Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was born during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent following his mother's accession in 1952. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and his investiture was held in 1969. He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree at the University of Cambridge, he served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. He married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 and they had two sons, William and Harry. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 after years of estrangement and well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died the following year from injuries sustained in a car crash. In 2005, Charles married his long-time partner, Camilla Parker Bowles.
As heir apparent, Charles undertook official duties and engagements on behalf of his mother and represented the United Kingdom on visits abroad. He founded the Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsored the Prince's Charities and became patron or president of more than 800 other charities and organisations. He advocated for the conservation of historic buildings and the importance of traditional architecture in society, and in that vein generated the experimental new town of Poundbury. An environmentalist, Charles supported organic farming and action to address climate change during his time as manager of the Duchy of Cornwall estates, earning him awards and recognition. He has also been a prominent critic of genetically modified food, and has drawn scrutiny for his support of alternative medicine. He has authored or co-authored 17 books.
Charles became king upon his mother's death in 2022. At the age of 73 he was the oldest person to accede to the British throne, after having been the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales in British history. Significant events in his reign have included his coronation in 2023, his cancer diagnosis in 2024 which temporarily suspended planned public engagements, and the removal of his brother Andrew's remaining titles, styles, and honours in 2025.
Early life, family, and education
Charles was born at 9:14 pm on 14 November 1948 by caesarean section at Buckingham Palace, during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI. He was the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (later Queen Elizabeth II), and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was christened Charles Philip Arthur George on 15 December in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. He has three younger siblings: Anne (born 1950), Andrew (born 1960), and Edward (born 1964).
George VI died on 6 February 1952, after which Charles's mother acceded to the throne as Elizabeth II and he became heir apparent. Under a charter issued by Edward III in 1337, and as the monarch's eldest son, he automatically assumed the titles of Duke of Cornwall and, in the Scottish peerage, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953.
When Charles was five, Catherine Peebles was appointed as his governess to oversee his education at Buckingham Palace. He began attending Hill House School in West London in November 1956, becoming the first heir apparent to be educated at a school rather than by private tutors. He did not receive preferential treatment from the school's founder and headmaster, Stuart Townend, who encouraged the Queen to have Charles train in football, noting that boys on the pitch were never deferential to anyone. Charles later attended two of his father's former schools: Cheam School in Hampshire from 1958, followed by Gordonstoun in Moray, where he began classes in April 1962. He became patron of Gordonstoun in May 2024.
Jonathan Dimbleby's authorised 1994 biography described Elizabeth and Philip as physically and emotionally distant parents, and criticised Philip for disregarding Charles's sensitive nature, including insisting that Charles attend Gordonstoun, where he was bullied. Although Charles reportedly referred to the school as "Colditz in kilts", he later praised Gordonstoun for teaching him "a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities". In a 1975 interview Charles said he was "glad" to have attended the school and that its "toughness" had been "much exaggerated".
In 1966, Charles spent two terms at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, during which he visited Papua New Guinea on a school trip with his history tutor, Michael Collins Persse. Charles later described his time at Timbertop as the most enjoyable part of his education. On returning to Gordonstoun, he became head boy, and left in 1967 with six GCE O-levels and two A-levels in history and French, at grades B and C respectively. Reflecting on his schooling, Charles later remarked that he "didn't enjoy school as much as I might have", adding that he was "happier at home than anywhere else".
Breaking royal tradition, Charles proceeded directly to university after completing his A‑levels rather than joining the British Armed Forces. In October 1967, he was admitted to the University of Cambridge to study archaeology and anthropology for the first part of the Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, later switching to history. During his second year he spent one term at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, studying Welsh history and Welsh language. Charles became the first British heir apparent to earn a university degree, graduating from Cambridge in June 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with lower second-class honours (2:2). Following standard practice, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in August 1975.
