Charles the Great
| Charles III | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King of the British and of the People of his other Realms
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coronation | 20 September 1951 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Frederick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Thomas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Ministers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| King of the Dutch Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 7 July 1951 - 15 January 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inauguration | 1 January 1952 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Frederick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Thomas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Prince Charles of Cambridge, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Prussia 15 January 1917 Haga Palace, Stockholm, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 2 March 2011 (aged 94) Buckingham Palace, London | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | 5 March 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Lauren Bacall (m. 1946) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Issue Detail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| House | Amsterdam-Windsor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | Frederick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mother | Victoria Louise of Prussia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Protestant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 (English: Charles Frederick William Louis; German: Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig; Dutch: Karel Frederik Willem Lodewijk; 15 January 1917 - 2 March 2011), better known as Charles the Great, was King of the British as Charles III, and King of the Dutch and Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers as Charles I from 7 July 1951 to 15 January 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 for his own personal opposition against what he termed as "both the First and Second worlds' imperialism", marked by his lifelong advocacy for the United Kingdom to be more politically aligned with its former colonies, a majority of which are considered to be Third World countries. However, following the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, Charles was said to have otherwise adopted a more pan-European outlook, as evidenced by the instances of his often subtle support for the European Union, a political and economic union which to date, consists of approximately 27 nations, including the United Kingdom itself, as well as the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
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 as well as that of the Netherlands and Luxembourg's political and social climate, all of which were either personally directed or orchestrated by Charles or his wife, with his most major success being the implementation of absolute primogeniture succession system within the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and within Luxembourg. Prior to ascending to the throne, during the 1940s, Charles established a modestly successful career as an actor in Hollywood, earning a total of three Best Actor awards, before later enlisting in the United States Army Air Force for the Pacific War, for which he was awarded several military honours, along with being the first and only British, Dutch, and Luxembourgish royal to date to ever receive a high-ranking officer rank in the United States Armed Forces, namely the rank of Brigadier General.
A prolific tennis player during his princely years, Charles competed several times in the Wimbledon championships, mostly alongside his adoptive sister, Princess Ingrid of Sweden (later Queen Ingrid of Denmark), with whom he won the championships several times in the year 1934, 1936, 1946, and lastly, in 1947.
On 15 January 1997, following celebrations marking his 80th birthday, Charles formally abdicated the throne in favour of his son, Thomas on the grounds of "ill health" and "personal issues", thereby becoming the second British monarch to do so after Queen Victoria in 1837. Afterwards, following his death on March 2011, he was posthumously given the epithet the Great, in recognition of his personal contributions to the country.
At the time of his death, aged 94 years old, Charles is the longest-lived British, Dutch, and Luxembourgish monarch (his wife is otherwise the longest-lived British royal consort at 89 years old), 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.
As one of the majority shareholders of Atlantic Connection, Charles is estimated to be worth around $19.7 billion, making him one of the richest monarchs in the world.
Early Life
Charles was born on January 15th 1917 to Edward, Prince of Wales and Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, the daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire. A member of the ruling House of Hanover, he was also closely related to the House of Hohenzollern as well due to his mother's standing as the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, along with his own paternal grandmother, Queen Sophia being the Kaiser's sister herself. However, with the German Empire itself effectively dissolved in the following year, and as a consequence of the passing of the Royal Titles Revocation Act 1924 in the years following the end of 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 own father as to placate British nationalists in the country, whom had been critical of the royal family's heavily Germanised background.
Following his birth on January 15th, it was said that prior to being given his actual given name, there were other serious alternatives considered as well at the time, with the names George and Edward being the most popular alternatives. Ultimately, for reasons that were ultimately kept secret at the time, the young prince and second in line to the throne would then be given the name Charles instead. However, this decision was almost immediately met with opposition from several members of the royal family, whom were reportedly against having a "Charles the Third" on the throne, as some of them believed that much like the reigns of the two previous kings named Charles, the reign of a third monarch named Charles as well would be of "inevitable disaster" due to the negativity surrounding the name's previous holders, though this concern was promptly dismissed by Charles's father, the then Prince of Wales, whom instead fully supported the choice of the given name for his eldest child and eventual successor. At the same time, his middle names and surname turned out to be that of his mother's Prussian ancestors instead, namely the German Emperors Frederick III and Wilhelm I. In rationalising these decisions, Victoria Louise herself later wrote in her memoir that her decision to name Charles partly after his Prussian ancestors was due to her own personal desire to ensure that the young Charles would be born "a prince of both the British and the Germans".
On January 5th 1913, around four years prior to his birth, Charles's parents, whom were then 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, where his parents had been residing in with the permission of the Swedish royal family. The events surrounding his birth, when relayed to the British wartime government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, initially aroused some controversies as the prince's birth had taken place within a foreign territory, prompting speculations regarding Charles's potential inability to succeed to the throne as the heir apparent to his father, then the 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 confirm Charles as a Swedish citizen, though he was instead given a British citizenship, thereby allowing him to naturally succeed to the throne in the near future.
For the first couple of years in Sweden, Charles and his family lived mostly 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, George IV and V, led him to be subsequently created Prince of Wales as heir apparent to his father, the new King Frederick. 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, as a result of public suspicion and hostilities, Charles's development as a young prince remained relatively undeterred, with Ingrid in particular being a major figure behind his childhood development. In addition to that, Charles also proved to be particularly adept in horseback riding, and was even considerably versed himself 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 as well 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 have 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 adoptive sister, Ingrid, the Swedish composer, Dieterich Buxtehude.
Between Two Crown Princes
From around October 1935 to April 1936, Charles was temporarily acquainted with the then Crown Prince Farouk of Egypt, whom had then departed from his home country for England in order to attend the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. However, in the initial days atleast, neither of the two crown princes were able to exactly meet one another on a frequent basis as Charles, whom in stark contrast to the Egyptian crown prince, took his military officer education seriously, and unlike the latter himself, was personally against paying visits to cathouses, which the prince reportedly referred to as "the underworld chambers of moral degeneracy". Nevertheless, despite the critical differences in their respective personalities in general, both Charles and Farouk would sometimes meet one another on multiple occasions, with the usual meeting spots being that of local restaurants around London or on several occasions, the prince's own family residence of Buckingham Palace. Reportedly, according to one source close to the two crown princes during that period, despite their differing personalities or so, the two seemingly shared mutual experiences of a "restrained childhood", with Farouk himself having had much of a privileged and sheltered upbringing back home in Egypt, while on the other hand, Charles, whom despite having grown up under roughly the same living atmosphere and circumstances himself, albeit a much less restricted one in that regard, otherwise particularly suffered from his own case of social isolation, as his family's German heritage had aroused considerable suspicion from his British-born contemporaries, thus preventing him from being socially connected in a much easier manner with his aristocratic peers.
Ultimately, despite the perceived cordial friendship existing between the two crown princes, the Prince of Wales himself was said to have looked upon his Egyptian counterpart in an overwhelmingly negative light, having once supposedly proclaimed, "The once great realm of Egypt is now cursed to be ruled by a slobby, measly, and underwhelming young king". In later years, Charles himself would also become more progressively bitter of the now King Farouk of Egypt, having often heard of the latter's widely publicised sexual promiscuity through his diplomats in the kingdom, with whom the prince once reportedly joked, "If he (Farouk) was to ever be feared by anyone at all, it would be the virgin women of Egypt whom would do so, and not his many enemies, for whom his vapidness and callousness would be their blessings". Eventually, Farouk himself would later be overthrown by the Egyptian military under revolutionaries, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Mohamed Naguib of the Free Officers Movement, in what later became known as the 23 July Revolution.
Military Career
Upon reaching the age of majority, Charles was promptly made a Counsellor of State by his father, King Frederick, thus granting him the ability to perform official royal functions by his own accord, and in support of his own father. At around the same time, much to the latter's disapproval, Charles then sought a career in the British Army, although, much to another surprise from the prince's own parents, the young Prince of Wales then reportedly found his officer training course at the Royal Military College to be "too formally rigid and dull", believing it to be an obstacle to another side activity of his, particularly his anti-Nazi speeches in Hanover, in which he would often verbally criticise and ridicule the neighbouring German Nazi government, often with much sensation. Even so, in the following year, Charles himself did eventually graduate from the military academy but nevertheless resisted any official commissioning abroad, preferring to remain within the United Kingdom itself, thereby allowing him to continously sustain his almost daily anti-Nazi campaigns in Hanover instead.
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, as he then did chose instead 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 itself before furthering his aviation training at the RAF's No. 1 Flying Training School in Shawbury, where he attended as a flight lieutenant. Subsequently, in almost daily reports sent by the training school administrator at that time to Charles's father, King Frederick, the prince was thoroughly noted, such as in one of the reports, for being "an almost naturally talented pilot with bright hopes for the future".
At the end of his training, presumably due to his own personal request, Charles was then 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, his main choice of aircraft for leisure flights by Charles himself and his later successors. As of recent, the plane itself has been generally well preserved and is still currently in use by various members of the royal family.
