Prince Charles at age 70: why he "slammed the drum" to change things, but he said he would not meddle with the king

Prince Charles is predestined to hold a position since the age of three – and he has had plenty of time to think about how he will shape his role.

The heir to the throne will turn 70 on Wednesday and is still waiting to be king, although no one else can tell with certainty what kind of monarch he will be.

But the Prince of Wales has left many clues about what is important to him. And the clearest indicators of this can be an area of ​​800 hectares (2,000 acres) that he has helped restore to the Scottish countryside.

At Dumfries House, south of Glasgow, guests can get to know rare breeds of pigs, turkeys and chickens, enjoy a meal worthy of a Queen and learn how to use a professional sewing machine.

These are all activities that reflect Charles' priorities, including conservation training and employment.

Although he has devoted time to these personal priorities over the decades, the following titles of Charles have more often emphasized his connections with his sons, Princes William and Harry, and on the highs. and the lows of his love life – married first to the late Diana, Princess of Wales and, since 2005, to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

And yet, most of his adult life has been devoted to charity and campaigning for his favorite problems, including those at the heart of what is happening at Dumfries House.

"Some of the things we do here," he said 30 or 40 years ago, "said Kenneth Dunsmuir.

As Executive Director of the Prince & # 39; s Foundation, Dunsmuir remains in regular contact with Charles. The prince visits the estate at least six times a year and has a say in all important decisions.

Charles's views on sustainability, community development, and architecture are the guiding principles of everything that happens here.

"The particularity of Dumfries House is that you can actually physically see what it's talking about in one place," Dunsmuir said in an interview.

Save a piece of British history

In the mid-1700s, the Earl of Dumfries had the manor house built and equipped with a furniture collection by Thomas Chippendale almost unparalleled.

The estate remained in the hands of the family until it was put on sale in 2007. The auction house Christie's in London was responsible for selling the furniture. A library has been estimated at about $ 8 million.

The crews carefully loaded the trucks with the ornate goods and headed south until a famous call came in to turn around.

Prince Charles had heard of the sale and had reached an agreement to prevent it from falling into private hands.

He negotiated a deal worth 45 million pounds sterling (more than 90 million Canadian dollars at the time) to restore the estate and make it a center for employment. 39, education and sustainability. Nearly half of the funds came from its charitable foundation.

"I hoped that present and future generations could visit and enjoy the different facets of life and times of a bygone era," Charles wrote in an open letter.

Now the venue is booked weekly for weddings and other events. Schoolchildren discover organic farming and encounter endangered species. Among the animals kept safe on these lands are Scottish meat hens, Crwllwitzer turkeys and Tamworth pigs.

"The breed itself can be useful for adaptation to certain conditions or environments," Charles explained in a recently released BBC documentary, Prince, son and heir: Charles at 70 years old.

"I just think it's just that we maintain this gene pool."

Dumfries House employs nearly 300 people, making it one of the largest job creators in East Ayrshire, a region relatively affected by unemployment in Scotland.

"I was unemployed and I was a single mother," said Kim Monaghan while preparing sandwiches in the kitchen at Dumfries House.

Monaghan is enrolled in a five-week training program and then found a job. Other courses focus on textile manufacturing and sustainable construction techniques such as masonry and masonry.

"The course has given me a lot of confidence and confidence," said Monaghan.

It was one of Charles's goals when creating the Prince's Trust and the Prince's Foundation, two distinct charities focused on sustainability, youth and youth. ;employment.

In 1976, trust was the Prince's first major foray into his own charitable work, with the goal of helping at-risk youth in Britain to progress, as the country faced a high unemployment rate. . He founded the organization with his £ 7,400 severance pay (nearly C $ 14,000 at the time) after leaving the Royal Navy.

& # 39; Looking forward to making the difference & # 39;

Dunsmuir, the executive director of the foundation, describes Charles as "almost eager to make a difference in people's lives."

"To finally have a monarch with this [as] some of its DNA, "said Dunsmuir," would be phenomenal. "

The Prince of Wales is the heir to the oldest throne of British history. And he barely kept silent during the 66 years of waiting that began when his mother Elizabeth became Queen on February 6, 1952.

