Charles’s ascension to the throne will seem different to his mother’s. We explain why
“THE ONLY thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy,” mused Ly Tin Wheedle, the Confucius-esque philosopher in Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” novels. Because tradition demands that when a monarch dies, succession passes to the heir instantly, “there must be some elementary particles—kingons, or possibly queeons—that do the job”.
The legal basis for succession stretches back to the 17th century and James II, the last Roman Catholic king of England. When Protestant bishops recoiled and invited William of Orange to invade, James fled to France. The throne went to his daughter Mary, a Protestant who had married William, and Parliament passed two acts: the Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Act of Settlement of 1701.
Charles ticks all the boxes. As a result, on top of his mother’s titles he inherits the Duchy of Lancaster, a portfolio of assets, land and property worth around £650m , and nominal leadership of the Commonwealth. His heir, William, would not be guaranteed this role, however. Commonwealth leaders agreed in 2018, at the behest of the queen, that the position would pass to her son, but it is not hereditary.
In practice it may come to seem as though Prince William were already perched on the throne alongside his father. The oldest British monarch at the start of his reign was William IV, who took over in 1830 aged 64. Charles is 73. And he is relatively unpopular. A YouGov survey of 1,692 Britons from May 2022 found that 81% of people thought positively of the queen, and 75% approved of Prince William. Charles’s approval rating was just 54%.
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