An East to West Tour
Malay Peninsula
Following his departure from the military, Charles undertook his first diplomatic tour abroad when in December 1935, he traveled first 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 preferred traveling abroad and was also a known friend of the British royal family himself. 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 under its then governor, Sir Shenton Thomas. In his memoirs, Charles would later repeatedly express much amazement and pride in the local scenery, whilst consistently referring to the island city itself as "the Venice of the East", in alluding to its geographical importance and the city state's harbour like nature. Afterwards, the prince went on to embark on a successive tour of Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo, where he met their respective rulers, while also habitually touring the local areas there too.
Hyderabad
Around a month after his visit to the Malay Peninsula, he subsequently undertook another diplomatic tour in his own capacity, this time to the princely state of Hyderabad. At the time, he had been initially cautioned against a diplomatic tour to the Indian subcontinent, for fear of inviting an assassination attempt by local nationalists, whom had then begun advocating for self-rule of the subcontinent itself. Nonetheless, the diplomatic tour was allowed to proceed, with the Marquess of Willingdon, whom was then the serving Governor-General of India, agreeing to provide a security force of approximately 1,000 British soldiers to guard the prince while he was in the subcontinent. Then, upon finally arriving in India, the prince was promptly allowed to meet the ruling Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, whom the prince was said to have quickly befriended upon first meeting the Indian prince. Soon afterwards, the two royals were said to have together embarked on a week long hunting trip around Hyderabad, during which they engaged in a friendly hunting match against one another, with the Nizam ultimately coming out victorious. At the same time, it was otherwise popularly rumoured that while in the midst of hunting down a tiger as part of the friendly competition, Charles was almost reportedly killed in an encounter with one particular tiger, which was said to have nearly "grabbed and clawed the prince by the neck", after the Prince of Wales missed his initial shot. Luckily, the tiger was ultimately killed just in time by one of the prince's entourage members. In the end, despite having gone through a near-death incident, Charles himself reportedly refused to immediately concede the match, even going so far as to refer to the incident as "a test of my own personal strength and resilience". Meanwhile, the Nizam himself, whom upon learning of the incident was said to have subsequently remarked, "I have never seen such a fearless and unrelenting English prince since they first came to this great land of ours".
United States of America
On September 1936, Charles was sent on a highly publicised trip to the United States, where he was hosted by then President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Charles greatly admired on a personal level, reportedly due to Roosevelt's non-interventionist approach in foreign issues, specifically towards the Latin American continent. At the same time, the prince, then accompanied by several members of the United States government proceeded to tour first the northeastern region of the United States, during which he reportedly first met actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom would later become a close associate of Charles herself, before moving on westwards, where he mostly toured the state of California, thereby allowing him to meet a number of other famous Hollywood figures at the time, including Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and others. Eventually, the overall success of his tour around the country, coupled with the generally warm reception he received while temporarily residing there, was said to have later been the driving forces behind his monumental decision to voluntarily exile himself to the United States just a couple of years after his first state visit to the country.
Charles III & Wilhelm II
Around a year after his visit to the United States, the prince then went on to court some amount of 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 pay a private visit to the residence of his maternal grandfather, the long deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II. Allegedly, despite the two men being rather closely related to one another by blood, neither Charles nor his own grandfather was 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 starkly differing conservative character, along with his own past record surrounding the First World War being points of contention for the prince himself. Then, sometime after the visit, he was noted of having proclaimed, "I am proud enough to be the descendant of someone as noble as my great-grandfather, the German Emperor, Frederick III, but not so much as the descendant of someone as wretched and despicable as my grandfather, the German Emperor, Wilhelm II". Furthermore, his apparent rejection of his Hohenzollern roots 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 German royal family to either his subsequent wedding or even to 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
As Charles began to mature significantly in terms of appearance, his apparent likeness to the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, earned him mixed receptions 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 late 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 the actual Tsar Nicholas II having supposedly escaped his fateful execution, although this was soon ultimately disproved by the agency itself.
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, whom shared a deep resentment for Germans in light of the First World War. Consequently, like his father, King Frederick, he would at times be referred to as Kaiser Charles, or alternatively, Tsar Charles as well 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 own memoirs, Charles reportedly summarised his childhood years by describing it as a "rather cold and gruesome period with only the dimmest lights of hope illuminating it as time went on", with the latter part supposedly alluding to his close relationship with his mother and adoptive sister. In regards to his own father, Charles himself also enjoyed a generally warm familial relationship, albeit less so due to the former's preoccupation with his royal duties, along with some notable differences in personal opinions between father and son. Nevertheless, the two mostly bonded over their somewhat common anti-war feelings, their mutual opposition against Nazism, and their shared apathy towards Germans living in the United Kingdom, particularly in German-majority Hanover.
The Fuhrer and the Prince of Wales
Like his own father, a then adolescent Charles was quick to become a general opponent of Nazism, an ideology founded and popularised by the Nazi Party operating in neighbouring Germany. Furthermore, Charles, having been a fervent admirer of his late maternal great-grandfather, Frederick III, German Emperor, also wholly identified himself with the latter's strong sympathy for the Jewish population in Europe, particularly in contemporary Nazi Germany, where they were severely persecuted on a daily basis by local authorities. Soon enough, his lifelong support and concurrent defence of the Jewish population generally came about in his various speeches criticising the widespread anti-Semitism at the time, along with his own record of having attended a large number of Jewish synagogues himself around the United Kingdom. However, perhaps his most notable effort in supporting the Jewish community soon came about when from around June 1936 to around March 1937, in using his inherited wealth and position as a royal prince, Charles, along with several other MI6 agents specifically hired by the prince himself, orchestrated a modestly successful covert operation, later named Operation F, in which the group reportedly facilitated the rescue of roughly hundreds of Jews living near the British-German border 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, as to avoid suspicion from local security forces.
Meanwhile, in regards to the local security forces, it was believed that the group also employed a "non-confrontational policy", as they believed that a much directly confrontational approach would have attracted unwanted attention from the Nazi authorities, thereby easily providing a justification for war by Hitler, although according to one agent involved in the operation, the prince himself strictly ordered the agents involved to immediately murder any German soldiers or security personnel encountered by either member of the group, as to prevent a leak of their activities in the country to the Nazi government. Eventually, just several decades later, surviving written records and available oral recollections surrounding the operation itself would later be compiled to form the storyline of the largely successful 2017 movie, Operation H, which despite being wholly praised by a majority of critics for its historical accuracy, was otherwise also partly criticised by a few as well, particularly for its depictions of "extrajudicial killings", with the majority depicting Charles himself personally executing a number of German police officers of the Nazi regime.
.jpg)
At the same time, in contrast to his father, whom was slightly more reserved in his opposition, Charles, upon reaching the age of eighteen, was said to had frequently traveled back and forth between the German-majority Hanover and mainland United Kingdom, wherein the largely German-populated Hanover, he would then make fiery speeches condemning Nazism while also emphasising the need for unity between the largely German kingdom with the rest of the United Kingdom itself. To that end, Charles's speeches were generally well-received by the German public there, 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, as evidenced by a personal letter written by Chamberlain to Charles's father, the King, in which he wrote, "The only thing that I do understandably fear of from the Prince of Wales's words is that we might be fighting in an unnecessarily aggravated war that might be too soon to be in our favour". Furthermore, other skeptics of his rampant anti-Nazi speeches, were in turn mostly concerned about the prince's security, as the latter's events in which his speeches were often held at, by the prince's own request, would often have a minimum amount of security, along with an unrestricted limit on attendance, thereby allowing potential Nazi-hired agents to assassinate the British royal during one of his speeches. Nevertheless, the security concerns were almost immediately addressed with the enforcement of metallic barriers separating the prince himself from the crowd by a few feet apart, along with the requirement for attendees to sit upon their arrival, which would have made it much easier for a handgun to be seen among the crowd since it would have to be raised above head level by a would-be assassin for an effective attempt on the prince's life.
As a consequence, the prince subsequently became a rumoured high-profile target of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence unit of the Nazi Party, although it was unclear regarding the Abwehr's supposed 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 said to have 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 ultimately came about, with one popular theory suggesting that Hitler wanted to avoid forfeiting any potential bargaining with the Western powers in the near future by having the prince outright assassinated, an act that would have been quickly tied back to the Nazis themselves. Thus, Charles's speeches were never officially met with any serious reprisal by the Nazis, whom instead took to countering the prince's verbal attacks by issuing their own series of verbal attacks against the prince himself through speeches made by either Hitler himself or by various other leading Nazi figures.
On March 13th 1938, just a day after the largely peaceful and non-confrontational German annexation of Austria, Charles famously declared in one of his speeches at the time, "Hanover is, and will forever be an important part of the United Kingdom since the days of the German-born George the First and his descendants. The National Socialists, whom 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 of these people are undeniably extreme and malicious radicals only bringing harm upon 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 as well, 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, although he would soon enough reinvite said agents, along with enlisting the help of the Russian-born Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, with whom he would regularly interact in the Russian language.
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 accession 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 together 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 more 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 this time he narrowly won the runner up spot once more against his German rival, Gottfried von Cramm, having afterwards lost against fellow British tennis player, Fred Perry for the champion spot instead. In 1936, the two reunited once more to successfully win that year's championships once more.
