and some of his closest friends, his stance ultimately shifted when he was then introduced to the much younger eighteen year old aristocrat, Sarah Baring, whose particular lack of affiliation with extreme brands of politics that was prevalent in Charles's previous romantic partner proved much reassuring for Charles's parents whom, sensing the two's closeness and mutual affection towards one another, began to encourage their relationship. At the same time, an initially lukewarm Charles was said to had first taken little effort into committing to the relationship, although this was gradually mended with the intervention of Charles's own parents, whom began inviting the young Baring more frequently to impromptu lunches or dinners with the royal family themselves. To that end, both Charles and Baring were said to had finally begun committing themselves to their relationship on a more serious note, with the latter herself beginning to frequently follow the prince along on his state visits or royal functions. At the same time, rumours of Baring being supposedly unfaithful to the prince by being allegedly romantically involved instead with the prince's younger brother, Prince William, began to circulate among the upper elite, though this would not exactly materialise until after their separation. Ultimately, after a much contentious dispute with Baring's parents, in which he failed to get his then romantic interest to come along with him to the United States, their relationship was thus terminated as the prince departed for America.
Nevertheless, around the end of the Second World War, Baring in particular was briefly suggested, to which she herself enthusiastically supported, to be the alternative wife for Charles, thus supposedly replacing his then romantic interest and later wife, the American actress, Lauren Bacall. Ultimately, despite Charles's own refusal to reciprocate Baring's affections, which was subsequently followed by his and Bacall's own wedding ceremony on March 1946, the two were said to had remained friends throughout their respective lives. In particular, from the year 1951 to 1960, Baring herself notably served as the later Queen Lauren's first Mistress of the Robes.
Jane Manning
During his tour in Australia, according to a few atleast, Charles was briefly rumoured to had been in a discreet romantic relationship with a local Australian news reporter and interviewer, Jane Manning. The latter, having had a distinguished career in the profession herself, had been allowed to privately interview the prince in a follow-up to one of the former's private meetings with members of the Australian wartime government. Reportedly, the two promptly struck up a relationship during the said interview although officially, the prince himself was never seen together with Manning, and vice versa. Ultimately, it was confirmed atleast that following the interview, the two did discreetly met one another on several further occasions, albeit with no form of an official relationship between the two ever being confirmed.
Katharine Hepburn & Lauren Bacall
Following his exile to the United States, Charles did not initially seek on immediately seeking a new love interest of his own, having opted instead towards building an acting career under the guise of his pseudonym. However, on March 3rd, while dining at a local restaurant in New York City, the prince was reunited with Katharine Hepburn whom, as a result of Charles having his iconic beard shaved off, did not initially recognise the prince while in actuality, the two had met one another just three years prior when the prince was conducting his very first visit to the United States, during which, as a result of Charles's then tightly arranged schedule, the two had only been able to spend a limited amount of time with one another.
Upon having reintroduced himself to the actress, the two quickly resumed their friendship through an exchange of visits to one another's residences, where they were often said to had played sports against one another, with tennis and golf being a common choice of option, whilst occasionally discussing their shared liberal and progressive views. Even so, despite the two generally regarding each other as "officially close friends", their closeness together, which would often be reported to back home by a certain group of specially-picked Metropolitan Police agents unknowingly tasked to discreetly monitor the two, greatly concerned then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain whom generally feared that, if left unchecked, the possibility of an actual marriage materialising would in turn cause great concern for the British establishment, not least due to her American nationality and commoner status, but rather due to her outspoken nature and her recent divorce which, since Hepburn's ex-husband was still alive at the time, would have specifically conflicted with Charles's future role as the head of the Church of England, which did not canonically recognised marriages with a divorcee whose spouse is still alive at the time of marriage.