Prince of Wales
Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 26 July 1958, although his investiture did not take place until 1 July 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony at Caernarfon Castle. The event was controversial in Wales amid rising Welsh nationalist sentiment. He took his seat in the House of Lords the following year, delivering his maiden speech on 13 June 1974, the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884. He addressed the House again in 1975.
Charles increasingly undertook public duties, founding the Prince's Trust in 1976 and travelling to the United States in 1981. In the mid-1970s he expressed interest in serving as Governor-General of Australia, following a suggestion by the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Fraser. The proposal was ultimately abandoned owing to a lack of public enthusiasm. Charles later remarked, "so, what are you supposed to think when you are prepared to do something to help and you are just told you're not wanted?"
Military training and career
Charles served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy during the 1970s. His military training began in 1969, in his second year at Cambridge, when he joined the Cambridge University Air Squadron and learned to fly the Chipmunk. He was presented with his RAF wings in August 1971.
After the passing-out parade that September, Charles embarked on a naval career and undertook a six-week course at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He subsequently served from 1971 to 1972 on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk, and on the frigates HMS Minerva from 1972 to 1973 and HMS Jupiter in 1974. That same year he qualified as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Yeovilton, and during his helicopter training completed commando instruction at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines at Lympstone. Charles then joined 845 Naval Air Squadron, a Royal Marines air support unit of the Fleet Air Arm, serving as a pilot aboard HMS Hermes and flying the Royal Marines commando variant of the Westland Wessex helicopter.
Charles spent his final ten months of active naval service commanding the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington, beginning on 9 February 1976. He retired from active service later that year with the rank of Commander. Two years later he undertook the parachute training course at RAF Brize Norton, having been appointed colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment in 1977, and was a member of Parachute Course 841a. Charles gave up flying after crash-landing a BAe 146 in Islay in 1994, when, as a passenger invited to fly the aircraft, he was at the controls; a board of inquiry found the crew negligent.
Relationships and marriages
Bachelorhood
In his youth, Charles was romantically linked to several women. His girlfriends included Georgiana Russell, the daughter of Sir John Russell, who was the British ambassador to Spain; Lady Jane Wellesley; Davina Sheffield; Lady Sarah Spencer; and Camilla Shand, who later became his second wife.
Charles's great-uncle Lord Mountbatten advised him to "sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down", but, for a wife, he "should choose a suitable, attractive, and sweet-charactered girl before she has met anyone else she might fall for ... It is disturbing for women to have experiences if they have to remain on a pedestal after marriage". Early in 1974, Mountbatten began corresponding with 25-year-old Charles about a potential marriage to his granddaughter, Amanda Knatchbull. Charles wrote to Amanda's mother, Lady Brabourne, who was also his godmother, expressing interest in her daughter. Lady Brabourne replied approvingly, but suggested that a courtship with a 16-year-old was premature.
Four years later, Mountbatten arranged for Amanda and himself to accompany Charles on his 1980 visit to India. Both fathers, however, objected: Prince Philip feared that his famous uncle would eclipse Charles, while Lord Brabourne warned that a joint visit would concentrate media attention on the cousins before they could decide whether to become a couple.
In August 1979, before Charles was due to depart alone for India, Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. When Charles returned, he proposed to Amanda. But in addition to her grandfather, she had lost her paternal grandmother and younger brother in the bomb attack, and was now reluctant to join the royal family.
Lady Diana Spencer
Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977, while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was then the companion of her elder sister Sarah and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend's barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten. Soon, according to Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride" and she accompanied him on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.
Charles's cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her. Meanwhile, the couple's continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Charles's father told him that the media speculation would injure Diana's reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten's criteria), Charles construed his father's advice as a warning to proceed without further delay. He proposed to Diana in February 1981, with their engagement becoming official on 24 February; the wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits of the Duchy of Cornwall from 50 per cent to 25 per cent. The couple lived at Kensington Palace and Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: William, in 1982, and Harry, in 1984. As of 2025, Charles has an estranged relationship with his son Harry, who relinquished his royal family obligations and moved to the United States in 2020.
Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple's incompatibility and near 13-year age difference. In 1986 Charles had fully resumed his affair with former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles. In a video tape recorded by Peter Settelen in 1992, Diana admitted that, from 1985 to 1986, she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment." It was assumed that she was referring to Barry Mannakee, who had been transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986, after his managers determined his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate. Diana later commenced a relationship with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor.
Charles and Diana's evident discomfort in each other's company led to them being dubbed "The Glums" by the press. Diana exposed Charles's affair with Parker Bowles in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story. Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced, as did persistent suggestions that Hewitt is Prince Harry's father, based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time Diana's affair with Hewitt began.
In December 1992, the British prime minister, John Major, announced the couple's legal separation in the House of Commons. Early the following year, the British press published transcripts of a passionate, bugged telephone conversation between Charles and Parker Bowles that had taken place in 1989, which was dubbed "Tampongate" and "Camillagate". Charles subsequently sought public understanding in a television film with Dimbleby, Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role, broadcast in June 1994. In an interview in the film, Charles confirmed his own extramarital affair with Parker Bowles, saying that he had rekindled their association in 1986, only after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down". This was followed by Diana's own admission of marital troubles in an interview with journalist Martin Bashir on the BBC current affairs programme Panorama, broadcast in November 1995. Referring to Charles's relationship with Parker Bowles, she said, "well, there were three of us in this marriage. So, it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship. Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996, after being advised by the Queen in December 1995 to end the marriage. The couple shared custody of their children.
Diana died following a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Charles flew to Paris with Diana's sisters to accompany her body back to Britain. In 2003, Diana's butler Paul Burrell published a note that he claimed had been written by Diana in 1995, in which there were allegations that Charles was "planning 'an accident' in [Diana's] car, brake failure and serious head injury", so that he could remarry. She had allegedly expressed similar concerns in October 1995 to Lord Mishcon, her solicitor, that "reliable sources" had told her "that she and Camilla would be put aside" for Charles to marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke. When questioned by the Metropolitan Police inquiry team as a part of Operation Paget, Charles told the authorities that he did not know about his former wife's note from 1995 and could not understand why she had those feelings. The allegations were later revealed to have been among the smears spread by Bashir to secure the interview with Diana for the BBC.
Camilla Parker Bowles
Because Charles and Parker Bowles were romantically involved periodically, both before and during their respective first marriages, their relationship received criticism from the public and the media. Following both of their divorces, Charles declared his relationship with Parker Bowles was "non-negotiable" and appointed Mark Bolland to enhance Parker Bowles's public profile.
In 1999 Charles and Parker Bowles made their first public appearance as a couple at the Ritz London Hotel and the following year, she met Queen Elizabeth II at the 60th birthday party of former King Constantine II of Greece, which was seen as an apparent seal of approval by the Queen on the relationship. In 2003, Parker Bowles moved into Charles's official residence, Clarence House and she accompanied Charles on almost all of his official events, including the annual Highland Games in Scotland. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, told The Times that Charles and Parker Bowles should marry, "He is heir to the throne and he loves her. The natural thing is that they should get married." Their engagement was announced on 10 February 2005. The Queen's consent to the marriage – as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772 – was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on 2 March. In Canada, the Department of Justice determined the consent of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada was not required, as the union would not produce any heirs to the Canadian throne.
Charles was the only member of the royal family to have a civil, rather than a church, wedding in England. British government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by the BBC, stated that such a marriage was illegal; these claims were dismissed by Charles's spokesman and explained by the sitting government to have been repealed by the Registration Service Act 1953.
The union was scheduled to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at the castle's St George's Chapel. The wedding venue was changed to Windsor Guildhall after it was realised a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone who wished to be married there. Four days before the event, it was postponed from the originally scheduled date of 8 April until the following day in order to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Charles's parents did not attend the marriage ceremony; the Queen's reluctance to attend possibly arose from her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. However, his parents did attend the service of blessing and held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle. The blessing by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was televised.