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 have been caused by his past relationship with Jessica Mitford, a British noblewoman whom, despite her status, later became a devout communist herself. At the same time, Charles's apparent embracement of socialism and other left-wing ideologies alike proved to be somewhat of a sore spot for his own father, whom despite his own supposedly liberal character, was mostly averse to left-wing ideologies himself, having perceived the ideology of socialism in particular as being a fundamentally anti-monarchist and a republican-leaning ideology.
Nevertheless, it was later believed that the prince's frequent enduring of racial prejudice during his childhood may have contributed to his drift towards left-wing ideologies, namely the likes of socialism and liberalism in general. 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 supposed socialist, although in his later memoirs, Charles would frequently assert in being more of a liberal rather than of a socialist himself. At the same time, in pointing towards his own apparent propensity for British citizens of German descent in general, particularly from his early years and so forth, Charles has also been rumoured to have actually been a German nationalist, although this allegation would never be properly addressed by the King himself, whom in one instance reportedly objected against being referred to as a "nationalist of any kind or sort", claiming that being a nationalist instead would "require one's utter devotion to the cause of a particular group while withholding any sort of criticism for it regardless of its own credibility".
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 reportedly looked upon most favourably himself), his own Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and Vietnamese guerilla leader, Ho Chi Minh, whom the prince was said to have exchanged letters with as a way to overcome their respective inabilities to ever meet the other in person.
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 Woodring.
At the same time, out of fear of inviting potential Nazi-hired assassins in the country intending to assassinate Charles himself, whom was known for his ardent anti-Nazism, then President Roosevelt opted to provide the prince an entirely new identity of his own while he opted to live incognito in the country for some time. As a result, by Charles's own behest, he was then given the name Robert Clarke by the American government, while in order to attract less attention from the general American public, Charles himself had his own beard shaved off, thus making it less easy for him to be recognised in public due to his much similar looks to the late Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Soon afterwards, he opted to take up acting as a means of making additional money for himself, and as to not solely depend on his inherited wealth only. 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, although this soon changed when Charles decided to adopt a Mid-Atlantic accent instead, which was the dominant form of accent among the Hollywood actors and actresses of the time.
Hollywood Career
Soon afterwards, his acting career would begin in that same year, when he was personally given the lead role of C.K. Dexter Haven for the romantic comedy film, The Philadelphia Story, with actress, Katharine Hepburn as his leading lady in the film. It was said that the choice of casting the prince for the aforementioned role was initially met with some skepticism by Hepburn's associates, whom were wary of the prince's acting capabilities, due to him being a newcomer in the Hollywood film industry at the time. However, the film's overall success, with a total gross of $3.3 million ultimately stunned the prince's many skeptics, most of whom later praised the prince's acting in the film, while also partially atrributing it to Charles's own personal chemistry with Hepburn. Soon enough, at the 13th Academy Awards ceremony, Charles went on to win the award of Best Actor for his role as C.K. Dexter under his assumed pseudonym, Robert Clarke, making him the youngest actor to win in that particular category. The following year, he starred in the comedy-drama romantic film, The Lady In Question alongside actress, Rita Hayworth, which was otherwise a modest success. This was followed by a couple of also modestly successful films that year, The Truth That Lies Beneath and For Eternity.
The following year, he took on the role of Bill Smith in the romantic comedy film, Come Live With Me, which paired him with actress, Hedy Lamarr. A modest success, the film led to the prince being nominated for Best Actor, which he ultimately lost to Gary Cooper, whom won the award for his role of Alvin York in the 1941 biographical film, Sergeant York. Then, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour later that December, Charles's acting career was briefly put on hold, as he opted to enlist in the United States Army Air Force, for which he was sent abroad to Australia.
Following his return to the United States in 1944, Charles's acting career was soon rejuvenated, as he was chosen for the role of Arthur Milles in the 1944 film noir, Robert & Jane, starring himself and the upcoming actress, Lauren Bacall. The film itself proved to be a huge success, leading both Charles and Bacall to win their respective Best Actor and Best Actress awards for their respective roles in the film. This was soon followed by another film noir project that year, The Lost Airman, once more starring both Charles and Bacall in the leading roles. Soon enough, his established partnership with Bacall quickly became a topic of media sensation, while also becoming the basis for several more films in the following years which exclusively starred the couple in the leading roles. In the midst of this, Charles would go on to win another Best Actor award for himself, particularly for the role of King William VI and III in the 1947 biographical film, The Soldier King, which was based on the life of his great-grandfather, the celebrated King William VI and III, while on Bacall's part, she otherwise went on to win three more Best Actress awards for herself, which she did so for her role in The Soldier King and Key Largo respectively. She would eventually win her third and final Best Actress award for her role in the film, How to Marry a Millionaire, which was her last acting credit and one of the few films she starred in after ascending to the throne as queen consort to her husband on July 1951.
However, a few decades later, despite having already retired from the acting industry, Charles would return once more and for the only time since his retirement when in 1986, British film director and producer, Tom Scott, then reportedly asked the British monarch to appear in a cameo role for the action film he directed, Top Gun (starring actor, Tom Cruise in the lead role), a decision that was most likely influenced by Charles having previously served in the United States Air Force during the Second World War. Ultimately, Charles himself went on to accept the director's offer, as he later appeared in the film in a brief cameo capacity as Brigadier general Robert Clarke, with the name of his character in the film being deliberately taken from the pseudonym Charles himself had adopted in the past while living in the United States, while the decision to have his character a brigadier general was simply down to the fact that it was the rank that the British royal had attained prior to his retirement from the United States Air Force. Meanwhile, despite the film's commercial success, Charles himself was said to have personally refused to be awarded any payment for his appearance in the film, stating that his decision in the film was "not to get paid in any way, but rather to just have some good old acting fun".
Second World War: The Pacific
The Death of a Prince
On May 24th 1941, at around midnight, while residing at the family home 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 Frederick. 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 also 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 inherent difficulties at the time, Charles was nevertheless able to remain in contact with his parents, the King and Queen back home in London as well.
In the following year, upon learning of the British capitulation at the hands of victorious imperial Japanese forces at the Battle of Singapore, Charles was said to have sharply criticised the British commander for the campaign, Lieutenant-General Arthur Pervical, whom the prince reportedly derided for "awarding Britannia her worst humiliation in history". At the same time, he also came to resent then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, whom in addition to his apparent failures surrounding his appeasement strategy, was particularly blamed by Charles himself for being the supposed cause of his late brother's death.
USAAF Service
Eventually, around March 1942, despite having initially abstained from ever enlisting for the Second World War himself, Charles eventually opted to enlist as an officer in the United States Army Air Force, a decision primarily motivated by his own personal desire to honour his late brother's memory, and by the basis of himself having had prior flight experience of his own too. However, his enlistment into the military was done so under his assumed alias, as both the prince and the United States government sought to avoid the knowledge of such an important royal being directly in the frontlines from ever being leaked to either the German or Japanese intelligence agencies, lest risking an assassination attempt on his life.
To that end, 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 himself, and was instead, albeit after a much bitter compromise, relegated to a defensive post in northern Australia, where he partook in the defence of Australia alongside fellow Allied servicemen against Japanese air raids. Additionally, while stationed in Australia, he mostly piloted a Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, through which he partook extensively in his squadron's mandated reconnaissance activities around the area of the Southwest Pacific, where they photographed enemy logistics and bases. It was also during this period that he was able to amass a confirmed total amount of five downed Japanese fighter aircraft, with each one of them having been first intercepted during patrols before being subsequently shot down by Charles himself, thus earning him three Air Medal awards in total, alongside several other decorations too. At the same time, in addition to his wartime duties there, Charles would also secretly meet with members of both the Australian and New Zealand governments to discuss matters which were mainly of national importance relating to the Japanese incursion.
Around February 1944, before being ultimately recalled back to the United States, Charles was promoted by his superiors to the rank of Colonel for his wartime efforts, while at the same time, receiving a conccurent promotion to the ranks of Lieutenant General (from the previously held rank of Brigadier), Vice-admiral, and the rank of Air marshal in the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force respectively. Later on, not long after his marriage to actress, Lauren Bacall concluded, he was last promoted to Brigadier General by then-President Harry Truman himself, thereby making him the only British royal to achieve such a distinction in the United States military. Then, on the day of his ascension to the throne, Charles ultimately retired from the United States Army Air Force. At the same time, Charles's former squadron, the 6th Air Intelligence Squadron, prior to its ultimate inactivity in 1993, was given the official nickname, Prince of Wales Intelligence Squadron in the prince's own honour.
War's End
.jpg)
Despite returning back to safety in the United States, the prince proved rather consistent in his wartime activities, which would continue well into the remaining months of the war. Evidently, in addition to the usual public addresses through radios and the like, the prince himself also took to began visiting war-torn areas on his own accord, beginning with an October 1944 visit to the Kingdom of Egypt, where he was reunited with and soon engaged in a series of private discussions with its monarch, King Farouk. Soon afterwards, following the arrest of approximately three members of the right-wing Zionist militant group, Lehi by the Cairo police force, Charles, whom was rumoured to have been the target of an assassination plot by the group was soon compelled to leave Egypt in the near vicinity, which he did so by instead moving northwards to the island of Sicily, which had been liberated a year prior to the prince's spontaneous visit to the island by an Allied invasion. Then, while temporarily residing on the island, the prince went on an active spree of touring the island's ruined towns and cities himself, along with reportedly holding several closed-door meetings with a number of prominent Sicilian Mafia leaders. However, according to at least one previously classified report, the prince himself was said to have generally rebuked or at the very least, refrained from being close associates with the Sicilian mobsters due to their criminal activities, while on the other hand, he was said to have nevertheless thanked the Sicilian Mafia leaders for their contribution to the overwhelmingly successful Allied invasion of the island.
