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Whether it’s through royal tell-alls or royal-family-based movies and TV shows like The Crown, we all think we know what happens in the inner workings of the British Royal family. And while that may feel real, it’s safe to say that there’s still of lot of their lives that we’re still not totally sure of.
This week, for example, royal biographer Robert Hardman, author of the upcoming book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, disputed the one thing most royal fans deemed 100% true: King Charles’ eagerness to reign.
“He definitely had his own views on how he wanted to run the operation. But this idea that he was impatient to get his hands on it didn’t occur to him,” Hardman told People.
“I don’t think people have possibly quite understood that he is a sort of spiritual person. And there’s a sort of fatalism there,” he continued. “It’s more like, ‘Well, the day will come and when it comes, I’ll deal with this, but I’m not in a hurry.'” Looks like The Crown really got this angle wrong…
‘The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy’ by Robert Hardman
“[The COVID-19 pandemic] could easily have been a moment for him to sort of take more of the limelight had he wanted to,” the royal expert continued. “But at no point was the Queen’s authority being questioned right up to the end.”
In fact, Hardman claims the now-King progressively worked with the late monarch to help her over the years. “What definitely happened over a longer period than perhaps people realized — certainly over a sort of eight to 10-year period — was he did get closer to the Queen because he was doing more and more things on her behalf,” Hardman said. “And they were acting in tandem on quite a lot of things.”
“He was stepping in for her at pretty much every level, particularly overseas travel, meeting world leaders, doing investitures, and just generally being around — but crucially, he was not elbowing his way in,” he added. Talk about a royal attitude!
Before you go, click here to see all the best pictures from King Charles III’s coronation.
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