This has been the year of first times for King Charles III. Although following the maxim of a dead king, a king was proclaimed monarch two days after the last breath of Elizabeth II, in September 2022, it was during 2023 when the new Carolina era began in a big way. It was the year of his coronation and in which, after the mandatory mourning, he began to act as king at dinners and state ceremonies.
Charles III was crowned on May 6 in Westminster Abbey with the gaze of 300 million spectators focused on the spectacular pageants that marked the beginning of a new era for the British royal family, with the only certainty that it will be much shorter. than the previous. The heir of Elizabeth II and Queen Camilla left Buckingham Palace together that day with English punctuality, flanked by a large military display and an expected light rain that did not alter what was planned. Dressed in a tunic from the last century superimposed on more current clothes, Charles III entered the abbey to be anointed with vegan oil and receive the crown of Saint Edward at exactly 12 noon after more than 70 years preparing for that destiny.
This was also the year of his 75th birthday, which he celebrated on November 14. Personally, there have been no big changes for Carlos III in this last return to the sun. At the moment he continues to live with Camilla at Clarence House, where the then Prince of Wales moved in 2003 after the deaths of his grandmother and Princess Margaret. Buckingham Palace is expected to once again be the official residence of the British monarch around 2027, when extensive renovations being carried out inside are completed.
And, beyond revelations from books by trilero authors that leaked Charles III’s alleged involvement in racist comments towards Meghan Markle’s first son, there does not seem to have been any major changes in the sovereign’s family relationships either. The family continues to respond to individualism with repudiation and after the departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to the United States there has been no obvious sign of real reconciliation. This Christmas, as is tradition, there was mass at Sandringham, but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not attend.
Another date marked on the calendar was the historic inauguration of the British legislature on November 7. For Charles III it was the king’s first speech, a centenary ceremony held in the House of Lords of the Palace of Westminster and in which the monarch reads to Parliament the bills proposed by the Government. The new monarch was only three years old when his grandfather, George VI, read his last speech in the solemn room, and, after more than seven decades of Elizabeth II, the ceremony was not diminished for Charles, although he did gather protests along the way. with the banner “Not my king.”
King Charles, who already attended important official commitments alone due to his mother’s advanced age, now presides over them as monarch of the United Kingdom and sovereign of the 14 kingdoms that make up the Commonwealth. Charles’s first official trip as monarch was going to take place to France, but it had to be postponed at the last minute due to protests in the country over reforms in the pension system. Finally, his first official trip as king was made to Germany during the last days of March and it was not until September that the trip to Paris was made, when a majestic state dinner was organized at the palace of Versailles.
Although the first state dinner in London as monarch was held at the end of 2022 for the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, it was at the 2023 dinners that we were able to see the new king develop there. One of the first and most talked about measures taken by Charles III regarding these dinners and food in general in his palaces was the prohibition of serving foie gras due to his strong defense of ethical livestock farming. During another of these dinners, he also showed his willingness to highlight the importance of environmental problems by naming the members of the Blackpink group as a reference for their role in the transmission of sustainability during his speech at the state dinner with which the President of the Republic of Korea, Kim Keon Hee.
On December 25, at 3 p.m., Charles III’s second Christmas speech was broadcast, his first as crowned king. In it he reflected some of the themes that he also wanted to make shine at his coronation: public service, helping others, the health of the planet and the wars that devastate it. He filmed it next to a large Christmas tree in one of the main halls of Buckingham Palace that overlooks Queen Victoria’s memorial. “Let us do everything in our power to protect our neighbors,” he asked.