Then, for the next few years or so leading up to his eventual departure back for the United Kingdom in 1950, Charles, following the end of the Second World War in 1945, subsequently opted to mostly concentrate on his modestly successful acting career in the Hollywood industry, which he had initially put on hold following his deployment abroad. In the midst of this, for the 1948 election, despite his openly warm feelings towards the Democratic Party, which had been in power for almost a decade under the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, coupled with his own wife's strong personal alignment with the Democratic Party, Charles nonetheless opted to publicly campaign for the Republican nominee, Thomas E. Dewey, whom from 1943, had been the Governor of New York.
Then, in a speech he gave at one of Dewey's campaign rallies in New York, he proclaimed, "While I would always thank and remember President Truman's kind gesture of attending my wedding a few years ago, I nonetheless feel that it is only right that a man of the law and of the fight against corruption like Mr. Dewey should be the new president to lead this great American nation forward, with a firm and proper mandate by the American public". Ultimately, Dewey himself would go on to lose the election against the Democratic incumbent, whom otherwise prevailed with 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189 electoral votes gained. Meanwhile, the Dixiecrat nominee, Senator Strom Thurmond carried a total of four states, which amounted to a total of 39 electoral votes. Furthermore, despite his perceived rebuke of Truman by his decision to publicly campaign for his Republican opponent, the two men would go on to enjoy a rather amicable friendship, which later became more pronounced upon Charles's ascension to the throne in 1951, just two years before Truman's term ultimately ended, with the latter having refused to seek a second term as President.
Around the year 1949, while publicly expressing his support for a united West German government, Charles was otherwise said to have openly fought against proposals to incorporate the British constituent country of Hanover into the new West German state itself, having once reportedly told then-Prime Minister Clement Attlee, "Hanover shall never be administered or even ceded over to a country that is either fully or even partly run by war criminals whom were lucky enough to have been spared from the much damning trials they deserved". Later on, not long after becoming King himself in 1951, Charles, whom in a bid to supposedly quell any significant demands by the West German government wishing to incorporate Hanover as well into their own respective country, famously had the constituent country's then administrative leader or minister-president, Stephen Herschlag hold a rather infamous referendum deciding on Hanover's future, with the options either being to remain with the United Kingdom or to join the new West Germany instead. In the end, presumably due to his own high personal standing among the local German populace there, the referendum itself ultimately resulted in an effective supermajority vote in favour of continuing its union with the United Kingdom, a result that was seen by Charles himself in particular as a personal victory for himself against the neighbouring West German government, which otherwise saw the result of the referendum as being the absolute end to their initial efforts in attempting to form a "geographically complete" West Germany by incorporating Hanover as well into the country.
Reign
Despite his return to the United Kingdom around early 1950, it was at first deemed unlikely for Charles to succeed his father in the near vicinity. However, at times, Charles would occasionally serve as a stand-in for the latter at public events. Then, following a hunting incident which, despite only leaving the King with only minor and non-worrisome injuries but ultimately forcing the King to a temporary withdrawal from his duties, Charles himself thus consequently began to take up his role as Prince of Wales in a more frequent manner, as he proceeded to notably spearheaded efforts in further strengthening the Commonwealth of Nations organisation through a number of visits to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean states including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and The Bahamas respectively. In particular, 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 was said to have particularly admired and sympathised with.
On the afternoon of July 7th 1951, when King Frederick 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, along with Charles's mother-in-law, Natalie Bacall. During the journey back home, the newly proclaimed King was promptly asked by his private secretary, Lord Davies, regarding his personal choice of his regnal name as monarch. Almost immediately, Charles promptly declared that he would be using his own given name, thereby becoming Charles the Third. When this was then subsequently relayed to the government by Lord Davies himself, it incurred a sizable degree of controversy, primarily due to the name's negative associations with its two previous respective holders, with Charles I being infamously remembered for his involvement in the English Civil War and for his subsequent execution, while his eldest son and immediate successor, Charles II was known for his blatantly hedonistic court. Soon after the revelation came about, the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee was said to have initially sent a counter reply to the new king, advising the latter to adopt one of his own middle names instead, with the name William being the most preferred choice, as he would be openly honouring his revered late great-grandfather, William VI and III.
In response to the government's apparent objection against his choice of a regnal name, within just a quarter of an hour following his arrival at Buckingham Palace, Charles then went on to declare in a televised speech from his own royal residence, 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. In particular, prior to the coronation itself, upon having discovered 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 like his predecessors, traditionally holds the title of Earl Marshal as well, into whitelisting Bacall's mother instead. Ultimately, the older Bacall did attend the coronation ceremony, during which she was mostly accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Clarence and Avondale. She was later granted her own apartment in Buckingham Palace, where she primarily resided until her own death in October 1972 and was also made a marchioness by Charles himself just after his ascension to the throne. Later on, following the death of his mother-in-law, the King 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. Later on, both Charles and Bacall themselves were also buried alongside the older Bacall in Westminster Abbey upon their own 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 VI and III, whom had first visited the peninsula in the year 1875. During his visit to the peninsula, Charles successively met all nine of the Malay rulers, or sultans as they were titled, with the ruler of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim reputedly being his closest acquaintance among the other Malay rulers, with the apparent friendship itself seemingly mirroring Sultan Ibrahim's own father's friendship with Charles's great-grandfather, William VI and III. Subsequently, he was also received as an honorary guest by the then-Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III, whom had recently succeeded to the Bruneian throne just a couple of years earlier.
Following his generally successful state visits to both Malaya and Brunei, it was then believed that Charles, whom after having initially harboured some desire on also touring the neighbouring Crown Colony of Sarawak, went on to ultimately decide against holding such a visit himself, a decision reportedly influenced by the assassination of the Crown Colony's previous governor, Duncan Stewart, whom on December 1949 was assassinated by a local named Rosli Dhobi, a member of Rukun 13, a Sarawakian organisation believed to had been agitating for the unification of Sarawak with neighbouring Indonesia, as opposed to being a crown colony under the United Kingdom, which was to replace the previous administration of the White Rajahs.
An Egyptian 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 have 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, following an initially lukewarm reception 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 to be 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, "Such a vile man like himself deserves no rights to our sympathy and mourning".
On October 29th 1956, in response to the seizure of the strategically important Suez Canal by Egyptian forces under the direction of then President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, a tripartite invasion consisting of the United Kingdom, along with both France and Israel was hatched in response, whereby the three-nation alliance would seek to overthrow the much popular Egyptian leader entirely, albeit by doing so under the pretext of restoring order in the surrounding region there. However, in just a few days after the invasion itself began, the tripartite alliance was soon met with almost universal condemnation by the international community, which subsequently led to a joint Anglo-French withdrawal from Egypt, thus handing the much revered Nasser a victory in the overall conflict, while-then British Prime Ministe Anthony Eden was otherwise forced to resign from his position.
Later on, it was eventually revealed that despite having given his own official approval for the United Kingdom's participation in the much ill-fated invasion, Charles himself was said to have otherwise personally been a "staunch opponent" to the invasion itself, having seemingly preferred a more diplomatic approach instead with the Egyptian nationalist leader. On one instance, he was quoted as having said, "There should be no justification as to why we ourselves have never tried appeasing someone, whom irrespective of where he might be at any given moment could be quite easily defeated on the battlefield, had we chose to do so ourselves".
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 future 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 Frederick, 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
.jpg)
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 the actresses, Hedy Lamarr and Grace Kelly, both of whom had been married into European royalty themselves. However, Charles was also known for his 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 own wedding before being subsequently invited to perform both publicly and privately in London by Charles's own behest on several occasions. Furthermore, the two were said to have frequented various private resorts in the company of their respective wives, while also particularly enjoying a game of golf at almost every opportunity (much to the annoyance of their respective wives), with Charles's wife, Lauren Bacall later remarking, "If either Charlie or Frankie ever disagreed with one another, a nice game of golf was the surefire way to deal with it". Moreover, upon the birth of Charles's firstborn son, the later King Thomas in December 1953, Charles himself personally included Sinatra's own first name and middle name in the naming of his firstborn son. Moreover, amidst Sinatra's decision to support the Republican governor of California, Ronald Reagan (whom Charles, being a strongly liberal person, greatly disliked) in the 1980 presidential election, the two men continued to remain mutual friends up until Sinatra's passing in May 1998. Around three years prior, for the wedding of Charles's oldest son, Thomas to the American supermodel, Christy Turlington, Sinatra's popular hit song, My Way was among the few select songs played at the event, which the singer himself also attended despite recurring health issues at the time which preceded his eventual passing just several years later.
