After a lifetime in the shadow of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, is crowned British king at the age of 73, after his predecessor died at the age of 96 and after more than 70 years of reign.
Charles, born in London in November 1948 under the secular name of Charles Philip Arthur George, attended his mother's coronation at the age of three and immediately became Duke of Cornwall, a title granted by the British crown to heirs to the throne.
In 1955, when he was seven years old, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, agreed that Charles should attend school in person, thus breaking with the tradition of heirs to the throne having a personal tutor assigned to them.
Educated in England and Scotland, the Prince of Wales was also an exchange student in 1966 at Timbertop, an educational center in Melbourne, Australia. Later, in 1967 he entered Cambridge University to study archaeology and anthropology, changing to history two years later.
Trained as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force (RAF), Charles eventually chose to enter a naval career at the Royal Navy College, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and two of his great-grandfathers.
MARRIAGE WITH DIANA SPENCER AND CAMILA PARKER At the age of 33, Prince Charles married aristocrat Diana Spencer, culminating a brief courtship with a ceremony that was broadcast by the media and watched by 750 million people.
The following year, in 1982, Diana gave birth to the couple's first son, Prince William, and just two years later, in September 1984, his brother, Prince Harry, was born.
After eleven years of marriage and known for their numerous tours abroad, the Prince and Princess of Wales announced their separation and later, in August 1996, the divorce was certified.
Despite the separation, Diana continued to be considered part of the British Royal Family, residing at Kensington Palace, keeping to her schedule and carrying out her public work with charities.
In August 1997, when Diana was on a trip to Paris, she was involved in a car accident in which she lost her life, after which Charles went to the French capital to recover his ex-wife's body and take it to London.
After the tragedy, the Prince of Wales asked the media to respect the privacy of his family, especially that of his sons William and Henry, who at the time were only 15 and 12 years old, respectively. One of the main objectives of the heir was to ensure that his children could enjoy a certain normality during their school years.
After announcing his separation from Diana, Charles confirmed a romantic relationship with Camilla Parker, whom he had known for years. In fact, the heir gave an interview to the BBC in 1994 where he confirmed having been unfaithful to Diana with Camilla.
This episode, added to the marital problems also faced by the relationships of his siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, led to a sharp fall in the popularity of the monarchy.
Finally, after decades of courtship, the couple married in April 2005 in a civil ceremony held in Windsor with about 800 guests. After this moment, Camilla was recognized as the Duchess of Cornwall.
In recent years, after decades in the shadow of his mother, Prince Charles has been gaining more prominence in official acts as the Queen's age and health problems have increased.
One of Charles' last appearances in place of the queen was at the opening ceremony of the UK Parliament in May 2022. Elizabeth II was absent citing "mobility problems", although, according to Buckingham Palace, her non-appearance was decided at the last minute.
However, as Queen Elizabeth's birthday has passed and the enthronement of Charles has come into view, the British population has been losing its affinity with the monarchy. In the latest survey conducted by the firm YouGov on the occasion of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, it is noted that support for the crown has declined by more than thirteen percent in the last decade.
The opinion poll shows that the population of people sympathetic to the crown has fallen from 75 percent in 2021 to 62 percent in 2022. This is in addition to the fact that more than a fifth of respondents believe that the UK should have a democratically elected head of state to replace the monarchy.