Tomorrow, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will hold their coronation in London. Matt Ford says it's all fun and games until someone loses a Parliament:
Charles’s ascent is not important because he actually has a divine right to reign over the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and roughly a dozen other countries. Nor is it important because Harry is attending without Meghan in either a brave stand against his abusive family or a rude snub of his well-intentioned father. The British monarchy is important because its leader wields no small amount of power over a nuclear-armed global financial hub with a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. And Charles’s coronation matters because he, more than any other recent king or queen, is more likely to upend the whole thing.
[T]o say that the king has no power or influence is not quite accurate. For one thing, he retains personal control over the Duchy of Lancaster, which began as a feudal estate in medieval times and now resembles an investment portfolio. Its holdings include real estate, farms, historical buildings, and other revenue-producing assets. His son William owns the Duchy of Cornwall, a similar enterprise that provides him with income independent of Parliament. These bodies are different from the Crown Estate, which is owned by the monarchy as an institution and sends its revenues directly to the Treasury. For some Britons, Charles and William aren’t just tabloid figures. They are also landlords.
Charles himself has also played a more direct role in trying to influence legislation. After a ten-year legal battle, the British government released a series of memos in 2015 that detailed how the then-Prince of Wales had secretly lobbied ministers on various pet issues ranging from alternative medicine, to badger culls, to helicopters in the Iraq War. It’s long been reported by British media outlets that Charles, as heir, wanted to more vocally champion issues that were close to his heart. Whether he will do so as monarch will be hard to discern: After the memo’s disclosure, Parliament upgraded the royal family’s exemption to freedom-of-information laws to be absolute.
Keep in mind, they are an awfully long-lived family. Charles could remain King well into the 2050s.