Among other names included actors Marlon Brando, Orson Welles, legendary singer, Elvis Presley, and actresses Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and the famed Marilyn Monroe, with whom Charles was briefly associated through their mutual acquaintances and whom the prince was also rumoured to have been romantically involved with up until the actress's untimely death on August 1962. In an interview held sometime after his passing in March 2011, his then surviving widow, Queen Lauren, whom in addressing the rumours of Charles's alleged infidelity with various Hollywood actresses of his time, notably said, "Charlie is a man of many women, but only a husband and a lover of one", while actress, Katharine Houghton, whom is the niece of the legendary actress, Katharine Hepburn, and whom later became Charles's own daughter-in-law herself, also criticised the rumours, which she referred to as "shameful attempts by the sensationalist media desperate to dig out sensationalist stories and rumours from a much-respected family man in his own right". Additionally, his eldest son and successor, the later King Thomas also spoke rather negatively against the rumours himself, having said, "While he was never certainly in favour of a priestly man being a father of his own family, he is neither in favour of a womanising man becoming a father of his own family as well".
Aside from that, his personal enmity towards two foreign monarchs in particular, namely Farouk of Egypt and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, both of whom were themselves the last monarch of their own dynasties to rule over their respective nations, was also well known and documented, with notable instances being his infamous expulsion of the deposed King Farouk from his residence of Buckingham Palace, and his tour of Iran back in the 1940s, during which he was said to have privately quarreled with the Shah of Iran, whom Charles later admitted in an interview to have long disliked. Moreover, it was even said that in October 1971, the British monarch, whom upon being handed an RSVP put out by the Shah for the extravagant 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire event held in the ancient city of Persepolis, proceeded to "swiftly tear it apart", even going so far as to forbid himself and his own immediate family members from attending the event, which he later referred to in an interview as "a literal 20th-century copy of the Field of the Cloth of Gold", in a reference to the 16th-century summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. At the same time, the notable absence of the British royal family from the event, which stood in marked contrast to the presence of members from the other European royal families quickly proved to be a brief topic of controversy, with some observers interpreting the decision as the King personally snubbing the Shah of Iran, while an alternative interpretation instead likens his decision to not attend the event to that of actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom Charles himself was personally close to, and whom was known for having never attended an Academy Awards ceremony throughout her lifetime, with one particular exception. Nevertheless, just several years later, an article published by The New York Times just a few days after the Iranian Revolution which overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in favour of an Islamic theocracy, wrote that "the decision by His Majesty The King to not personally attend the event, along with his decision to force his own family members to do the same could well be a source of pride and triumph for the British people whom pride over this one of a kind King".
Despite his considerably warm relations with the Hollywood industry, Charles himself ironically shared a much more mixed and complicated relationship with the government of the United States, with Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and Republican Ronald Reagan respectively being Charles's supposed "closest political rivals", although on several occasions, he nevertheless praised both men for some of their respective presidential achievements, which includes Johnson's successful efforts in regards to the issue of civil rights in the United States, and Reagan's own success in ending the decades-long Cold War conflict. In addition to that, Charles himself also embarked on a number of state visits to the United States during his reign, with the first being a 1955 state visit to the country, during which he met then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Throughout the following decades, he went on to personally meet almost every single one of Eisenhower's subsequent successors as president, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and lastly, Bill Clinton.
Considered by many to have been a close friend of the Kennedy family, Charles is said to have first come into the family's inner circle during the brief presidency of John F. Kennedy, whom Charles had first met while the then-presidential nominee had paid a semi-official visit to the United Kingdom, as part of his campaign strategy in the 1960 United States presidential election. Following Kennedy's own infamous assassination just two years into his presidency, Charles himself became one of the earliest world leaders to express their condolences to both Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and his deputy-turned-successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, whose otherwise reportedly rocky relationship with the King was considerably noted at the time by those close to both men.
Nonetheless, for the 1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries, he was said to have personally favoured then-Massachusetts senator and younger brother of the late JFK, Ted Kennedy over the then incumbent President, Jimmy Carter, whom despite being largely praised later on by Charles for his largely peaceful approach to global issues, was nevertheless seen by the British monarch as "someone who is too pure and kind for national politics", in contrast to his opponent in the primaries, whom Charles once referred to as "the undisputed symbol of modern liberalism".
Throughout his lifetime, he personally attended the funerals of all three of the Kennedy brothers, with the first instance being John's in November 1963, followed by Robert's in June 1968, and lastly, that of Edward Kennedy's in August 2009.
The "Socialist" King
In just a couple of years into his reign, the death of Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, consequently led to a brief power struggle within the Soviet Union, culminating in the subsequent rise of Nikita Khrushchev, whom afterwards embarked on his notable campaign of de-Stalinization, a series of reforms meant to somewhat liberalise the Soviet Union to some extent, away from its previous Stalinist character. Thus, in response to these new developments, Charles had then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrange for a potential meeting between the British monarch himself and the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschev, whom subsequently accepted Churchill's proposal for a meeting between himself and the King of the British, hoping to frame it as a personal diplomatic victory for himself. However, the issue of determining an appropriate location for the said meeting quickly became a point of contention, as neither Churchill (in representing the King) nor Khruschev were willing to have such a historic meeting in the other's home country, for fear that either the British or Soviet government would be perceived by their respective media and the general public as "surrendering" or "capitulating" to the other. Furthermore, having such a meeting be held in Soviet territory would also be seen by some as legitimising claims surrounding the King's supposed pro-Soviet sympathies, which the British government was vigorously trying to shake off. Ultimately, after some deliberations, it was mutually agreed upon by both sides that the meeting would take place in Sweden, a Nordic country known for its traditional foreign policy brand of neutrality and non-alignment.
On December 1st 1953, Charles, whom was accompanied by his wife for the historic meeting, finally met the newly confirmed Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschev at the royal residence of Stockholm Palace, with Sweden's King Gustaf VI Adolf serving as the neutral host. The three men subsequently held a series of closed door tripartite meetings with one another, before attending an official state dinner, also hosted by the King of Sweden himself later that night. Then, throughout the following days or so, both Charles and Khruschev spent most of their respective time together touring several Swedish landmarks and tourist attractions, including the Stockholm Zoo. Soon enough, the apparent state of friendliness between the two leaders quickly invited both praise and criticism, with some accusing either the King or Khruschev of sympathising with the other's cause, while others heralded the moment as a potential step towards further de-escalation of tensions between the Western and Eastern blocs. Nonetheless, the meeting itself went on to conclude in a largely spotless manner after a total of five days, after which both Charles and Khruschev returned to their respective home countries.
In hoping to capitalise on the apparent success of the meeting between the two leaders in Sweden, both the British and Soviet governments agreed to arrange a number of several further meetings between Charles and Khruschev, a majority of which took place in other neutral countries such as Finland, Switzerland, and Austria. Then, for the final two meetings involving the two leaders, a state visit to Moscow was held on February 1956, which was in turn reciprocated by Khruschev himself visiting London just a month later. From that point on, no further meetings involving the two leaders ever took place, with the most likely reason being the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in which Hungarian protesters were violently crushed by the Red Army. Consequently, the Soviet regime's violent response towards the incident was said to have most likely discouraged the British monarch from ever meeting Khruschev any further, thereby contributing to the lack of any further meetings involving the two since the incident in Hungary.
Assassination Attempts
As a result of both his rather controversial character and the prevailing Cold War conflict at the time, Charles, whom prior to and even after becoming a monarch himself, was reportedly the target of a number of assassination attempts believed to had been carried out by various parties throughout the span of a few decades in total.
Officially, the first documented assassination attempt against Charles was said to have taken place around May 1937 at the city of Hanover, where the prince, whom was then in the midst of strolling down the city streets with an associate of his, was suddenly slashed lightly across the wrist by his would-be assassin, later identified as Oscar Stelz. Stelz, whom was subsequently outed as a convinced Nazi, later reportedly revealed to his British interrogators that he had initially meant to slash across the prince's torso with his own personal weapon, namely a stiletto knife. However, according to Stelz, the decision to slash the prince across the British royal's left wrist instead came about as a result of the latter having had his own left arm raised in front of his own torso, thereby unknowingly preventing his would-be assassin from openly harming his torso instead as initially intended. Furthermore, Charles himself, in addition to having easily survived his minor injuries sustained from the attempt, proved to be mostly undeterred by the particular incident, opting to continue his public provocations against the Nazi regime, which lasted well until his own departure for the United States the following year.
In the decades that followed, Charles would remain generally free of any further assassination attempts until his eventual death in March 2011. However, during much of the Cold War period, it was said that a number of assassination attempts had been supposedly concocted by various differing groups at the time, be it Islamist ones, or those from the far-left and the far-right. Nonetheless, the most notorious of these ultimately came about in around November 1963, when in light of the assassination of then-US President John F. Kennedy by the former U.S. Marine soldier, Lee Harvey Oswald, then Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, reportedly claimed that the late Kennedy's death was due to a supposed plot by far-right oil barons, whom Khruschev subsequently accused of having hatched a similar plot meant for the British monarch himself, whose apparent friendliness towards the Eastern Bloc in general would apparently be seen as an obstacle to those favouring a Western Bloc victory in the Cold War. Ultimately, the supposed plot alleged by Khruschev never came about, although another popular rumour suggested that the British intelligence agencies, namely the MI5 and the MI6 had in fact thwarted a number of assassination plots meant for the King, though neither of their supposed discoveries was ever made public by both intelligence agencies.