Since their marriage in 2005, Charles has paid tribute to Camilla repeatedly in public letters, speeches and interviews, thanking her for "steadfast support" and referring to her as "my darling wife".
Official duties
In 1965, Charles undertook his first public engagement by attending a student garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. During his time as Prince of Wales, he undertook official duties on behalf of the Queen, completing 10,934 engagements between 2002 and 2022. He officiated at investitures and attended the funerals of foreign dignitaries.
Charles made regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd. The six trustees of the Royal Collection Trust met three times a year under his chairmanship. Charles also represented his mother at the independence celebrations in Fiji in 1970, The Bahamas in 1973, Papua New Guinea in 1975, Zimbabwe in 1980 and Brunei in 1984.
In 1983, a man named Christopher John Lewis, who had fired a shot with a .22 rifle at the Queen in 1981, attempted to escape from a psychiatric hospital in order to assassinate Charles, who was visiting New Zealand with Diana and William. While Charles was visiting Australia on Australia Day in January 1994, David Kang fired two shots at him from a starting pistol in protest against the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum-seekers held in detention camps. In 1995 Charles became the first member of the royal family to visit the Republic of Ireland in an official capacity. In 1997 he represented the Queen at the Hong Kong handover ceremony.
At the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Charles caused controversy when he shook hands with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who had been seated next to him. Charles's office subsequently released a statement saying that he could not avoid shaking Mugabe's hand and that he "finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent".
Charles represented the Queen at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. In November 2010 he and Camilla were indirectly involved in student protests when their car was attacked by protesters. In November 2013 he represented the Queen for the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Charles and Camilla made their first joint trip to the Republic of Ireland in May 2015. The British Embassy called the trip an important step in "promoting peace and reconciliation". During the trip, he shook hands in Galway with Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin and widely believed to be the leader of the IRA, the militant group that had assassinated Lord Mountbatten in 1979. The event was described by the media as a "historic handshake" and a "significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations".
Commonwealth heads of government decided at their 2018 meeting that Charles would be the next Head of the Commonwealth after the Queen. The head is chosen and therefore not hereditary. In March 2019, at the request of the British government, Charles and Camilla went on an official tour of Cuba, making them the first British royals to visit the country. The tour was seen as an effort to form a closer relationship between Cuba and the United Kingdom.
Charles contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic in March 2020. Several newspapers were critical that Charles and Camilla were tested promptly at a time when many National Health Service doctors, nurses and patients had been unable to be tested expeditiously. He tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time in February 2022. He and Camilla, who also tested positive, had received doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.
Charles attended the November 2021 ceremonies to mark Barbados's transition into a parliamentary republic, abolishing the position of monarch of Barbados. He was invited by Prime Minister Mia Mottley as the future Head of the Commonwealth; it was the first time that a member of the royal family attended the transition of a realm to a republic. In May of the following year, Charles attended the State Opening of the British Parliament, delivering the Queen's Speech on behalf of his mother, as a counsellor of state.
Reign
Charles acceded to the British throne on his mother's death on 8 September 2022. He was the longest-serving British heir apparent, having surpassed Edward VII's record of 59 years on 20 April 2011. Charles was the oldest person to succeed to the British throne, at the age of 73, surpassing the previous record holder, William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830.
Charles gave his first speech to the nation at 6 pm on 9 September, in which he paid tribute to his mother and announced the appointment of his elder son, William, as Prince of Wales. The following day, the Accession Council publicly proclaimed Charles as king, the ceremony being televised for the first time. Attendees included Queen Camilla, Prince William and the British prime minister, Liz Truss, along with her six living predecessors. The proclamation was also read out by local authorities around the United Kingdom. Other realms signed and read their own proclamations, as did Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, the Crown Dependencies, Canadian provinces and Australian states.