A strong advocate of the environment, he began to realize the dangers of plastic waste as early as 1970, long before it became a major concern.

"The sustainability of the entire harmonious system is shattering," he said during a speech at the Palace of St. James in 2009. "Failing on Earth, we fail in humanity. "

Charles is "so frustrated" when "you hit the drum for so long and no one is listening yet," said his younger son, Harry, in the BBC documentary.

Charles has also sparked controversy with his plea against certain forms of modern architecture.

While the National Gallery in London was to be enlarged in 1984, he was invited to speak at a gala for the Royal Institute of British Architects.

He made the crowd amazing by comparing the extension plan to "a monstrous knuckle on the face of a very beloved and stylish friend".

The design has been abandoned. The institute said the speech was "rudeness towards the history of architecture".

The prince & # 39; interference & # 39;

The episode of the National Gallery highlights what critics of Charles consider as cases where his campaign can go too far.

The queen, by comparison, does not express her private opinions in public. Great Britain may not have a written constitution, but it is understood that the monarch will remain politically neutral.

Some observers wonder if the prince will be able to curb his plea once his dead mother and his ascension to the throne.

"He is dealing with topics that many politicians sometimes find a little sensitive," said the great British ecologist Jonathon Porritt. He has been advising Charles on environmental issues for decades.

In 2015, it was shown that the prince had secretly exerted pressure on the British government, with the London press raising concerns of undue influence.

The United Kingdom Supreme Court has authorized the publication of Charles' letters to ministers, called "black spider memos" because of his spiral writing.

In the 27 letters written in 2004 and 2005, Charles argued for singular issues such as alternative medicine and badger slaughter.

"Constitutionally, he will have to be more careful about how he articulates some of these things" when he becomes king, Porritt said.

Charles also expressed concern over the equipment given to British soldiers sent to Iraq in 2003.

As a king, he would have warned the prime minister of the day, Tony Blair, against the precipitous deployment of troops in the US-led invasion, according to Robert Jobson's new biography. Charles to seventy: thoughts, hopes and dreams.

"These meetings would have been more difficult for the Prime Minister because he still has a role to explain to the king why he wants to lead the country to war," said Jobson, a long-time royal reporter at CBC News.

"I do not think it would have been so easy."

Before his 70th birthday, Charles used his clearest language to date to ward off the fears that he would be an "intrusive" king.

"The idea that I will continue exactly the same way, if I have to succeed [the Queen], is a total nonsense, "he told filmmaker John Bridcut in the Charles at 70 years old documentary.

And what would happen if?

Mike Bartlett's play of 2014 explores the possibility that the future monarch will trigger a constitutional crisis. King Charles III.

Presented last week at ADC Theater, a University of Cambridge University – the Prince's alma mater – the play unfolds in a not-too-distant future when the Queen is dead.

As a king, Charles provokes a national scandal by refusing the approval of a government bill and ultimately the dissolution of the British parliament.

The tale provoked much controversy in Britain when the BBC aired a television version in 2017, with images of the Queen's coffin and Diana portrayed as a ghost.

British Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said The viewers of the Mail on Sunday would find this "unpleasant" and that it "denigrates and undermines our royal family".

"We do not know if it will go down like this," said Ferdinand Holley, the 21-year-old law student who played Charles in Cambridge.

"That said, I'm worried about what will happen when the queen dies." Charles is a wise person.

The fictional tale sees Charles abdicate and William take the throne – an unlikely scenario that some British would like to see come true.

Two separate surveys published last year in The Sun and The Daily Express found that more than half of British respondents would prefer the Duke of Cambridge to become the next monarch.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft, a long-time writer on politics and history, says that renouncing the Prince of Wales as a monarch "would be for the better".

Opinion polls in the United Kingdom regularly rank Charles among the least popular members of the royal family.

And, says Wheatcroft, the prince would be almost 80 years old when he would succeed the queen if she lived to have the age of her mother. Queen Elizabeth II is 92 years old; the queen mother died at 101 years old.

"The big secret of the constitutional monarchy is that the monarch does not have any opinion," Wheatcroft said at his home in Bath, England.

"I do not try to be sinister, [but] the monarchy might not survive under the reign of King Charles III. "