Silver & Ruby Jubilees
On July 7th 1976, his silver jubilee was held to commemorate his 25th year on the throne. Interestingly, amidst plans for widespread celebrations of his silver jubilee that year, Charles himself otherwise reportedly requested for the celebrations to be "simple and modest", although reasons behind this request by the British monarch were never made public. However, according to Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, the daughter of then-Prime Minister James Callaghan, the reasoning behind the King's notable decision to have largely muted celebrations commemorating his silver jubilee was to supposedly distinguish himself from the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom otherwise held an extravagant ceremony marking the 2,500th year anniversary of the Persian Empire, which in addition to being noted for its pompousness and extravagance, would also later become a point of contention among the Iranian society.
Just a couple of decades later, on July 1991, for what would be his subsequent ruby jubilee event, he once more personally ordered for any celebrations commemorating the event to be modest and muted in nature, which subsequently earned him much praise from and admiration among the British public and international observers.
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 monarch, 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 the supposed need to prolong the latter's livelihood, which was apparently done so through relieving the latter of his official duties as the British monarch. Nevertheless, even after his abdication from the throne, Charles continued to retain some degree of activity as the most senior living member of the royal family, with the former monarch occasionally accompanying his wife and children for their respective official engagements. On the other hand, he also took to writing a self-written autobiography, titled Charles the Third, which was subsequently published in 2007.
Around the time of his abdication, Charles, whom upon consulting with then-Prime Minister, John Major, as well as with his eldest son and immediate successor, the new King Thomas, was officially allowed to retain his title of King of the British, even after his abdication from the throne had came into effect, thereby making him the first British monarch to abdicate and be subsequently allowed to retain his previous royal title, which was not the case for the eighteen days long Queen Victoria, whom upon her abdication, was forced to revert back to her original title of Princess of the United Kingdom. However, interestingly enough, when his own successor, King Thomas himself later chose to abdicate the throne in October 2017, it was then claimed that the privilege to retain one's kingship title as a former monarch would also be offered to the recently abdicated Thomas too, although this favour was ultimately declined by William himself, whom reportedly claimed that "such an honour does not suit a rather mundane King such as myself". As a result, he was instead given the title Duke of Hanover sometime after his abdication came into effect, with the title itself currently remaining in use by the former British monarch.
Around June 2014, three years after his death, Charles's abdication was then notably compared to that of the Spanish King Juan Carlos I, as the latter's abdication from the throne, in a manner similar to that of Charles's own abdication almost two decades earlier had left the country with two living kings. Furthermore, the subsequent ascension of King Felipe VI was also likened to that of his own son, King Thomas's, whose ascension to the throne, like its Spanish counterpart, also took place at a time when the previous reigning monarch was still alive. However, observers have unanimously noted that unlike the former Spanish monarch, whom has been embroiled in a number of personal controversies since his abdication from the throne, the late King Charles III has otherwise remained a largely celebrated figure well after his abdication, and even since his own passing in March 2011. Meanwhile, a Guardian article published not long after Juan Carlos I's abdication notably wrote that "in the quest to maintain an overwhelmingly popular image after an abdication from the throne, the former King of Spain should rightfully learn from the late King Charles III, whom is otherwise much loved and respected by his people in both life and death", while an article by The Independent, titled Charles III & Juan Carlos I: Two Kings of Different Fates, spoke of a "great ironic twist" in comparing the two former monarchs' respective lives, in that while Charles himself gradually progressed from a much disliked and considerably controversial monarch to that of a largely beloved one, Juan Carlos I himself otherwise went from a largely popular monarch in Spain to that of a disgraced and unpopular one instead.
Death
On March 2nd 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 government-imposed week-long period of mourning, while his body was first flown from Edinburgh to the capital city of London, before being laid in state at Westminster Hall. Then, 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-recently deceased Queen Lauren was also subsequently interred alongside her husband and mother. Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron, whom in a televised speech aired not long after the King's death, declared the late British monarch to be "the greatest British monarch of both the 21st and 20th centuries". Soon enough, he was also officially designated as Charles the Great in honour of his memory.
Due to his past history of having served in the United States Air Force, particularly during the Second World War, Charles's state funeral became the only instance in which a deceased British monarch was given a 21-gun salute by members of the United States Armed Forces, with a select number of servicemen from the United States Air Force performing a simultaneous 21-gun salute at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, USA, together with a select number of servicemen from the British Army whom performed their own 21-gun salute in honour of the late British monarch at the Westminster Abbey in London, England, where Charles and his predecessors have been traditionally buried.
On January 15th 2017, his posthumous 100th birthday celebration was held across the United Kingdom, during which a number of the Royal Family members visited Westminster Abbey to pay their respects, while the BBC notably aired a special documentary surrounding the late king's life, titled Charles and Lauren: Britain's Iron Royals. On the same day, the Israeli government erected an empty grave for the late monarch on the national cemetery site of Mount Herzl, in which the lack of an actual corpse being present in his grave there was made up for by the planting of an exact copy of the curtana ceremonial sword on top of it, in a form of official recognition of his "lifelong and unrelenting contribution to the welfare of the Jewish people". To date, Charles remains the only monarch in history to have ever had a grave built on his own behalf on top of Mount Herzl, which traditionally houses, among others, deceased Israeli leaders and numbers of Israeli citizens honoured for their contribution to the country.
In addition to that, a BBC poll held concurrently 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 VI and III (39%), and his father, Frederick (9%).
Harry Phillips Controversy
A few days after his passing, controversy arose when in an appearance on Sky News Australia, Harry Phillips, a seventy-eight-year-old Australian man from Darwin, Australia, made a claim that he was the actual heir to the late King Charles III and that the King's eldest son, Thomas was not the actual King of the British, but rather Phillips himself. The man further claimed that sometime in 1939, Charles, whom was then still the Prince of the Welsh, had secretly married the late American actress, Katharine Hepburn, which then resulted in the birth of a son, that being Phillips himself. However, as the marriage was never officially recognised by the Church of England, Phillips himself would therefore not ascend to the throne following the King's abdication in 1997, but rather his "half-brother", whom subsequently became King Thomas.
Almost immediately, the veracity of the man's claim was met with much skepticism and distrust, with King Thomas himself even asserting that his late father was "not the kind of man to have a child with another woman with whom he wasn't officially tied to", while actress, Katharine Houghton, a niece of the late actress's, stated that her aunt had "never mentioned a secret child she had with anyone, even when it seemed alright for her to do so." Moreover, Houghton also criticsed the man for "stirring up some rubbish tabloid drama at a time when the people who are best suited to respond to such an outrageous claim are already dead." While Charles himself had indeed passed away on March 2nd 2011, he was nonetheless preceded in this regard by Hepburn, whom passed away on June 29th 2003. Eventually, Phillips himself later revealed the whole claim to be a stunt, which he hoped, by the sheer amount of scandal and controversy it would generate, would effectively bring down the British monarchy, an institution which he is said to personally despise as an Australian republican.
Marriage
Charles & Ingrid
Unlike his father, King Frederick, whom was prior subjected to a politically, but ultimately successful arranged marriage by Charles's great-grandfather, Charles's future marital prospects were left entirely to his own parents by his grandfather, the new King George IV and 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. Thus, over time, Charles proved quick to grow fond of the Swedish princess, whom he generally came to see as his principal sister figure, as he would often spend much of his daily time with the latter, along with occasionally seeking assistance from the much older Ingrid regarding his studies or household chores, or even his daily loads of homework given to him by his personal tutors. Genealogy-wise, via the paternal line, Ingrid is the prince's fourth cousin through a shared third great grandfather, King George III, while the latter is in turn, Charles's third cousin via a common great great grandfather, William I, German Emperor.
Around mid-1919, as Charles and his parents were about to depart back for the United Kingdom due to his grandfather, King George IV and 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 particularly being a favourite of the two, so much so that they 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 have 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 later served as one of the crown prince's groomsmen by Ingrid's own personal behest.
Eventually, with Ingrid's departure for Denmark as a result of her marriage, coupled with the rampant Germanophobia in Britain at the time, Charles ultimately took to self exiling himself abroad in the United States, before later returning back to the United Kingdom almost a decade later. Meanwhile, it was said that prior to his departure for the United States, Charles had initially thought of retreating to Denmark instead, where he would once again be much closer to Ingrid as he was before. However, for reasons unknown, this suggestion was never actually taken by the prince, whom ultimately went on with his initial plan of departing for the United States in an act of temporary self exile.
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, wherefrom there, at exactly night time, the soldiers, posing 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 subsequently, by the crown princess's own refusal to leave her people behind. Nonetheless, she was said to have otherwise thanked the British for having thought of such an ambitious rescue plan, while also particularly praising the Prince of Wales himself, whom she reportedly thanked for being "a darling brother whom is always mindful of his sister's plight".
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, both Charles and Ingrid went on to maintain a well-preserved sibling-like relationship, lasting well until the latter's death in November 2000. Furthermore, Charles himself even subsequently attended the late Queen Ingrid's funeral, during which he remarked, "On May 1941, I lost a dear brother of mine, and now, on November 2000, I have lost someone whom I will always see as a dear sister, in both life and death".
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 have 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, despite strong reservations held by Charles's parents due to the general controversial state of the Mitford sisters, the pair's relationship remained generally unaffected by the surrounding circumstances, made evident by Charles's contemporary writings regarding his relationship with Mitford, whom he would often write off in a positive light. In addition, a shared, mutual interest in left-wing ideologies, namely socialism also helped strengthen their relationship. On one instance, dated 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 active physical relationship began to pick up the pace, resulting in Mitford being promptly recalled back to England, so as to avoid any further embarrassment, while the prince himself reportedly ignored the rumours throughout the duration of his stay in the country. Nevertheless, as a consequence, Charles's father began imposing strict restrictions on the couple, although, as a compromise, they were strictly allowed to communicate through the sole use of letters only, along with the permission to see one another, albeit within the presence of the King himself.
Ultimately, the couple did eventually separate around February 1938 when Mitford, having had supposedly enough of the royal-imposed restrictions, was revealed by one of Charles's closest associates 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 Republican faction. 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, although these accusations were subsequently rebuked, albeit indirectly by Charles, whom soon afterwards publicly denounced the left-wing Paris Commune himself in a speech made shortly after the Anschluss event, thereby dispelling rumours of him being a supposed communist sympathiser. At around the same time, in a closed meeting consisting of the prince himself and his closest affiliates, he was said to have also openly ridiculed the socialite himself, supposedly for "being unfaithful enough to a relationship as she was to her own aristocratic background". Eventually, sometime in early 1939, in what would be their last significant encounter with one another, Charles, whom while in the midst of a stroll in the streets of New York City, would come across Mitford and her now-husband, Esmond Romilly. Soon enough, having exchanged no more than a few words with one another during the rather brief encounter, both Charles and Mitford took to immediately departing the scene in a rather hurried manner, with no further encounters involving the two being spoken of ever since. Then, just a few decades later, on July 22nd 1996, and at the age of seventy eight, Mitford would ultimately die of lung cancer while residing at her home in Oakland, California.
In the days immediately following his separation from Mitford, Charles, whom was then said to have been "emotionally scared" as a result, proved rather quick himself to deny any immediate suggestions for a new possible suitor, although, after much persistent persuasion by both of his parents, as well as 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 any extreme brands of politics that was prevalent in Charles's previous romantic partner proved to be overly reassuring for Charles's parents, whom upon sensing the two's closeness and mutual affection towards one another, began to also encourage their relationship further. At the same time, an initially lukewarm Charles was said to have at 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. To that end, both Charles and Baring would finally begin committing themselves to their relationship on a more serious note, with the latter even beginning to follow the prince along on his official visits abroad or on his royal functions around the country. At the same time, rumours of Baring being supposedly unfaithful to the prince by allegedly being romantically involved instead with the prince's younger brother, Prince William instead, began to circulate among the upper elite, although this would not exactly materialise until after their eventual separation, particularly with the prince himself having had no idea at all of the supposed rumours. 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 effectively 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 choice of a wife for Charles, thus supposedly replacing his then romantic interest, namely the American actress, Lauren Bacall. Ultimately, despite Charles's own refusal to reciprocate Baring's affections, the two were said to have otherwise remained friends throughout the following decades, with Baring herself even attending the King's funeral in March 2011, before later dying of old age just two years later. Meanwhile, her granddaughter, Samantha Cameron has been married to the British Prime Minister David Cameron, whom is said to have shared a close bond with Charles's own family.
Jane Manning
While executing his military duties abroad in Australia, Charles was then briefly rumoured to have 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 on any further occasions. However, it was confirmed atleast that following the interview, the two did discreetly meet one another on several further occasions, albeit with no form of an official relationship between the two ever being confirmed by either Charles or even Manning herself, whom in a later publication titled Australia's Soldier Prince, wrote of the prince being a "very gentlemanly and honourable man overall".
Katharine Hepburn & Lauren Bacall
Katharine Hepburn
Following his self-imposed exile to the United States, the prince did not initially opt on immediately seeking a new love interest in a country that was largely foreign for himself, having opted instead towards building an acting career under the guise of his pseudonym, Robert Clarke. However, sometime on March 3rd, while dining at a local restaurant in New York City, the prince was reunited with the actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom as a result of the prince having had his iconic beard shaved off prior to his exile to the country, did not immediately recognised the prince herself, while in actuality, the two had met one another just three years prior when Charles was conducting an official visit to the United States. However, due to his tightly arranged schedule at the time, the two were only able to spend a limited amount of time together, although it was said that on the night of the prince's very first day in the country, the two spent the late hours together with a fancy dinner arranged by Charles himself, followed by a state-wide tour around Conneticut, as well as visiting state landmarks and touring the beaches throughout most of the night. Thus, it was later believed that the two had actually begun their years long romantic relationship around that very moment. In an interview decades later with one of the prince's entourage, it was claimed that on that very same day, the prince himself even returned home at a much later time than expected, which initially caused some concern over the prince's wellbeing.
Nevertheless, soon after reintroducing himself to the actress, the two quickly resumed their friendship and concurrent romantic relationship through an exchange of visits to one another's residences, during which they were often said to have played sports against one another, with tennis and golf being the common choice of options for the two, while also occasionally discussing their shared liberal and progressive views. Even so, despite the two mostly keeping the nature of their relationship rather hidden from the public eye, the couple's routine activities together, which were often unknowingly reported to back home by a group of Metropolitan Police agents assigned by the British government to discreetly monitor the prince's new life in the country, otherwise greatly concerned then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, whom generally feared that, if left unchecked, the couple would eventually begin considering an official marriage, which would in turn cause great concern for the British establishment, not least due to her American nationality and commoner background, but rather due to her own outspoken nature and her recent divorce which, given the fact that Hepburn's ex-husband was still alive at the time, would have particularly 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 the divorcee's marriage with a new partner. As a result, Chamberlain then reportedly wrote a private letter to the prince, asking for him to "mindfully separate yourself away from the unorthodox-minded woman for the sake of the country", in the hopes that the British heir apparent would heed his demand. However, it was said that Charles himself otherwise had the letter torn up shortly after reading it, even going so far as to tell Chamberlain to "bugger off" and to "worry more about a European war being ever more likely, and less about what a man chooses to do with his own life".
Throughout the duration of their relationship, it was believed that out of a mutual interest in keeping their relationship hidden from the public eye, both Charles and Hepburn reportedly took to assuming false identities together, with the said personas being their common choice of identity whenever they were meeting someone new on the outside. As such, Charles, under his false identity, would have been known as Martin Montgomery while Hepburn herself, 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 risen in prominence during the subsequent Second World War period, which took place sometime after the decision to assume the coincidentally similar surname together by the prince and the actress was undertaken.
Nonetheless, Hepburn's own personal opposition to contracting any further marriages after her first one, coupled with her own understanding of the Church of England's canonical rule against marrying a divorcee with a living former partner, would ultimately negate any possibilities of a marriage between the two. Meanwhile, aside from their frequent meetings with one another, both Charles and Hepburn notably competed together in the 1939 Wimbledon Championships, which they triumphantly won. For a time, particularly during the year long period from 1941 to 1942, Hepburn was then reportedly described as being the prince's "emotional pillar", particularly following the death of Charles's younger brother, the Duke of Edinburgh in combat, which led the two to emotionally bond over their shared loss of a beloved sibling, with Hepburn having prior lost her younger brother, Thomas Hepburn to suicide when she was then only thirteen years old. Later on, in an interview with Larry King, the actress subsequently claimed that at one point, she was able to successfully prevent the then-Prince of Wales from "madly shooting himself in the head", an incident brought on by the death of Charles's only brother and sibling, the Duke of Edinburgh, and which the actress herself later referred to as "the greatest achievement of my life".
Later on, at Charles's own royal wedding, Hepburn went on to serve as the sole bridesmaid to Charles's wife and fellow actress, Lauren Bacall, whom she also closely befriended in the process. Following this, the actress also went on to supposedly serve as a de facto mediator should the royal couple ever run into a serious disagreement with one another. Moreover, Hepburn was later believed to have been the namesake for the couple's eldest daughter, Catherine, Princess Royal, for whom the actress was a godmother herself. Meanwhile, throughout the following decades or so, Hepburn's consistently close relationship with Charles, which lasted well until her eventual death in 2003, notably made the actress a subject of almost constant malicious and largely unproven rumours claiming that the two were still intimately close with one another, as opposed to the popular belief that the two have since largely toned down the nature of their relationship since Charles's marriage to his wife in 1946. On one instance, an American magazine infamously referred to the actress as "the King of England's Marilyn Monroe", in referencing popular rumours surrounding an illicit affair between the late actress and the late President John F. Kennedy, whom at the time of supposed affair, was already married for a while to his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Following her death on June 29th 2003, Charles himself promptly acquired the late actress's residence in Fenwick, Connecticut, which has since 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.
