Early retirement at age 55 is common in banking, and many companies in many industries do what they can to replace senior workers with younger ones on lower salaries. But there are also fields where there is no ageism and experience is valued, both in sport and in the arts, from football coaches such as Roy Hodgson (75) to conductor Herbert Blomstedt (active at 96), and also writers, the architect Norman Foster (88) or the singer Raphael (80).
There is also no age discrimination in British royalty. Elizabeth II died on the throne at the age of 96, and Charles III is 75 today, by comparison, a real youngster who is still taking the pulse of the institution and the role it has to play. Because it is one thing to have trained for five decades as the Prince of Wales, and to be the first in the line of succession from the age of three, and quite another to act as king.
To begin with, Charles III has had to learn to keep his mouth shut, as he demonstrated last week when he monotonously read the legislative program of his Government at the opening of the parliamentary session, without any gesture or voice inflection when he mentioning initiatives with which he clearly disagrees, such as the liberalization of licenses for the exploitation of oil and natural gas in the North Sea (he is a passionate environmentalist, who brought an electric car to the palace when he was barely there was and who installed a garbage recycling system that was pioneering in its day).
Charles III has developed the same virtue of his mother to go unnoticed, which is the best a king can do when 45% of his subjects under the age of 25 consider the monarchy irrelevant or are outright in favor of abolishing it. the.
Unnoticed, but to a certain extent, because a group of republicans (who are 28% of the population) took the trouble to demonstrate in Westminster on the occasion of the inauguration of the legislature, for, in the passage of its float with air conditioning, display banners that said: “This is not my king”. It’s a discourtesy they never did to their mother, revered for her sense of sacrifice and respect for tradition.
Charles III celebrated his 75th birthday last night at his country residence of Highgrove, which he really considers his home, in a (relatively) small committee, offering a tea based on local produce, with honey that he produces himself , in family (not including his son Enric, who refused the invitation), neighbors and men and women of his age, chosen for their contribution to society. The event, featuring live music and a choir, was organized by the Prince’s Foundation, the charity he set up in 1986 to promote sustainable development and education.
In his first year on the throne, Charles III has partially rehabilitated his brother Andrew, but maintains a very cold relationship with Henry and Meghan, whom he barely sees. And since the dumb mouth is never beaten, he has not made any insinuations about the impact of Brexit (which he thinks is a terrible idea), about the war in Ukraine (he hates Putin), and even less about the conflict between Israel and Gaza, which has divided the country’s two main parties, Conservative and Labour, and the people in general.
The nature of the event at Highgrove to celebrate his birthday was in keeping with his desire to be relevant and contribute to the betterment of the lives of the less fortunate and those who are at the opposite pole of their life of privilege and comfort (he is one of the richest men in the world, with a fortune estimated at 1.3 billion euros, a collection of sports cars, horses, works of art…). The main task expected of him is precisely to make the monarchy more frugal by selling some residences and opening others to the public, reducing expenses and personnel, as companies do.
For him, in any case, there is, for the moment, no danger of being “fired” or retired if he continues as he has been, respecting the constitutional principles and not getting into trouble. A king has no age. Well, yes he has. In his case, from today, 75 years.
