Britain’s king Charles celebrates 75th birthday with full schedule as he makes up for lost time
London, Nov 14: At an age when many of his contemporaries have long since retired, King Charles III is not one to put his feet up. The king will mark his 75th birthday on Tuesday by busily highlighting causes close to his heart.
With Queen Camilla at his side, Charles will visit a project that helps feed those in need by redistributing food that might otherwise go to landfills. Then he’ll host a party for 400 nurses and midwives, saluting the National Health Service’s own 75th birthday. For good measure, the king appears on the cover of this month’s Big Issue, which gives marginalized people the opportunity to earn money by selling the magazine on the street.
It’s the sort of day that’s been typical of the king’s first 14 months on the throne.
After the seven-decade reign of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles has rushed to show that the monarchy remains relevant in modern British society. He’s made three overseas visits, pledged to open the royal archives to researchers investigating the crown’s links to slavery and expressed “sorrow and regret’ for “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans during their struggle for independence.
Charles’s reign has gotten off to a steady start, but he still needs to set out a clear vision for the future, said Ed Owens, an historian and author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?” “It’s a difficult moment for the monarchy because it’s going through this period of transition from being adulated as a default position to now being questioned and challenged in new ways,’ Owens said. “And I just wish that the king and his heir would set out more clearly what they want to do rather than take for granted what they think the British public want from the monarchy.” Charles’ long apprenticeship meant he was a grey-haired septuagenarian when he finally took the throne, fuelling concerns he would have a hard time connecting with a country that no longer takes deference to the monarchy for granted. But all those decades also gave him more training and experience to draw upon than his mother, who was just 25 when she became queen. (AP)
(IANS)