In November 2022, the King and Queen hosted the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, during the first official state visit to Britain of Charles's reign. The following March, they undertook a state visit to Germany, where Charles became the first British monarch to address the Bundestag. On 6 May 2023, Charles and Camilla's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey, in a ceremony planned for many years under the code name Operation Golden Orb. Prior to Charles's accession, reports suggested that the coronation would be "shorter, smaller, less expensive, and more representative of different faiths and community groups than that of his mother in 1953, reflecting the King's wish to acknowledge the ethnic diversity of modern Britain". Nonetheless, the coronation remained a Church of England rite, including the coronation oath, the anointing, crowning, investing with the regalia, and enthronement.
In July 2023, the royal couple attended a national service of thanksgiving at St Giles' Cathedral, where Charles was presented with the Honours of Scotland. That same month, he asked for the profits from Britain's growing fleet of offshore wind-farms to be used for the "wider public good" rather than as extra funding for the monarchy, and it was announced that the monarchy's share of Crown Estate net profits would be reduced to 12 per cent. In September, Charles became the first British monarch to give a speech from the French Senate chamber during a state visit to France. The following month he visited Kenya, where he faced calls to apologise for colonial abuses; at a state banquet he acknowledged "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence" but did not issue a formal apology.
In May 2024, the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, asked the King to call a general election; subsequently, royal engagements that could divert attention from the election campaign were postponed. In June 2024, Charles and Camilla travelled to Normandy to attend the 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day. The same month, the King received Emperor Naruhito of Japan during his state visit to the United Kingdom. In July, the annual Holyrood Week, which is usually spent in Scotland, was shortened so that Charles could return to London and appoint a new prime minister following the general election. After Sunak's Conservative Party lost the election to the Labour Party led by Sir Keir Starmer, Charles appointed Starmer as prime minister.
In October 2024, the King and Queen toured Australia and Samoa; Australia was the first Commonwealth realm Charles visited since his accession. In Samoa, he attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting for the first time as Head of the Commonwealth. The tour was significantly scaled back owing to his cancer diagnosis, with a planned visit to New Zealand among the cancelled events. Charles temporarily paused his cancer treatment during the tour.
In March 2025, the King received Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Sandringham House, just days after the Trump–Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting. Zelenskyy later told The Guardian that Charles played a quiet but influential role in altering US president Donald Trump's attitude toward Ukraine.
The King and Queen initially cancelled a planned visit to Vatican City during their state visit to Italy, but on 9 April 2025 – their 20th wedding anniversary – they visited Pope Francis at Domus Sanctae Marthae as he was recovering from pneumonia. Francis died 12 days later.
The King, accompanied by the Queen, made his first visit to Canada as monarch in May 2025 at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney, a trip that took place during a period of tension with the United States after President Trump made comments questioning Canada's sovereignty. During the visit, he opened the 45th Canadian Parliament and delivered the Speech from the Throne, the first time a Canadian monarch had done so in person since 1977.
In June 2025, the King approved the decommissioning of the British Royal Train ahead of its maintenance contract ending in 2027. Described by the Keeper of the Privy Purse as part of a commitment to "fiscal discipline", the decision marked the end of 180 years of the royal family's use of a dedicated royal train.
In October 2025, during a state visit to the Holy See, Charles became the first British monarch to pray alongside a pope since the Reformation, joining Pope Leo XIV for a church service in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. Later that month, Charles undertook his first official engagement in support of the LGBT+ community, unveiling "An Opened Letter", the UK's first national memorial honouring LGBT armed forces veterans, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. On 30 October, amid continuing controversy surrounding his brother Andrew's association with the American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Charles initiated a formal process to remove his style, titles and honours. Following Andrew's arrest on 19 February 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, the King expressed his "deepest concern" and stated that "the law must take its course".