Throughout the duration of their relationship, out of mutual interest in keeping their public lives as private as possible, both Charles and Hepburn reportedly assumed false identities as being supposed siblings, with the said personas being their common choice of identity whenever they were meeting someone new on the outside. Allegedly, Charles, under his false identity, would have been known as Martin Montgomery while Hepburn, under the pretext of being the prince's supposed "sister", would in turn assume the identity of Anne Montgomery, a decision later falsely believed to had been the prince honouring the famed British Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery whom, in contrast to said assumptions, had only rose to prominence during the subsequent Second World War, years after the decision to assume the coincidentally similar surname together by the prince and the actress was undertaken.
Ultimately, Hepburn's own sole opposition to further marriages after her divorce negated any possibility of a marriage between the two, although for a time, at least in their respective inner circles, the two were closely associated with one another. Aside from their frequent meetings with one another, both Charles and Hepburn notably competed together, with the former under his assumed pseudonym in the 1939 Wimbledon Championships, which they were able to win. A year later, he further assisted Hepburn through some provisions of financial aid for the actress's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940). For a time, particularly during the year-long period from 1941 to 1942, Hepburn was then unanimously described as being the prince's "emotional pillar" following the death of Charles's brother, the Duke of Edinburgh in combat, which supposedly led the two to emotionally bond over their shared loss of a beloved sibling, with Hepburn herself having prior lost her younger brother, Thomas Hepburn, when she was thirteen years old.
Later on, Hepburn herself would go on to serve as the sole bridesmaid to Charles's wife, Lauren Bacall, whom the former also closely befriended, at their royal wedding, and whom reportedly went on to become an influential advisor to the king on women's issues in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Hepburn herself was said to had been first the namesake, and subsequent godmother for Charles's daughters, Crown Princess Catherine of Norway, reputedly named after Hepburn herself, and Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Albany. Ultimately, in the following decades, despite not being related in any way to the British royal family, Hepburn was nevertheless considered as an "honorary member" of the royal family, with Aunt Kate being her common moniker among Charles and Bacall's family members. Eventually, upon the actress's death on June 2003, Charles promptly acquired the late actress's residence in Fenwick, Connecticut himself, and since his own later demise, the estate has been managed as a private property of the British royal family alongside several other private properties belonging to the family in the United States, namely Wales House in New York.
Conclusively, while the nature of their relationship received generally minimal levels of coverage by both the British and American media, it proved to be a long-lasting concern for the British government for all its reasons, although it allegedly cooled down around the mid-1940's to a more cordial level when Charles was to be respectively married to his wife while Hepburn in turn sought a new romantic partner in fellow actor, Spencer Tracy, which lasted until his death. However, the two were said to had "emotionally reconciled" following Tracy's death in June 1967, although as revealed by his granddaughter in an interview on January 2018, Hepburn's general state of friendship with the king was mostly welcomed upon by the then Queen Lauren herself whom was said to had trusted both Charles and Hepburn well enough to "respect each other's boundaries", made evident by the actress's extremely close association and overall involvement in the private lives of the King and Queen's family.
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While posing as a British-American actor under the alias of Robert Clarke, he was first introduced to the then newly debuted actress, Lauren Bacall whom prior to their eventual relationship, had starred together with the prince in several films of considerable success, some of which were directed by Charles himself under his pseudonym. The two's off-screen relationship, which was said to had evolved from an initially professional mentorlike relationship to a romantic one over time, gradually amassed some attention from the American media at the time. Then, just prior to his deployment for the Pacific War, Bacall, alongside her own mother, moved in together with the prince at the latter's estate in Albany, New York, which had been acquired years prior by Charles and his entourage. To that end, while the prince was deployed to Australia, the two generally remained in contact with one another using telephones and other forms of communication.
On April 17th 1945, Charles personally telegraphed his father, King Edward VII for the latter's permission to marry Bacall, in which he wrote, "For Ingrid is my beloved sister, and Lauren is my dearest wife". While both the King and Queen chose not to oppose their son's decision out of fear of upsetting the latter, prospects of the prince's marriage with an American commoner however became the subject of a heated debate among Parliament members, with some arguing that such a marriage would be "wholly unacceptable to the British public", then compounded by anti-British riots led by Zionist militias in Mandatory Palestine. Regardless, since moving in together a few years prior, the couple made their first formal public appearance together at a state dinner on May 8th that year, hosted by the then newly inaugurated President Harry S. Truman as part of the Victory in Europe Day celebrations.
