Shaking branches of trees: the secret quirks of King Charles III are named

The heir to the British throne, Charles, has been in the spotlight of the world community for decades, but it’s safe to say that there’s a lot we don’t know about him.

Serving the interests of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, was the main work of Charles throughout his life. Therefore, one can imagine the joy with which he finally ascended the throne to fulfill the role for which he had been preparing all his life.

Prince Charles has been one of the main pillars of British social life for almost 50 years, firmly entrenched in television reports and on the pages of newspapers. So many of us think we know everything about the future king. But is it?

Yes, we know that Charles married Diana Spencer and divorced her. We know that he has maintained his romance with Camilla since the 1970s, and that his relationship with his son, Prince Harry, is all but ruined. But if you look closely at the finer details of his biography, you can find a lot of oddities.

Prince’s lonely childhood

Prince Charles’s lonely childhood is well documented, but few know how tragic it was. When he was only three years old, his mother changed from princess to Queen Elizabeth II. The boy grew up, but no one believed that Charles was worthy to follow in her footsteps. Even at this childhood age, he was criticized for being too sensitive, sickly, and prone to tears.

According to royal insiders, Charles’s main critics were his relatives and parents: Elizabeth worried that he was “slow developing”, and his father Prince Philip – a tall, athletic man – was especially cold towards a puny son who was not good at sports. And instead of just accepting Charles for who he is, Philip one day came up with a special plan.

Like many patriarchal fathers, Prince Philip thought that Charles just needed a good shake to finally “become a man.”

Accordingly, when the boy was eight years old, Philip sent Charles to the notoriously harsh Gordonstown boarding school. This turned out to be worse than Charles could have imagined. He later named the site “Colditz in the Kilts”, referring to the infamous impregnable German castle that was used as a POW camp during World War II.

When the details of Charles’ stay in Gordonstown became known, it turned out that classmates constantly bullied him, either causing physical pain or simply ignoring him. And if anyone showed even the slightest bit of sympathy for the Prince of Wales, the other boys made chomping noises to discourage potential allies of the prince and discourage them from defending him.

However, when Charles came of age, he, like a Phoenix bird, was reborn from the ashes and became one of the brightest and most controversial secular characters in the UK.

Magician and martini lover

For many people, childhood and youthful hobbies become a profession. For Prince Charles, the interests of his youth materialized rather narrowly – in 1975 he officially joined the Magic Circle, a society of stage magicians founded in London in 1905.

The prince passed the entrance exam with the “cup and eggs” trick and joined the ranks of practicing magicians, and even performed on stage several times. But this did not last long, and soon he moved on to other hobbies, such as watercolor painting and calligraphic writing. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in these hobbies. But when the prince painted landscapes, he talked to plants. “Charles often shakes the branches of trees in a friendly way, wishing them all the best,” one of those close to the court once said.

“Yes, the heir to the British throne always shakes hands with trees, thus he expresses respect to them and contributes to the environment,” his chef with an exclusively British surname Smith once made such a funny statement.

And the prince is a man of habit, so his chef always travels with him. Smith also said: “Every morning for breakfast he has a handful of specially prepared wheat germ and cereals, honey and jam on a silver tray, a few pieces of fruit and tea. And he never eats.”

But the newly-minted king is pretty unshakable in what he eats for dinner. According to Smith, no matter what is served, Charles always demands a soft-boiled egg salad and a dry martini.

If he is invited to dinner, his security team brings him a martini in a special case. Moreover, the cook must always cook the eggs for exactly three minutes in order to bring them to the desired condition. In fact, the chef usually brews several servings and quickly disposes of those that don’t fit.

Why don’t you iron the laces?

No one has ever seen Prince Charles in ordinary modern suits, and indeed in modern style of clothing. He is always dressed in an old English double-breasted suit without pockets, with a handkerchief peeking out of the breast pocket, a flower in the buttonhole, and wears shirts with French cuffs. His shoes also look anything but modern and are handcrafted for £750 a pair.

If you thought we were exaggerating the Prince’s obsession with details when it comes to dressing style, then you are wrong. In fact, he is adamant that everything should be in order, down to the laces. Former royal servant Brian Howey has admitted that the prince requires his laces to be ironed whenever he takes off his shoes! This servant also claims that Charles always sleeps naked, but it is difficult to verify the authenticity of his words.

Today, about 124 employees ensure the order and comfort of the home of Prince Charles (i.e. King Charles III) and Duchess (i.e. Queen Consort) Camilla. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that the prince would enjoy peace away from prying eyes. However, it is not.

Bauer claims that Charles loves to surround himself with servants without urgent need – whenever he goes somewhere, his butler, two valets, a private secretary, a typist, a chef and several bodyguards join him. Surrounded by such a crowd, he visits any place, from social events to the post office, where he also has a strange habit of visiting personally.

Everyone at home has a favorite comfort item, but Prince Charles has taken that need to the extreme. So, he never travels without the usual bedroom furniture.

The prince’s staff is forced to pack and transport his special orthopedic bed, fresh linens, a 60s radio, chest of drawers, a personal toilet seat, rolls of a certain brand of toilet paper and two favorite landscapes of the Scottish Highlands.

It seems that there is nothing unusual in the fact that all this goodness is transported by a personal private plane or helicopter. But one day, Charles spent a fabulous amount of money, demanding to use a special royal train to go to one of the local pubs in the English city of Penrith.

English wine car

Surrounded by the prince, they say that from the very beginning of his life, he did almost nothing on his own. Therefore, even at such an advanced age, he cannot reasonably organize the domestic side of life. Chef Smith once said, “His office is wildly disorganized, full of people just sitting around and getting big money for nothing, and his thinking is often completely unorganized and chaotic as well.”

However, these words should be doubted, since Prince Charles, like a true Briton, is ready to break some high-society rules and give up fads where they interfere with business for the sake of business profit – his various charities and production, which includes a line of organic products, as well as the restaurant, quite successful.

At the same time, the future king of England is not at all a fan of iPhones and other newfangled gadgets. Smith says his contempt and unwillingness to use technology is often mind-boggling. He refuses modern means of information transmission in favor of chaotic handwritten notes, and does not hesitate to call his assistants for this at any time of the day.

Charles doesn’t like new cars either – he enjoys driving his 42-year-old Aston Martin, the Queen’s 21st birthday present. The machine runs on biofuel made entirely from English wine. However, he also has other cars that he has converted to run on 100 percent biodiesel fuel made … from waste vegetable oil.

One way or another, the new king of Great Britain has his faults, but he takes his current life seriously and shows a deep and sincere concern for his place in history.

Many people assume that Charles is the busiest member of the royal family. Every year he holds about 600 business meetings, including over 170 abroad. And together with his wife Camilla, he throws many parties every year, sometimes hosting up to 6,000 guests at events, lunches and dinners at their royal residences. And they say he knows a lot of tricks and tricks for parties. Well, what else remains to be done – kings can do everything!

Read the material “There was a video of the scandal at the coffin of Elizabeth II in Edinburgh”