> Zed Book Club / Robert Hardman Tells ‘The Inside Story’ of King Charles’ First Year on the Throne
Their Majesties arrive at Buckingham Palace in 2022 for the first time as King and Queen, a day after Elizabeth II died. Photo: Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images
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Robert Hardman Tells ‘The Inside Story’ of King Charles’ First Year on the Throne
In an excerpt from 'Charles III: The Inside Story,' the British journalist describes how a hug sets the tone for the new King's reign / BY Shanda Deziel / May 1st, 2024
Shortly after acceding to the throne, King Charles found himself at a loss for words. He had picked up the phone at Balmoral Castle to call his eldest son and break the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death, only to be greeted by the residence’s switchboard operator. “He began by saying: ‘Hello, it’s …’” writes journalist Robert Hardman in Charles III: The Inside Story. “At which point, he paused momentarily. He did not, at that very moment, want to tell the switchboard that he was King before telling his own son. So, he continued: ‘… it’s me.’” Fortunately, His Majesty has a distinctive voice.
This is just one previously untold story in Hardman’s 352-page unauthorized – yet authoritative – volume. The author draws from past interviews with Charles, new chats with Princess Anne and Queen Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot, and with the monarch’s friends and staff. For the most part, Hardman focuses on the current state of Royal Family affairs, from Queen Elizabeth’s last moments – her doctor said, “She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain” – to the ways the King leans on his wife and how he navigates the seemingly never-ending scandals. (His cancer diagnosis, though, came after the book went to print.)
In this excerpt, we see the historic moment when the new King and Queen arrive at Buckingham Palace the day after Elizabeth II’s death, and how their first emotional exchange with their subjects set the tone for a brand new reign.
At the palace, the crowds were already so substantial that police had created a human one-way system for flower bearers. The King asked the chauffeur to stop the car outside the gates. The moment that he opened the door, something unexpected happened. As the crowd burst into “God Save the King,” which felt strange enough, the King made straight for a line of tearful onlookers, hand outstretched. However, the first in the line did not want a mere handshake. “Can I hug you?” she asked. “Of course,” the King replied. The Queen later told friends of her abiding memories of people spontaneously bursting into the national anthem and of a woman clasping her hands and saying: “Look after him for us.” “I will,” the Queen replied, doing her level best to check her emotions. “I promise.”
As they walked through the palace gates, under the arch and across the quadrangle to the State Entrance, they saw all the London-based staff lined up in the Grand Hall. As at Birkhall, all were in black ties and black liveries.
Soon afterwards, [Private Secretary] Sir Clive Alderton summoned the staff together for a briefing. He had been struck by the woman who had given the King a hug. To him, this was a moment that crystallized the change of reign. No one would have asked the late Queen for “a hug” in a similar situation (and nor would they have received one if they had). If that was a reflection of her age and generation, so this moment summed up the style of Charles III. “Clive mentioned what had happened with this hug,” recalls one of his team. “He said: ‘This reign will have an informal formality to it.’ That was his phrase. The last reign had been formal, and rightly so, but this one would have ‘an informal formali-ty.’ Then Clive lightened the mood, adding: ‘I wish I could take the credit for him hugging this woman!’”
That evening, Charles III addressed the country with a speech he had been carefully drafting and redrafting throughout the day. His pre-prepared text was largely consigned to the waste-paper basket. He wanted this to be fresh. Queen Camilla was with him, as she had been all day. She positioned herself in a corner of the Blue Drawing Room so that she could see the King, but he could not see her. “She knew the whole thing would set her off – as indeed it did,” says one who was present. “But she didn’t want to set him off.” He would end up doing the whole thing in one take but it was recorded twice just to be on the safe side.
“Throughout her life, Her Majesty the Queen – my beloved mother – was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family,” he began, “and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother. Queen Elizabeth’s was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept, and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.”
In just under 10 minutes, he paid tribute to his “darling wife,” announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would now be Prince and Princess of Wales and spoke of “my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.” He acknowledged that he could no longer “give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply.” Coming full circle back to the late Queen, he concluded with a line from his beloved Shakespeare (from Hamlet, in fact). It was one which would resonate again and again through the days ahead: “To my darling mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May ‘flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.’”
Even his most consistent critics had to concede that this had been precisely what the nation had wanted and needed to hear. The King had caught the mood.