LONDON. What kind of king will he be? Charles III? In his long-awaited first speech on Friday, he paid tribute to his mother, the Queen. Elizabeth IIe reiterated her vow to devote her entire life to public service and to the United Kingdom.

But Charles has an opinion and expresses it. At 73, he may no longer be able to ignore them. The heir promoted his views all his life. To do this, he created princely think tanks, foundations and trusts to promote “comprehensive solutions to the problems facing the world today.”

And yet the British loved her. Even many people who disliked the monarchy as an institution were in love with the Queen.

Researchers say that many Britons do not like Charles, although they do not strongly dislike him. While some still hold grudges, many seem to have given him another chance, more than 25 years later, after his role in his disastrous marriage to Princess Diana ended in tragedy. He was an adulterer. But he was also head over heels in love – with Camille, as it turned out later. She is now the queen consort.

Episodes of the popular TV series The Crown depicted him as a cold, cruel man who is uneasy. But for those who know him intimately, Charles is quite a warm person.

“Her staff always says that her investiture always takes a lot longer than the Queen’s because she’s so good at holding a couple of words and shaking hands and then voila, voila,” Hardman said. Washington Post. “While Charles will most likely start talking and say, ‘Oh, you’re a sheep farmer. What kind of sheep do you raise? It’s just a different approach.”

In public, he can be awkward. Tone off. Like when he boasted that his eco-friendly Aston Martin sports car was powered by wine and cheese.

He has held some quirky and strangely specific positions over the years, but he also has big ideas about climate change, the urban plague, organic farming, and the dehumanizing nature of modern architecture.

In the 2018 BBC documentary Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70, the future king is asked about allegations of meddling in public affairs.

He replies, “Really? Don’t tell me.” He explains, “I’ve always wondered what an invasion is, I mean, I’ve always thought it was motivating. But I’ve always wondered if it’s obsessive to worry about provincial towns like I did 40 years ago , and what is happening there or not happening, in what conditions people live.

He then says, “If this is interference, I’m very proud of it.”

Quoting Shakespeare and recounting how the young Prince Hal grew up to become Henry V, he tells the documentarians: “I can’t do what I did as an heir, so of course you are operating within constitutional parameters. “

Asked about concerns that his participation would continue in the same vein, Charles said: “No, it won’t. I’m not that stupid, I understand that this is a separate exercise, to be sovereign.

The interview itself is another point of contrast with his mother. Queen Elizabeth II never gave an interview to the press in her life, although she lived at a time when the British press revered the monarch. Charles worked hours at the BBC despite the media hype and the worst of the worst tabloids of the 1990s.

The queen firmly believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. She was a religious figure, as “Defender of the Faith and Supreme Ruler of the Church of England”. Jesus was frequently mentioned in his Christmas messages.

Charles is more spiritual than pious. He believes that we have fallen from grace, from the more traditional, natural state of Eden, by succumbing too much to mechanistic, technological and modernist thinking.

In his 2010 book Harmony, a 336-page exposition of his royal philosophy, Charles denounces how the Age of Comfort gave birth to the Age of Separation.

For Charles, God can be understood in the repeating mathematical pattern of flower petals.

The Queen had many charitable organizations, as did Charles. But he went much further, using it to express his worldview.

As Duke of Cornwall and Superintendent of the Duchy of Cornwall, he was responsible for 129,600 acres of land in 20 counties in the southwest of England, emphasizing “sustainable development”, one of his favorite words, none of which the Queen has so flirted with.

To promote his ideas of traditional architecture on what he calls “human scale,” Charles created—from scratch—an experimental community of 6,000 residents and 180 businesses called Poundbury, with low-rise buildings, front gardens, and limited car use. , projected on the “new urbanism”, which the king called his “vision of the United Kingdom”.

The Prince’s Trust has also helped 1 million young people in Bryan and across the Commonwealth with free courses, scholarships and mentorship opportunities over four decades.

Charles has funds and donors, and this has caused several minor scandals, such as reports of cash donations from the former Prime Minister of Qatar, which were delivered in a suitcase and a shopping bag. The Charity Commission declined to investigate. Charles said that all donations were legally declared and accounted for.

Charles has said he will return to live at Buckingham Palace in central London, a building his mother has largely abandoned since the pandemic. But the new king also says he wants to destroy the monarchy, put it on the foundations of the 21st century.

One of the Queen’s latest headaches has been what to do about Prince Andrew, who has been largely banned from public life after settling a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she was sold to him by convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Charles seemed to agree with his mother.

What King Charles will do with his son Prince Harry remains an open question. Will he try to bring Harry and his wife Meghan back to the royal court after they left their royal duties, moved to California and reported their grievances to American TV presenter Oprah Winfrey? Or will you keep them away? Some signs of your intentions may appear in the coming days.

Already on the first day there were signs of change. On Friday, the new king greeted mourners at Buckingham Palace and held out his hand to greet them one by one until a woman leaned in to kiss them – before no one was supposed to touch the queen.