Just over a month later, a private emissary was sent to New York by the British Foreign Secretary in order to convince the couple to abandon any pretext of a marriage, while citing "irreconcilable differences" as a cover-up for their separation. However, neither side were able to reach a common agreement, with Charles himself adamantly refusing to give up his romantic interest and to concede to the proposed alternatives. In an immediate follow-up to the meeting, over the course of around two months long, Charles and Bacall then promptly embarked on an international trip to the four Dominion countries, namely Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where the approval of their respective Prime Ministers' were fundamental in securing legitimacy for Charles's proposed marriage. Ultimately, all four of the Prime Ministers that the royal couple personally sought for agreed to support their marriage, with the New Zealand Prime Minister, Peter Fraser being the last to do so due to his country being the most distant from the United Kingdom.
Following Churchill's electoral defeat in July 1945, the succeeding Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, promptly declared his support for the marriage, having argued that Bacall's lack of status as a divorcee and the general lack of any compromising details of her public life would present no conflict with the Church's teachings, although he admitted that the latter's Jewish belief was "politically compromising". At one point, rumours of Bacall allegedly serving as a spy for Zionist militant groups in Mandatory Palestine, then followed by anonymous claims regarding her alleged infidelity during Charles's absence for the war briefly circulated among both the British public and government, though these were promptly rebuked by Charles himself before being subsequently discredited by government officials. Among his most notable critics was his then incarcerated uncle, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, an ardent Nazi whom reportedly lambasted the Prince of Wales in an interview for "eloping with an Untermensch (subhuman)", alluding to his wife's Jewish faith, while notorious BUF leader, Oswald Mosley labelled the prince as a "traitor to the pure Britannic race". Later on, a private meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the following month at the Isle of Man secured the Church's ultimate approval of the union, which soon led to an engagement on September 25th. Following this, the couple was advised to wait for at least a year to make way for preparations surrounding the wedding ceremony.
During the months leading up to their marriage, by King Edward VII's advice, the couple embarked on a series of international tours meant to better their image among both the British and global populace. Beginning with a state visit to Turkey where the couple briefly discussed with Turkish President İsmet İnönü regarding the Soviet threat, the couple then furthered their tour to the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq before going further south to Saudi Arabia, where they were hosted by the Saudi King Abdulaziz, better known as Ibn Saud. Approximately a week later, the couple departed from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a five months long tour comprising Australia, New Zealand, and the Oceanian island countries, where they generally enjoyed immense popularity among the locals, particularly in Tonga where the couple struck a cordial friendship with the Tongan ruler, Queen Sālote Tupou III. Before returning back to the United States, the couple briefly met Charles's parents at Buckingham Palace, although the meeting itself was initially discouraged but later heavily guarded due to public disaffection against the Princess of Wales in particular. In a follow-up to the tense meeting, the couple also paid an unscheduled visit to Denmark, which was done so by Charles's own insistence in surprising his longtime adopted sister, Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark.
On March 1946, the two were married in a private Anglican ceremony in Bacall's native home state of New York. The ceremony, which was held at Oheka Castle in Long Island, saw the attendance of members of the United States government led by President Truman, alongside members of foreign royalties, including the British royal family, led by Queen Louise, Charles's own mother. The then incumbent Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, whom had been unable to attend the event was instead represented by Ernest Bevin, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whom attended the event alongside some of Attlee's cabinet members. The newlywed couple was then treated to a statewide tour, in which they were joined by President Truman and the First Lady. Upon concluding a follow-up state dinner at the White House, the royal couple was initially coerced into returning back to Britain as to accustom themselves, particularly that of Bacall's to their future life in the country. Despite this, the couple chose to remain at their New York residence until the month of August 1950, though this was mixed in with periodical visits to the United Kingdom.
