King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

Charles (Philip Arthur George) Prince of Wales, at age 73, became the oldest person to accede to the British throne, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, on 8 September 2022, as the eldest son.

He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and he is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958.

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Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools like his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Charles also spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, and they had two sons: Prince William (b. 1982) and Prince Harry (b. 1984). In 1996, the couple divorced. Diana died as the result of a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married long ime partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

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As Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. Charles founded The Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince's Charities, and is a patron, president, and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations. As an environmentalist, he raises awareness of organic farming and climate change, which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups. His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been criticised by many in the medical community,[ and his views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received considerable attention from British architects and design critics. Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his preferences. He is also an author and co-author of a number of books.

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Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 26 July 1958, although his investiture was not held until 1 July 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970, and he made his maiden speech in June 1974.

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In 2008, The Daily Telegraph described Charles as

the "hardest-working member of the royal family.

He carried out 560 official engagements

in 2008, 499 in 2010, and over 600 in 2011.

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As Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. He officiates at investitures and attends the funerals of foreign dignitaries. Prince Charles makes regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd. The six trustees of the Royal Collection Trust meet three times a year under his chairmanship. Prince Charles travels abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom. Charles has been regarded as an effective advocate of the country.  In 1995, Charles became the first member of the royal family to visit the Republic of Ireland in an official capacity.

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Charles served in the Royal Air Force and, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and two of his great-grandfathers, in the Royal Navy. During his second year at Cambridge, he requested and received Royal Air Force training. On 8 March 1971, he flew himself to the Royal Air Force College Cranwell to train as a jet pilot. After the passing out parade that September, he embarked on a naval career and enrolled in a six week course at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth. He then served on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk (1971–1972) and the frigates HMS Minerva (1972–1973) and HMS Jupiter (1974). In 1974, he qualified as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Yeovilton, and then joined 845 Naval Air Squadron, operating from HMS Hermes.

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On 9 February 1976, Charles took command of the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington for his last ten months of active service in the Navy. He learned to fly on a Chipmunk basic pilot trainer, a BAC Jet Provost jet trainer, and a Beagle Basset multi-engine trainer; he then regularly flew the Hawker Siddeley Andover, Westland Wessex and BAe 146 aircraft of The Queen's Flight until he gave up flying after crashing the BAe 146 in the Hebrides in 1994.

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Since founding The Prince's Trust in 1976, Charles has established 16 more charitable organisations, and now serves as president of all of those. Together, these form a loose alliance called The Prince's Charities, which describes itself as "the largest multi-cause charitable enterprise in the United Kingdom, raising over £100 million annually ... and is active across a broad range of areas including education and young people, environmental sustainability, the built environment, responsible business and enterprise and international."

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From his youth until 1992, Prince Charles was an avid player of Polo. He continued to play informally, including for charity, until 2005. Charles also frequently took part in fox hunting until the sport was banned in the United Kingdom in 2005. By the late 1990s, opposition to the activity was growing when Charles's participation was viewed as a "political statement" by those who were opposed to it. The League Against Cruel Sports launched an attack against Charles after he took his sons on the Beaufort Hunt in 1999. At that time, the government was trying to ban hunting with hounds.

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Charles has been a keen salmon angler since youth and supports efforts to protect the North Atlantic salmon. He frequently fishes the River Dee in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, while he claims his most special angling memories are from his time in Vopnafjörður, Iceland.

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Charles is a supporter of Burnley Football Club.

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In his youth, Charles was amorously linked to a number of women. His great-uncle Lord Mountbatten advised him.....

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"In a case like yours, the man should sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down, but for a wife he should choose a suitable, attractive, , 1985and sweet charactered girl before she has met anyone else she might fall for. It is disturbing for women to have experiences if they have to remain on a pedestal after marriage."

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Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was the companion of her elder sister, Sarah, and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend's barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of his uncle, Lord Mountbatten. Soon, according to Charles's chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride", and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.

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Charles's cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her. Meanwhile, the couple's continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana's reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten's criteria), Charles construed his father's advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.

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Prince Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981 and they married in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July. The couple lived at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (b. 1982) and Henry (known as "Harry") (b. 1984). Charles set a precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children's births.

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Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple's incompatibility and near 13-year age difference. Charles resumed his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana commenced one with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor. Charles and Diana's evident discomfort in each other's company led to them being dubbed "The Glums" by the press. Diana exposed Charles's affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana, Her True Story. Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced.

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In December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the couple's formal separation in Parliament. Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August of the following year; Charles flew to Paris with Diana's sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.

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The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005 and they were married on April 9th. Charles was the only member of the Royal Family to have a civil rather than a church wedding in England and his parents didn't attend the civil ceromony.

Prince Charles was a keen Polo player

Family photo in 1957. Princess Anne playing the piano.

Charles with US President Richard Nixon in 1970

Portrait of the Prince at Buckingham Palace in 1974

Charles and Diana with President Ronald Reagan

and Nancy Reagan in the Yellow Oval Room,

The White House, 1985

Charles With Czech Orthodox priest

Jaroslav Šuvarský in 2010

Charles meeting the crowds in

Westport, New Zealand in 2015

Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall meeting Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina, November 2005

Source: wikipedia.com

Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission