'Gentle succession' underway as Prince Charles prepares to assume some of his mother's royal duties - and maybe more of an activist role

[WestVirginiaRebel]

UK Independent:

Prince Charles may be preparing the ground to become a more outspoken and controversial monarch than his mother as the House of Windsor gets its “gentle succession” under way, constitutional experts said yesterday.

 

The heir to the throne is expected to take on more of the 87-year-old Queen’s duties, including overseas visits, as part of a slow convergence of their roles which this weekend saw the announcement of the merger of their press offices into a single “seamless” operation.

 

The move was accompanied by briefings that Charles would be expected to do “less of his campaigning” as he increasingly stands in for the head of state at official events and prepares to assume the mantle of monarch.

 

But royal sources yesterday held out the prospect of a different approach by underlining that the Queen and her eldest son were from “very different eras” and leading constitutional experts pointed out that the prince is under no obligation to follow his mother’s example in studiously avoiding expressing controversial opinions throughout her near 62 years on the throne.

 

Modern British monarchs have habitually adopted a position of political neutrality because of their constitutional power to call for the formation of a government. The present queen has gone further and stayed out of public debate on nearly every topic.

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The coming of King Charles?