For their honeymoon tour, the couple embarked on a notably four months long visit to the island countries of Seychelles and Tonga, which were reportedly preferred due to their remote nature and beautiful scenery. Beginning with a flight from New York, the couple momentarily stopped in Egypt before proceeding further south to South Africa, where from there, Charles and Bacall arrived in Seychelles via a ship, where they were subsequently received by the then Governor of Seychelles, Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke. After about a two months long stay, the couple returned back to South Africa before proceeding further east to a stop in India, then Singapore, and subsequently Australia and New Zealand, from which the couple departed for Tonga. While residing in the island country for approximately two months long, similar to that of the length of their stay in Seychelles, the royal couple engaged in a multitude of activities alongside the Tongan community, whilst being mostly unguarded by their accompanying entourage. Subsequently, their general openness and closeness with the local Tongan further reinforced their solid popularity among the local people, that had arisen from their visit to the country just a year prior. Later on, following their return to the United States, the couple embarked on a private yacht cruise alongside their closest friends, namely with the likes of Frank Sinatra, his then wife, Nancy Barbato, Katharine Hepburn, Charles's cousin, Prince Charles and his alleged mistress at the time (and later wife), the actress, Hedy Lamarr.
Despite their newfound status as a royal couple, both Charles and Bacall were able to generally balance their state responsibilities alongside those of their previous acting career, with the couple undertaking occasional state visits on behalf of the United Kingdom, whilst also furthering their respective acting careers in several more moderately successful films before their final retirement, sometime in late 1950, which coincided with their return to the United Kingdom.
Personal Information
Titles & Honours
- 15 January 1917 - 5 January 1923 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Cambridge and Prussia
- 5 January 1923 - 20 January 1923 His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall
- 20 January 1923 - 7 July 1951 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
- 7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997 His Majesty The King of the British
- 15 January 1997 - 3 March 2011 His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom
Honours
National & Commonwealth
Foreign
Military Appointments
United Kingdom
13 February 1935 - 30 January 1936: Officer Cadet, British Army
30 January 1936 - 11 November 1936: Second Lieutenant, British Army
11 November 1936 - 5 March 1937: Lieutenant, British Army
5 March 1937 - 11 December 1937 : Major, British Army
11 December 1937 - 22 January 1940: Colonel, British Army
22 January 1940 - 17 May 1944: Brigadier, British Army
17 May 1944 - 16 March 1947: Lieutenant General, British Army
16 March 1947 - 7 July 1951: Field Marshal, British Army
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces
15 January 1997 - 3 March 2011: Field Marshal, British Army
5 March 1936 - 11 December 1936: Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy
11 December 1936 - 2 January 1938: Captain, Royal Navy
2 January 1938 - 13 July 1943: Commodore, Royal Navy
13 July 1943 - 16 March 1947: Commodore, Royal Navy
16 March 1947 - 7 July 1951: Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Lord High Admiral, Royal Navy
15 January 1997 - 3 March 2011: Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
20 November 1936 - 3 March 1937: Flying lieutenant, Royal Air Force
3 March 1937 - 30 October 1937: Squadron leader, Royal Air Force
30 October 1937 - 5 April 1938: Wing commander, Royal Air Force
5 April 1938 - 17 May 1944: Group captain, Royal Air Force
17 May 1944 - 15 March 1947: Air commodore, Royal Air Force
15 March 1947 - 7 July 1951: Air Marshal, Royal Air Force
7 July 1951 - 3 March 2011: Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Canada
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Army
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Navy
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Air Force
Australia
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Army
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Navy
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force
New Zealand
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy
7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Air Force
United States
22 March 1941 - 4 March 1942: Officer Cadet, United States Air Force
4 March 1942 - 11 December 1942: Second Lieutenant, United States Air Force
11 December 1942 - 4 March 1943: Captain, United States Air Force
4 March 1943 - 15 March 1946: Colonel, United States Air Force
15 March 1946 - 7 July 1951:
Brigadier General, United States Air Force
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Charles III of the United Kingdom |
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