On Remembrance Sunday, amid all the trappings of tradition, the British people caught a glimpse of the future. As in 2017, it was Prince Charles, rather than his 92-year-old mother, who led the nation in its public commemoration of its war dead. The prince has increasingly been deputising for the Queen at public functions for some time now. Given that the Queen’s own mother lived to 101, the transition may still be a long one. But it is another public reminder that post-Elizabethan Britain will look, and probably feel, rather different.
On Wednesday, Prince Charles turns 70. Most people of that age have either retired or are winding down in some ways. Charles is different. The purpose of his life is still ahead of him. No one has prepared more thoroughly for that moment than he has. Charles has been heir to the throne for longer – 66 years and counting – than anyone in British history. If and when he succeeds his mother, he will be by some distance – William IV holds the current record at 64 – the oldest monarch on accession too.
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