What Prince Charles must overcome if he is to be accepted as king

Prince Charles’ money-for-honors scandal comes after The crown inflicted an audience crash in his support as a future king.

According to YouGov, more people in Britain currently believe the Prince of Wales would make a bad king than a good one since December 2020.

And it comes after three resignations from his charity, the Prince’s Foundation, following allegations that a Saudi billionaire was offered help to secure a knight’s title and British citizenship in exchange for donations.

The crown

As of June 2020, 38% of people believed the next to the throne would make a good head of state, compared with 30% who did not.

However, in November, season four of the Netflix series The crown hit the screens with her Emma Corrin portrayal of Princess Diana’s bulimia while Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) ran an affair behind her back.

A month later, British pollster YouGov recorded that 32% thought he would make a good king, compared to 33% who thought he wouldn’t.

Sunday’s show ended at Emmy’s with 11 wins, including best actor in a dramatic award for O’Connor, who at one point portrayed Charles in a fit of rage.

And there is more to come for Prince Charles as Netflix is ​​releasing two more seasons of The crown, including one next year that will show some of the more chaotic times of their relationship breakdown.

Prince harry

Things have not improved since, as Prince Harry made new allegations against the 72-year-old.

The Duke of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey her father stopped answering her calls as he tried to negotiate his exit from the royal family and then cut him financially last summer.

At the end of May, YouGov saw another drop, with 31% believing Charles would make a good king versus 35% who thought he wouldn’t.

Spencer

In November, Kristen Stewart will play Princess Diana in Spencer, the biopic of Pablo Larraín with a fictional portrayal of her deciding that she no longer wants to be a future queen.

Prince Charles surveyed Britain well until the messy split with Diana, according to historical data from Ipsos Mori.

When asked if he would make a good king, 82% said he would in 1991, up from 41% in 1996, the year of their divorce.

Spencer takes place over Christmas in 1991, months before a biography Diana had secretly cooperated with revealed her affair with Camilla for the first time.

It essentially focuses on the epicenter of Charles’ collapse in popularity.

Prince william

Prince Charles has another long-standing problem in that his eldest son Prince William is still more popular than him in regular opinion polls by YouGov and others.

Not only that, more people would like the Duke of Cambridge to be the next monarch.

Prince Charles slipped above Prince William in answers to this particular question in January 2020, the month Harry and Meghan left royal duties and three months after Harry publicly acknowledged a split with William in a ITV documentary.

At the time, 39% wanted Charles to be king, compared to 36% who wanted William to be king, according to a YouGov tracking poll.

However, in December The crown the effect had apparently taken its toll again, with 40% wanting William and 32% wanting Charles.

To add insult to injury, Princess Diana once said to the elder The telegraph of the day editor Sir Max Hastings, she wanted William to be king before his father, which means the public seems to be inflicting vengeance on Diana.

The young

There is another glimpse of recent royal polls that might pose an additional concern for Charles: the young could turn against the monarchy.

Support for the royal family remains strong across the UK public, but YouGov polls suggest that a growing number of 18-24 year olds in Britain would rather have an elected head of state.

Data from the May survey put that figure at 41 percent versus 31 percent who wanted to continue with the monarchy.

Similar surveys in 2019 showed that 46% of 18-24 year olds were in favor of the monarchy, 26% wanted an elected head of state.

The drop came two months after Oprah Winfrey’s interview, and it may be too early to tell if this is a persistent trend that young people will maintain as they get older.

However, if Britain’s youth systematically oppose the pursuit of the monarchy, Prince Charles, currently 72, could find himself the man tasked with reversing this trend.

Prince Charles as future king

In December 2019, a palace insider said News week that Prince Charles played a key role in managing tensions with his second son and also his brother, Prince Andrew, accused of raping a victim of 17-year-old Jeffrey Epstein.

Our source said of Queen Elizabeth II: “There is a feeling that she has lost control within the family, between Andrew’s disastrous interview and the ongoing drama with Harry and Meghan.

“The Queen was deeply disappointed with their behavior. As the future king, it was up to Charles to put an end to the chaos.”

Yet between Harry, Andrew and the discontent of the young, the way forward for the prince is not straightforward and, not for the first time, his judgment is currently being called into question.

Money for honors

Prince Charles and the head of the Prince’s Foundation, Michael Fawcett, were reported to police after allegations the latter offered to help a Saudi donor to become a knight.

The charity is conducting its own investigation and the Scottish Charities Regulator has launched a parallel investigation.

So far, Fawcett has temporarily stepped down and two others, including President Douglas Connell, have also resigned.

The centerpiece of the allegations is a letter Fawcett sent to an aide to Saudi tycoon Marei Mubarak Mahfouz bin Mahfouz, who Sunday Times reported had previously donated £ 1.5million to the charity.

Posted in Sunday mail, the August 2017 letter, read: “In light of the current and most recent generosity of His Excellency, Sheikh Marei Mubarak Mahfouz bin Mahfouz, I am happy to confirm to you, with confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for citizenship.

“I can further confirm that we are ready to do [an] request to increase the honor of His Excellency from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with His Majesty’s Honorary Committee.

“Both of these requests will be made in response to the Trust’s most recent and expected support and as part of its continued engagement in general in the UK. I hope this confirmation is sufficient to move us forward. . “

A Clarence House statement after the scandal broke said: “The Prince of Wales is unaware of the alleged offer of honors or British citizenship on the basis of a donation to his charities and fully supports the ‘ongoing investigation by the Prince’s Foundation. “