Charles III ... beyond the glitter of the crown

Britons will soon be going through the coronation of their new monarch, the third Charles in their history. The first Charles, as history informs us, met a dreadful end in 1649. The second, his son, came back from exile in 1660, reclaimed the throne and swiftly went into an exhumation of the remains of Oliver Cromwell, hanging his skeleton and then putting his skull on public display as posthumous punishment for his act of regicide.
The new monarch, Charles III, inhabits vastly different times. The absolutism which monarchs of old worked on is long gone and what we have in the old colonial power today is a constitutional ruler, with the old trappings of majesty, defining his role in society.
Charles III ought to be a happy king, for as Prince of Wales he made it known how he meant to conduct himself for the rest of his life. His preoccupation with plants, his concerns with the consequences of climate change, his work on the Prince's Trust, his interest in interfaith dialogue and his interactions with various religious denominations endeared him to people in the years before he succeeded his late mother on the throne.
And yet Charles III will be up against quite a few roadblocks in the years he has before him as monarch. Ascending the throne at age seventy-three, because his mother was Queen till her dying day, he has before him all those questions of whether his health will permit him to bring in a purposeful new era for his subjects.
He is of course a healthy man and has given every sign of energising the monarchy with his vitality. Even so, his age precludes his being monarch for very many years, given that with his mother having reigned for seventy years, Charles III will not have too many years left to be monarch of all he surveys.
There are too some of the political problems he will be confronted with, notably the demand for Scotland's independence. One will not deny that the independence movement has of late been dented by the scandals into which the Scottish National Party has slipped.
Before the can of worms implicating senior figures was opened, Nicola Sturgeon made her way out of office in voluntary fashion. The new First Minister Humza Yousaf, an advocate of Scottish independence like his predecessor, is for now busy trying to clear the debris caused by the party's tribulations.
So while the SNP goes about setting its house in order, the independence idea takes a backseat, for now. But sooner rather than later it will be revived, which is when Charles III will be compelled to adopt a position on it. Being a constitutional monarch, he will certainly be unable to wade into policymaking, which is the responsibility of the government headed by the Prime Minister.
But being a man who has not shied away from expressing himself on certain issues, the King will likely make his views known to the government. Scotland is a place close to his heart. He is in a kilt every time he is on a visit to Edinburgh or any other place there. A decision by Scotland to opt out of the United Kingdom will leave Charles III upset, perhaps even heartbroken.
There is too the demand for an abolition of the monarchy in favour of a republic, voiced by a small but growing number of Britons. There is certainly no sign of the monarchy going the way of history any time soon. One is reminded of the statement reportedly made by King Farouk of Egypt, before the 1952 revolution threw him out of regal power and splendour, to the effect that in the end only two monarchs, one on the cards people play with around the table and the other the monarch in London, will remain.
That remains to be seen. History often moves in unpredictable as also queer fashion. There are yet a good number of monarchies around today, some clearly absolute --- as in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco. And there are sovereigns, stripped of the old glory, who preside over their nations in constitutional fashion in Europe. And consider how Iran's Shah was drummed out of his kingdom, and the kingdom turned into an Islamic republic.
The British monarchy will remain in place for a long time yet, a reason being the inseparable part of the country's heritage it has become. Charles III will therefore have little to worry about here. But there will be worries about countries which yet have the British sovereign as their head of state but which might be tempted to sever that connection even if they choose to remain members of the Commonwealth.
Australia is a case in point. It could slip out of the monarchy's hold. In the not too distant future, New Zealand and Canada might begin to have republican dreams. Mauritius went its republican way in 1992. In 2021, Barbados did a similar act. The point is inescapable: more nations once under British colonial rule and still with the British sovereign as their monarch might look to ditching royalty and going their republican ways.
It could well be a shrunken monarchy King Charles III will end up presiding over. But that will not detract from the fact that the monarch will continue to be, as his mother was, head of the Commonwealth. His interest in the Commonwealth has been rather pronounced and one can therefore expect him to exert his royal authority in promoting the organisation and expanding the scope of its multifaceted activities. Queen Elizabeth II, in the course of her long reign, made it a point to visit almost all Commonwealth countries and was regularly present at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM).
King Charles III will doubtless maintain the tradition as head of the Commonwealth. With demands lately arising, though, for the position of the Commonwealth head to rotate among member-states of the organisation, it may well be that on the King's watch the Commonwealth could have some significant changes redefining the way it means to work in future.
Given Charles III's approach to the issues of the times, there is the likelihood of nations not members of the Commonwealth wishing to be formally part of the organisation. Togo and Gabon took Commonwealth membership in 2002. Earlier, it was Rwanda and Mozambique which sought and were given membership of the organisation.
Charles III has weathered various crises in his life. His first marriage fell apart. One of his brothers got caught up in a sex scandal. His younger son has given him grief through his public criticism of the royal family. For a man to whom the crown did not come till he turned a septuagenarian is another worry. For an aged king, the future does not extend far into the horizon.
Not to worry, though. The new King is here, a symbol of stability. Britons love that.

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