One of the most important traits for any ruler is loyalty. When
Queen Elizabeth turned 21 in 1947, she made a speech that’s still
relevant today. She said, “I declare before you all that my whole life
whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of
our great imperial family to which we all belong.” So far, she’s kept up that
promise.
And now that the queen is getting older, citizens are
starting to think about how the
monarchy will change once she dies and Prince Charles become the king. Some
more optimistic royal followers are hoping the queen will simply
skip Charles in the line of succession and promote Prince William instead.
However, there’s almost no chance of that happening, no
matter how unpopular the Prince of Wales is.
People find Prince Charles to be disloyal
So far, Charles has never betrayed his country — at least
not as far as they know. But he did betray someone very important who he had
vowed to love and honor until death parted them.
The public fell in love with young Diana Spencer, a woman
living out a real-life fairytale when she married the most eligible bachelor in
Britain. There was just one problem: Prince Charles was in love with someone
else the whole time, and eventually, he rekindled
the physical part when he began having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles
while he was still married to Princess Diana.
Most people took Diana’s side
There was nothing secret about Prince Charles’s affair.
Diana knew it was going on and so did everyone else. Eventually, things got so
bad between this royal couple that they formally separated, though they didn’t
divorce immediately because of the royal family’s negative feelings towards broken
marriages.
All along people saw Diana as an innocent victim, Camilla
as an evil homewrecker, and Charles as a cruel, disloyal husband. Those
feelings escalated dramatically after Diana’s tragic death in 1997. It took a
long time for the Prince of Wales to rebuild his reputation after the massive
scandal of his affair, and in some ways, he never did.
Will Charles be a good king?
Prince Charles has been getting ready to take the throne for more than 70 years — he’s the longest-serving heir apparent in history. But does that mean he’ll make a good leader? There are mixed opinions on that.
Diana allegedly told her butler Paul Burrell that her husband was
not “not
fit for the top job.” But she had an extremely biased opinion.
Charles’s popularity has gradually improved over the years and the public has
even come around on Camilla, who will serve beside him now that they’re married.
Charles also
has
a reputation for being sensitive, stubborn, snobbish, and unwilling to
entertain opinions different from his own.
Tradition is more important than popularity in the line of succession
Ultimately,
it doesn’t matter if Charles is popular or not — as the heir apparent, there’s
not much that could keep him from becoming the reigning monarch.
One thing
Charles has going for him is his work ethic. He does an extraordinary number of
royal engagements and visits, which is a huge part of the role of reigning
monarch. Based on these actions alone, he’s going to fill the role his mother
paved brilliantly.
It’s true
that Prince Charles cheated on Diana. But there’s almost no chance he would betray
his country in that way.
