Just as children like to pretend to be kings and queens, so royals love to flatter their own self-image. In the BBC’s documentary to mark his 70th birthday this week, Prince Charles invoked Shakespeare’s laddish take on Prince Hal to pooh-pooh the idea that as king he’d continue meddling in politics and bothering ministers with his thoughts. As an ageing prince, he has of course spent decades doing just that.
“You can’t be the same as the sovereign if you’re the Prince of Wales or the heir,” Charles observed. “But the idea somehow that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way if I have to succeed is complete nonsense because the two situations are completely different. You only have to look at Shakespeare plays, Henry V or Henry IV Parts I and II, to see the change that can take place. Because if you become the sovereign then you play the role in the way that it is expected.”
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zCAngw
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