On the official crest of the Prince of Wales, there is a motto: ich dien. In German, this means ‘I serve’.
The history of this motto, and the ostrich feathers that accompany it, are not the point of this post. Nor is the history of the title ‘Prince of Wales’, though both are very interesting. The point of this post is to talk about our current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles, who had put in quite a lot of service over the past fifty years or so.
I have spoken in previous posts about how Charles does not have the good reputation he ought to have, to a large degree because people just cannot look past the trouble with Diana, and think that because their marriage went so badly wrong, Charles is somehow unfit to be king. Yes, Diana was desperately unhappy in her marriage, and yes, Charles is responsible for some of that unhappiness, but that does not mean that he, thirty years later, should be condemned as unfit to succeed the Queen as our monarch, and as the Head of the Commonwealth. There is just no logical link there. I suspect also that there may be some sort of bias against the principle of hereditary succession here, which again is quite unfounded: Charles is 73, well past the age when most people have retired, and yet he has kept busy, in a positive, productive, way, learning from the best (i.e. the Queen) about how to live up to his motto, and serve. It’s like people think the idea of hereditary succession is somehow inherently wrong, when it is not, especially not when the successor in question will fulfil his role so well one day and has spent his life learning how to fulfil it. I will also point out that the role of Head of the Commonwealth is not hereditary, but Charles has been chosen to eventually succeed the Queen in that role.
We have a Prince of Wales who has put his private estate to good use: the naysayers will think ‘why should he have all this land and a huge income just from owning land’, because they have no concept of what he’s actually doing with that land. Prince Charles owns land throughout southern England and parts of Wales: this is the Duchy of Cornwall, which had provided an income for Princes of Wales since the fourteenth century. Charles, the longest-serving Duke of Cornwall, had managed his estate since he was 21. The money is partially Charles’ own income, but it also goes towards his (many) charities. Charles takes a great personal interest in the lives of the farmers who are, essentially, his tenants. He supports people who want to get into a life of sustainable farming. He’s tried out breeding old breed of animals and growing old varieties of vegetables on his estates, to save them from extinction and encourage agricultural diversity, and hundreds of thousands of tree have been planted on his estate. He’s having a town built down in Dorset: the uninformed will roll their eyes and say something foolish about how entitled that makes him, but there is a vision here for Charles’s vision of Poundbury, due to be completed in 2025, providing homes, jobs, and a good quality way of life for around 4000-6000 people. He has another such town planned in Cornwall, Nansleden, in a deprived area of the county – this is a Prince of Wales who is trying to do something good, something that will benefit people. For Charles, the environment is of ‘timeless value’, and he puts this into action on his estate, where sustainable ways of farming, land management, and building, will preserve the land for the future. This is forward thinking.
(Also! Prince Charles pays tax. That will shut the detractors right down: according to the Prince of Wales’ official website, Charles pays income tax on his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. So there we are.)
Then there are the various charities of which the Prince is either head or patron: the Prince’s Trust, which operates in other Commonwealth Realms as well, helps unemployed or disadvantaged young people get into work or training; the Prince’s Foundation is all about promoting sustainable community-building; Charles, alongside the Duchess of Cornwall, is also patron of a number of other charities which tend to centre around protecting heritage and the environment, among other things.
Charles is known to have said that when he does eventually become king, he would be more comfortable with the title ‘Defender of Faith’, rather than ‘Defender of the Faith’ (i.e. the Church of England, of which he is a practising member; this has been one of the monarch’s titles since Henry VIII first held it). Indeed, one of the causes that he supports is understanding and dialogue between different faiths – this just seems eminently sensible.
I really wish all of this was better known. I wish people knew this about the Prince of Wales, and indeed about the Duchess of Cornwall too, just as much as they know the unfortunate story of his marriage to Diana. That is, of course, why I wrote this post, because I think that when Charles does become king (and, for obvious reasons, may that day be long distant), he will step into the role of King, of Head of State, of Head of the Commonwealth admirably, after an already long period of service. This is someone who is trying to use his privileged position to do good, and to support others in doing good. Let’s bring this to the foreground.
Further Reading:
I wish there was a bit more of this, actually, but a couple of things stand out in particular:
Have a browse through the Prince of Wales’ official website: https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk Scroll down to the ‘Frequently asked’ bit at the very bottom as well. He does a LOT.
There is a really informative documentary out there, ‘Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall’ (I watched it on UK Netflix, but I am not sure where else it would be available), which does just what it says on the tin, and is wonderfully thought-provoking and encouraging
How It Was Because 