Lauren Bacall
.jpg)
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 initially starred together with the prince in several films of considerable success herself, some of which were even directed by Charles himself under his pseudonym. The couple's off-screen relationship, which was said to have evolved from a largely professional, mentorlike relationship to a more romantic one overtime, would gradually begin to amass some attention from the American media, while the couple's romantic exploits were also being concurrently reported back to both the royal family and the British government back home in England. Then, just prior to his deployment for the Pacific War, Bacall, along with her own mother, Natalie Bacall, opted to move 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, as well as other forms of communications.
Around April 1945, Charles would then personally telegraph his father, King Frederick for the latter's permission to marry Bacall, in which he wrote, "For Ingrid is my beloved sister, and Lauren is my dearest wife". However, while both the King and Queen chose not to ultimately oppose their son's decision out of fear of upsetting the latter himself, prospects of the prince's marriage with an American commoner were quick to become 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 of this setback, 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 Truman as part of the Victory in Europe Day celebrations.
The following month, a private emissary was sent to New York by the British Foreign Secretary at the time, Anthony Eden, in order to seemingly convince the couple to abandon any pretexts of marriage, while citing "irreconcilable differences" as a cover-up for their apparent separation instead. However, neither side was able to ultimately reach a mutual agreement, with Charles himself adamantly refusing to give up his romantic interest in favour of the proposed alternatives, which, among others, included his former romantic interest and English socialite, Sarah Baring, and Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark, the youngest daughter of King Constantine I of Greece. In the midst of this, it was said that a large number of British aristocrats also took to offering their own most eligible daughters as the prince's potential bride, so as to better alleviate their image and standing among the other members of the British nobility, although some, perhaps out of longstanding skepticism held against the Prince of Wales, otherwise refused to do so themselves, with the potential ramifications of having their respective daughters marrying a controversial British royal being a driving factor behind their particular refusal to do so.
Meanwhile, soon after the meeting itself ended largely inconclusively, over the course of the next couple of months, both Charles and Bacall then promptly embarked on an international trip to the four Dominion countries, namely Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as the approval of their respective prime ministers was deemed to be fundamental in securing enough legitimacy for Charles's planned marriage to Bacall. Ultimately, all four of the prime ministers that the royal couple had sought agreed to support the couple's marriage, with the New Zealand Prime Minister at the time, 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 non-divorcee status, as well as the general lack of any compromising details of her past life would present no overall conflict with the Church's teachings, while at the same time, he also personally said that the latter's Jewish belief was "politically compromising", which was in relations to the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine happening at the time. 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 both Charles and Bacall, before being subsequently discredited by government officials themselves. 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 having "eloped with an Untermensch (subhuman)", in alluding to his wife's Jewish faith, while notorious BUF leader, Oswald Mosley labeled the prince as "a traitor to the pure Britannic race who had sold his soul to the Jews instead". 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 that same year.
Following this, the couple was promptly advised to wait for at least a year to make way for preparations surrounding the wedding ceremony, during which period the prince sought to personally seek out Bacall's estranged father, William Perske, whom Charles was believed to have later on named his two sons after. In a 2004 interview with Larry King, the British royal eventually confirmed that he had indeed met his estranged father-in-law, revealing that "we had a rather pleasant conversation about the state of my marriage to Betty", while adding that "he (Perske) wished me well in my future endeavour and made me promise to become a good husband and an overall promising father as well". It was also revealed that the two men later remained in almost frequent contact with one another, a habit that lasted well until Perske's passing in November 1982, and which was kept largely secret from Bacall herself, as to avoid offending the latter. However, an alternative view suggests that the actress had been made aware of the habit by none other than Charles himself, whom was then supposedly allowed to continue doing so by Bacall under the guise of "reconciliation".
Meanwhile, in the months leading up to their marriage, by King Frederick's advice, the couple embarked on a series of international tours abroad meant to better their image among both the British and global populace. Beginning with a state visit to Turkey where the couple was said to have mostly frequented the country's beaches, they 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. Then, after a week long stay in the kingdom, the couple moved further eastward to Iran, where they were received by the relatively young Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom had initially ascended to the throne himself following the forced abdication of his father, Reza Shah by the British just several years before. Reportedly, after an initially warm reception of the royal couple by the Shah, both the latter and particularly Charles himself were afterwards said to have descended into a "state of mutual hostility", supposedly due to Charles's own largely negative personal opinion towards the young Shah as his own country's absolute ruler, as well as due to popular rumours claiming that the Shah himself, in both public and private instances, was said to have attempted to flirt with the slightly younger Lauren Bacall, much to the displeasure of the British royal, whom in turn reportedly said, "Entertain yourself with quite the wrong people, and your time on the throne will be no longer than your father himself".
Eventually, upon departing from Bandar Abbas just a few days later, the couple afterwards embarked on another region-wide trip around Oceania, where in addition to paying personal visits to the major countries of Australia and New Zealand, the couple also visited most of the Oceanian island nations there, which included Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati, and most notably, the largely independent Kingdom of Tonga, where they publicly struck a close friendship with the kingdom's ruler, Queen Sālote Tupou III. In addition to that, while otherwise visiting New Zealand, Charles himself reportedly engaged in a traditional kī-o-rahi game with the country's Maori locals, a game which the prince reportedly lost, but which Charles himself later came to admire.
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, while on the other hand, then-Prime Minister Clement Attlee, whom was unable to attend the event himself, was otherwise represented in his place by Ernest Bevin, the then-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, alongside some of Attlee's own cabinet members. Then, the royal couple was treated to a statewide tour around New York, for which they were joined by President Truman and the First Lady. Upon concluding a follow-up state dinner at the White House in Washington, D.C., the royal couple was initially coerced into returning back to Britain as to accustom themselves, particularly Bacall to their future life together in the country. However, Charles himself proved quick to resist such a suggestion, for he feared alienating his newlywed wife from her New York birthplace, thereby opting to remain in the United States itself for the first few years or so, where both Charles and his wife are better accustomed to themselves with their respective scores of Hollywood celebrity associates. Even so, sometime in early 1950, the royal couple did eventually return back to the United Kingdom, which they purposely did so during the nightly hours, as to attract less attention as possible from the public upon their arrival there.
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, from where 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. Then, while residing in the island country for the next two months or so, the royal couple proceeded to engage in a multitude of activities alongside the local Tongan community, thereby further strengthening their already pre-existing popularity with the locals there, which had arisen from their very first visit to the island country itself just a year prior. Later on, following their return to the United States, the couple went on to embark on a private yacht cruise alongside their closest friends, namely with the likes of singer, Frank Sinatra, his then-wife, Nancy Barbato (later replaced with actress, Ava Gardner), actress and Charles's former lover, Katharine Hepburn, his own cousin, Prince Charles of Clarence and Avondale, and lastly, actress, Hedy Lamarr, whom would soon become Charles's very own cousin-in-law herself by marriage to Charles's similarly named cousin, with whom he once reportedly joked, "None could be more fortunate than a couple of princes with their beautiful American wives whom perhaps, by God's will, are quite mismatched in regards to their ages but are nevertheless the magnificent women they are in their own right with their equally proud husbands by their sides".
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 careers, 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 official retirement sometime in the early months of 1950, which preceded their subsequent return to the United Kingdom.
Later into their marriage, it was said that following the death of the actress and wife of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, Grace Kelly in September 1982 as a result of a fatal car crash, Charles himself reportedly took to subsequently bar his wife from ever driving a vehicle herself from that point onwards, supposedly out of intense personal paranoia, and a presumed fear that the same fate might befall his own wife, whom much like Kelly herself, is an American actress whom had married a European royal. However, this claim was never addressed nor confirmed by either Charles or his wife in their lifetimes, while their eldest son, the former King Thomas otherwise dismissed it as being an "insignificant tabloid rumour". On the other hand, Charles, whom in response to the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, otherwise had his personally-owned 1948 Triumph Roadster vehicle be outfitted with a roof, complete with bulletproof windows, believing that the open-top design of the vehicle carrying the American president had ultimately led to his demise. At the same time, Charles was also known for his propensity for driving in public around the United Kingdom during his occasional free times, a habit that was deemed by British security services to be inviting potential assassination attempts against the British monarch himself, whose death was believed to have been more likely had he continued to drive around in a largely exposed state.
Personal Information
Titles & Honours
- 15 January 1917 - 5 January 1923 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Cambridge, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Prussia
- 5 January 1923 - 20 January 1923 His Royal Highness The Prince of Orange, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Cornwall
- 20 January 1923 - 7 July 1951 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Prince of Orange, and the Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- 7 July 1951 - 2 March 2011 His Majesty The King of the British, King of the Dutch, and the Grand Duke of the Luxembourgers
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 - 17 May 1944: Commodore, Royal Navy
17 May 1944 - 16 March 1947: Vice-admiral, 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 - 16 March 1947: Air Marshal, Royal Air Force
16 March 1947 - 7 July 1951: Air Chief 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 Army Air Force
4 March 1942 - 11 December 1942: Second Lieutenant, United States Army Air Force
11 December 1942 - 4 March 1943: Captain, United States Army Air Force
4 March 1943 - 15 March 1946: Colonel, United States Army Air Force
15 March 1946 - 7 July 1951:
Brigadier General, United States Air Force
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Charles the Great |
|---|