King Charles III

Introduction

Charles, King of England, in full Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948 is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. He has been heir apparent as well as Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and the longest-serving Prince of Wales, holding the title since July 1958. He was officially crowned King of England on May 6, 2023.

Charles attended Cheam school in England, Gordonstoun school in Scotland, and Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. He graduated from the University of Cambridge and from 1971 to 1976 he served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, and they had two sons: Prince William and Prince Harry. By 1996, the couple divorced after years of an extramarital affair between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. The following year, Princess Diana was later killed during a car crash in Paris. In 2005, Charles married long-time partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

Prince Charles and Gortenstoun

Charles was a lonely child with a tendency for self-pity; with a mother that neglected him and a father who bullied him according to witnesses. At Cheam school Charles became a target of bullying as his classmates ridiculed his protruding ears and called the pudgy prince “fatty.” Lord Mountbatten even suggested that Charles’ large ears should be pinned back surgically. Charles was physically uncoordinated and slow as well as overweight, Charles had no talent for Rugby, cricket, or soccer which made him an even bigger outcast. The Queen thought Charles was a “slow developer” and Prince Philip believed he was too sensitive and he worried that he was weak and vulnerable, so he set about toughening him up. When asked in an interview when he was 20 years old whether Prince Philip had been a “tough disciplinarian” and whether he had been told “to sit down and shut up,” Charles answered without hesitation: “The whole time, yes.”

In 1962, with the intention of toughing up Charles, his father Prince Philip, arranged for him to be sent to Gordonstoun school in Scotland. As part of his initiation into Gordonstoun he was locked in a cage naked and showered in cold water. Afterwards King Charles stood firm that his younger siblings should not be sent to Gordonstoun, a plea that went unnoticed by his parents.

Charles and Lord Mountbatten

Charles was known to have a close relationship with Lord Louis Mountbatten who became a life-long mentor offering him guidance throughout his life. Lord Mountbatten was the great-uncle to Charles and he advised him in ‘matters of the heart’. Mountbatten is reported to have encouraged Charles to ‘sow his wild oats’ and embrace his bachelorhood before settling down. They first met when Charles was age 5. Charles viewed Lord Mountbatten as an ‘honorary grandfather’ and visited him frequently at his estate. Mountbatten was the only family member to attend the prince’s 1971 graduation from the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, and the following year, they escorted Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, to see her husband Edward VIII’s body lying in state in St George’s Chapel at Windsor.

Lord Mountbatten was later revealed to be a child rapist by documents recorded by the FBI. Mountbatten was also named by multiple witnesses and victims during the Kincora Boys Home child rape network investigation. In 1979 Lord Mountbatten was killed after a bomb was planted on his boat, Shadow V, during a fishing Trip in Ireland. The blast also killed three other people: his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, Lady Doreen Brabourne, Nicholas’s 83-year-old paternal grandmother, and Paul Maxwell, a 15-year-old boat boy. It is suggested the IRA may have killed Mountbatten because of the allegations that he was a child rapist rather than because of his position. “There were a lot of IRA people in that area. I am pretty sure they knew [the rumours]. They could have killed him any time in the last 30 years” of his life. Attempts to learn more about Mountbatten’s death have been thwarted by the failure of the UK National Archives to release its files about Kincora Boys’ Home.

In 2015, Charles visited the site of Mountbatten’s death, he said ‘I could not imagine how we would come to terms with the anguish of such a deep loss since, for me, Lord Mountbatten represented the grandfather I never had.’ King Charles’s eldest son, Prince William, reportedly named his own son Prince Louis after Lord Mountbatten.[6]

Charles and Laurens van der Post

Laurens van der Post, a South African author, was a significant influence on Charles, acting as a mentor and close confidant over many years. Known for his writings on spirituality, nature, and Jungian psychology, van der Post shaped many of Charles’s views on these subjects. The connection was so influential that Charles even named him godfather to his son, Prince William. In 1954, Van der Post raped and impregnated a 14-year-old girl named Bonnie, who was in his care during a sea voyage to England. She gave birth to a daughter, Cari Mostert, whom van der Post subsequently abandoned, leaving her without support​. Victoria Glendinning, in her 2006 biography of Leonard Woolf, called him a “fantasist and mythomane” and referred to his private life as “coarse and lascivious to the point of criminality”.

Charles and Jimmy Savile

In 1966, the prolific child rapist Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, aka Jimmy Savile, became the first civilian to be awarded a Royal Marines’ green beret. Lord Mountbatten was comm­and­ant general at the time. Jimmy was later introduced by Lord Mountbatten into royal circles and to Charles. Savile visited King Charles’s official London residence several times in the late 1980s when he was acting as a kind of marriage counsellor between Charles and Princess Diana. Royal staff were confused and struggled to understand why Savile was granted extensive access to the royal family. In 1999, Charles accepted an invitation to a private meal at Savile’s Glencoe home and Savile asked three local women to dress up in pinafores emblazoned with the letters HRH. Charles would also send Jimmy Savile Christmas cards, in one particular card he wrote a note that read: “Jimmy, with affectionate greetings from Charles. Give my love to your ladies in Scotland.” Charles reportedly sent him a box of cigars and a pair of gold cufflinks on his 80th birthday with a note that read: “Nobody will ever know what you have done for this country Jimmy. This is to go some way in thanking you for that.”

