Self pitying, angry hoarder - King Charles

[DessertsForAll]

An article in The Times has a lot of revelations about King Charles, including that he is prone to melancholy and self-pity, indecisive and stubborn, with an explosive temper - he would kick furniture in rage. He had no interest in hearing criticism, and sought out people who agreed with him. One dinner companion realised that he became actively annoyed if challenged. Charles’s homes are cluttered, with one friend calling him an outright hoarder. And unlike the Queen spends lots of money on himself.

Many agree that what Camilla, excels at is managing him: cheering him up when he’s glum, indulging him when he needs it, geeing him up when he doesn’t and knowing how and when to persuade him of a particular course of action when his staff have tried and failed. “Leave it with me,” she says to courtiers, with one press secretary describing her as “the final court of appeal”.

“If the Queen had taken half as much trouble about the rearing of her children as she did about the breeding of her horses,” a private secretary remarked drily to Robert Lacey, “the royal family wouldn’t be in such an emotional mess.”"

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/king-charles-coronation-camilla-william-harry-uk-hilary-rose-2r0k2g53t

He could have stepped aside and allowed William take over. But I suppose the idea of being King is what he has been waiting his whole life for so that was unlikely. It's the first real job he has had in his life, so he's actually done things in reverse, he spoke to the flowers first and pottered around his organic garden, then took on the job of a lifetime.

I feel so sorry for him at his age having to do that. 😉

Plus Camilla is actually of retirement age!

Why do you call him Chuck? It sounds...weird, to address him like that as if you knew him. None of us do, or the machinations of it all.

Theres a real sense of spitefulness in some of these posts but not, fortunately, in the majority

I wouldn't worry about it dear. They do not concern themselves with us nor do they know us either.

Anyway I think my question was a valid one, for what it's worth.

I'd Chuck them all into the moat if I could!

@PillBoxes Charles is cutting money to others so there is more for him.

If Charles had wanted to abdicate he could have. I agree he wanted to be King. And plenty of people in their seventies are still busy.

😅

Right I do have a bone to pick with the comment about criticism. None of us want to be personally criticised and more than likely to eat the head of someone who does. But that isn’t what they are talking about here. They are talking about professional feedback. I took it to mean he doesn’t want to hear from others that his plans aren’t working.

imgur.io/a/s3ZklbN

This seems like an opportune moment to
post this again. I've probably watched it a hundred times and it still makes me laugh :)

You have to press on the speaker top right to get sound!

@Roussette thank you for posting the article, it’s a very interesting reading

I agree with you about that the analysis of any family would reveal complex people who struggle with relationships like we all do.

I think part of the reason there is so much interest in that particular family is because they have all, over the past few decades, but more so recently, been seen to be fallible human beings just like us.

In my childhood, and certainly the childhood my parents lived, the Royal Family were what we were supposed to model ourselves on. We weren’t only trying to ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ we were also trying to be a modest version of the Royal Family.

We really knew very little about them but what was manufactured PR etc.. We were supposed to be like those PR versions of them .. only lower middle class versions. They we held up as standards of behaviour to aspire to, when in reality they were just as messy and full of faults as the rest of us. And often behaved in ways that were so different from the image of them we were encouraged to aspire to.

The deliberate presentation of the Royal Family as people who picnicked and when doing so washed up the dishes just like us- was a whole lot of baloney. But people fell for it.

Just like Instagram really.

Now, it’s like all the bullshit is being seen for what it is. And that’s not good for the Royal Family who, up until now, have relied on mystique and smoke and mirrors.

I read ages ago about the Queen Mother coming home one day and commenting that ‘All we do is act all day.’ I don’t know if that really happened but I think it’s possible. What we got is not who they are. Actually, we are getting who they are now.

i get the impression William is the same. All three of them entitled - and spoiled in the wrong ways.

gkhg · 10/03/2023 21:45
I'm not surprised, he was parented terribly. No one growing up like that is going to end up a well balanced, rational adult.

Absolutely this!. Left for months on end when he was just a baby. Bullied unmercifully at Gordonstoun, and his parents did nothing. Left him there for years. Ann was father's favourite; Andrew mothers. Not allowed to marry the woman he wished to marry - a virgin was chosen for him.

Thank God for Camilla! And that she has her own home for escape at times. (perhaps we all need that..)

A number of our friends have visited the Highgrove gardens and have had wonderful viewings and of course able to ask all types of things about the gardens, grounds, and charitable causes supported by King Charles for many years. In speaking with staff and gardeners etc they heard only wonderful things said about King Charles as an employer and conservationist. They loved their jobs and working there. That is always a good measure of a person.
The gardeners were encouraged to use their own judgement on shaping plants and all sorts. King Charles devotes sections of his garden in memory of special people etc. No one is perfect but I think he is a long way from being an ogre. Someone displaying an array of emotions at times shows that they are human, honest and invested with issues.

Great post @skullbabe

Charles always struck me as a tragic figure, especially as he does not seem to have learned from the failings of his own parents.

I think William and Kate's children will be okay because Kate had such a happy childhood, and will provide the stability that William and Harry lacked as children. Really heartbreaking to think of William passing tissues to his weeping mother under the door.

I also think that Harry and Meghan's children will have a happy childhood in which they are loved and cherished.

Similarly, I think Eugenie, Beatrice and Zara's little ones will do just fine as their parents seem engaged, and happy with their partners.

So at the very least the "Royal trauma" will not be repeated in that generation, which is a good thing for the health and longevity of the institution.

On the contrary, I bet there is a young, attractive, flexible woman who is great at getting into all kinds of contorted positions.

She may or may not be a yoga teacher.

There won't have been a strong attachment, many nannies involved over the years and mother gone abroad for months at a time. He was sent to a boarding school where he was basically abused as well. His father was harsh and not in the least bit caring.

can't blame him
he has had an unenviable life - waiting until he is 74 for the Job

He’s always had a reputation for being extremely grumpy hasn’t he?

i have cared for some wealthy people and can imagine the attitude !
i dont spose the Queen was a bed of roses

Charles had a miserable childhood (far worse than Harry ironically) I feel sorry for him, and now he is an old man who is grumpy with some obvious issues.

He is also quite progressive, more sensitive to public sentiment than any other monarch we've seen, and very hardworking. I think he's doing his best.

It's sad that along with his position brings a lot of criticism and haters, judging and speculating about a man they'll never meet. It must be an awful burden, he's born from a young age, and must've affected him terribly.

Wow, what a comment from Robert lacy.

@googlejourney. Charles's had a far worse childhood than Harry??

Charles mother has just died, he's 70 plus!!

He's a weirdo alright. He's got the same beetroot face and beady, angry eyes like Harry and Anne and Sarah Chatto.