In an interview with Esquire, Savile tells, “The thing about me is I get things done and I work deep cover,” … “I’ve known the Royal Family for a million years.” … “Just because some people are famous or have a lot of money doesn’t mean they don’t have problems.”… ”Coming from Lord Louis, who was the favourite uncle of Prince Philip, that was quite something,” “So obviously I hooked up with the Prince – what was good enough for Lord Louis was good enough for him.” Jimmy Saville was later exposed for having raped and/or sexually assaulted more than 500 people, including hospital patients, children and elders alike.

Charles is reported to have identified Jimmy Savile as his ‘best friend’ and even included Savile in a list of potential godparents after his second son Harry was born in 1984. After Jimmy Saviles death Prince Charles led tributes despite growing allegations of Savile’s mass child rape.

Charles and Peter Ball

Jimmy Savile introduced Charles to child rapist Bishop Peter Ball. Charles became very close to Peter Ball and he was a long-time admirer. When the prince’s marriage to Diana was unravelling, Charles sought advice from Ball who encouraged his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. Years later, Peter Ball was a guest of honour at the wedding when Charles finally married Camilla after years of extramarital affair.

In 1992 when Peter Ball was first arrested and issued a caution for child rape and other crimes, Charles used his influence to protect him. Charles sent letters of support to him while he was under investigation. In 1993, the bishop was forced to resign after being let off with a caution over allegations he assaulted and raped a teen monk. Charles immediately offered the disgraced Peter Ball sanctuary and a place to live in a Duchy of Cornwall house. As well as gaining influence within the church, Bishop Ball had a powerful Establishment network, which included disgraced PM Margaret Thatcher who covered up for multiple child rapists during her tenure.

Finally in 2015 the bishop came to trial and the jury heard how he abused, tortured, and raped young priests and monks. At the second trial the court heard from 18 victims but it is believed there were more than 100. As part of Peter Ball’s 2015 trial, the court heard that, backed by Charles, Cabinet ministers, the Royal Family, MPs, JPs and a lord, he escaped with a caution over the 1992 allegations and continued to abuse for 23 years. Peter Ball was released from prison in February 2017 after serving half of his 32-month sentence. The former bishop of both Lewes and Gloucester, “ensured that Lambeth Palace and Archbishop Carey were aware of his friendship with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,” “He did so in the hope this would influence their treatment of him and, ultimately, ease his return to ministry.” He also let it be known that Charles also purchased a property specifically to rent to Ball and his brother, and his “charm, charisma and reputation” enabled him to avoid criminal conviction for decades.

Investigators later found that Charles’s correspondence with George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, “could have been interpreted as expressions of support” for Ball and an attempt to influence Lambeth Palace in his favour. As a result, “the actions of the Prince of Wales were misguided. His actions, and those of his staff, could have been interpreted as expressions of support for Peter Ball and, given the Prince of Wales’ future role within the Church of England, had the potential to influence the actions of the Church.” The report mentions Charles has stated that he “took no position on Peter Ball’s return to ministry, he and his private secretary enquired about Peter Ball within Lambeth Palace. He should have recognised the potential effect that his apparent support for Peter Ball could have had upon decision-making within Lambeth Palace.”

However one of Peter Ball’s victims had this to say, “Throughout all of this Prince Charles has tried to distance himself from Ball and play down their close friendship, the nature of which can be seen in letters disclosed to the inquiry. “To say that he was simply misguided in continuing that friendship, even after he was made aware of Ball’s police caution, seems to be letting him off rather lightly. He must have been fully aware of the power and influence that his support would bring. “I welcome the work of the inquiry but I can’t help but feel that we will never know the full truth and so those who did contribute to the cover-up may never be properly held to account.” Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said, “We may never know the true harm caused by Charles’ intervention and support for Ball, but welcome the fact that the inquiry did not shy away from highlighting his role in this scandal.”

Charles maintained a correspondence with Ball for more than two decades after his police caution and told the inquiry that he regretted being “deceived” by him over a long period of time “about the true nature” of his activities. He also denied seeking to influence the outcome of police investigations and said he was unsure whether he was told about Ball’s caution until 2009. In one letter, sent from Charles to Peter Ball in February 1995, he said: “I wish I could do more. I feel so desperately strongly about the monstrous wrongs that have been done to you and the way you have been treated.”

Charles and Princess Diana

In 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, and they had two sons: Prince William and Prince Harry. By 1996 they were divorced after a series of extramarital affairs by Charles. In 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris which has been the subject of various investigations and speculation. She died alongside Dodi Fayed, who was an Egyptian film producer and the son of billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed. Dodi’s father Mohamed called Prince Philip a Nazi and went on to blame the Royal family for the murder of his son and Princess Diana.

In the mid-1990s, prior to the Royal divorce and Diana’s death, Diana visited a hospitalized Royal servant who said he was raped twice by a man who works closely with Charles. One of the incidents was said to have taken place in Egypt, the other at a royal palace. The victim was being paid less than £10,000 a year, and is understood to have left the royal household with a £30,000 payoff. During her hospital visit Princess Diana secretly recorded the conversation with the victim, however the tape went missing shortly after her death in 1997.

Citations:

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