Prince Charles at 70: Why "beat the drum" to make the difference but says he will not be confused as a king

Prince Charles has been pre-set for a job since the age of three – and he had enough time to think about how he would shape the role.

The heir of the throne turns 70 on Wednesday, still waiting to be king, although no one except him can say with certainty what kind of monarch will be.

But the Prince of Wales left many clues about what is important to him. And clearer indicators of this kind can be in an area of ​​800 acres (2000 acres) that helped restore the countryside of Scotland.

At Dumfries House, south of Glasgow, patrons can get acquainted with rare breeds of pigs, turkeys and chickens, enjoy a royal organic meal and learn to use a professional sewing machine.

They are all activities that reflect the priorities that have been centered by Charles for years, including education for preservation and employment.

As long as he devotes time to these personal priorities over the decades, the titles following Charles are more often centered on his association with his sons, princes William and Harry and the ups and downs of his erotic life – married first by the late Diana, the Princess of Wales and, from 2015, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

And yet, most of his adult life has been devoted to charity work and campaigning for his favorite subjects, including those who are at the heart of what's going on at Dumfries House.

"Some of the things we do here say 30 or 40 years ago," said Kenneth Dunsmuir.

As the Prince Foundation's Executive Director, Dunsmuir maintains regular contacts with Charles. The prince visits the estate at least six times a year and has a say in every major decision.

Charles's long-standing views on sustainability, community development, and architecture are the guiding principles for everything that's going on here.

"The special thing about Dumfries House is that you can really see what it was all about in one place," said Dunsmuir in an interview.

Save a bit of British history

In the mid-1700s, Dumfries's Earl had the mansion built and equipped with an almost unparalleled collection of fine Thomas Chippendale furniture.

The property remained in the hands of the family until it was offered for sale in 2007. Christie's auction in London was commissioned to sell the furniture. A library is estimated to be worth about $ 8 million.

The crews carefully load the trucks with the elaborate goods and head south, until it is rumored that a call came back.

Prince Charles had heard about the sale and reached an agreement to stop falling into private hands.

He negotiated a £ 45 million deal (over $ 90 million Cdn at that time) to restore the property and turn it into a center of employment, education and sustainability. Almost half of the funds came from his charity.

"I hope that today's and future generations will be able to visit and enjoy the different aspects of life and the times of a past era," Charles writes in an open letter.

Now the site is held weekly for weddings and other events. Students learn about organic farming and encounter threatened species. Scotch chickens, Crwllwitzer turkeys and Tamworth pigs are among the animals that are kept safe for these reasons.

"The breed itself may be valuable in terms of how it is adapted to certain conditions or environments," Charles explained in a recent BBC television documentary, Prince, son and heir: Charles at 70

"I think it is right that we have to keep these groups of genes going."

Dumfries House employs about 300 people, making it one of the largest job creators in East Ayrshire, a region of relatively low unemployment in Scotland.

"I was unemployed and I was a mom," said Kim Monaghan while preparing sandwiches in Dumfries House's kitchen.

Monaghan signed a five-week training program and later got a job. Other courses focus on the manufacture of textiles and on sustainable building techniques such as masonry and masonry.

"The lesson gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of faith in myself," said Monaghan.

This was one of Charles's goals for setting up Prince's Trust and Prince's Foundation, two separate charities that focused on sustainability, youth and employment.

In 1976, trust was the first prince's main road to his own charity work to help young people in danger in Britain move forward as the country struggled with high unemployment. He set up the organization with him £ 7,400 retirement compensation (almost $ 14,000 Cdn at that time) after leaving the Royal Navy.

"Impatient to Make a Difference"

Dunsmuir, the CEO of the foundation, describes Charles as "almost impatient to make a difference in people's lives."

"To finally have a monarch with that [as] part of his DNA, "said Dunsmuir," would be apparent. "

The Prince of Wales is the greatest heir to the throne in British history. And it almost did not remain silent during the 66-year waiting that began when Elizabeth's mother became a queen on February 6, 1952.

As an ardent environmental campaigner, he began to warn of the dangers of plastic waste already in 1970, long before it became a major concern.

"The viability of the whole harmonious system collapses," he said in a central speech at St. James's Palace in 2009. "In the failure of the Earth, we fail in humanity."

Charles gets "so disappointed" when you hit the drum for that long and nobody listens, "Harry's younger son said in the BBC documentary.

Karolos also sparked controversy with his sincere defense against certain forms of modern architecture.

As the National Gallery of London was expanded in 1984, it was invited to speak at an event for the Grand Institute of British Architects.

He has surprised the crowd by shocking the expansion plan to "a monstrous carabbean with the face of a very loving and elegant friend."

The design was dissolved. The institute declared the speech "an asymmetry in architectural history."

The "mixing" prince & # 39;

The episode of the National Gallery highlights what Charles critics see as cases where his campaign can go too far.

The Queen, for comparison purposes, does not express her public opinion publicly. Britain may not have a written constitution, but it is understandable that the monarch will remain politically neutral.

Some observers wonder if the prince will be able to maintain his defense as soon as his mother dies and ascends to the throne.

"It's dealing with things that many politicians sometimes find little fragile," said Jonathon Porritt, head of British Environmental Protection. He has advised Charles for environmental issues for decades.

In 2015, the prince turned out to have secretly pushed the British government, with the London press expressing concerns about unjustified influence.

The UK Supreme Court has allowed the release of Charles' letters to cabinet ministers – known as "black spider signs" because of its spiral handwriting.

In all 27 letters written in 2004 and 2005, Charles advocated unique issues such as alternative medicine and liming.

"From a constitutional point of view, he has to be much more careful about how he articulates some of these things" when he becomes a king, Porritt said.

Carlos also expressed concern at the equipment given to the British soldiers sent to Iraq in 2003

As a king, he would have warned the Prime Minister of the day, Tony Blair, against hurriedly expanding troops in the US-led invasion, according to Robert Jobson's new biography Charles in the Seventies: Thoughts, Hopes and Dreams.

"These meetings would be harder for the prime minister because he still has a role to play in explaining to the king why he wants to take the country to war," Jobson, a long-time royal journalist, told CBC News.

"I do not think it would be that easy."

Before his 70th birthday, Charles used his clearest language to reject the concerns that he would be a "reliant" king.

"The idea of ​​going in exactly the same way if I have to succeed [the Queen], it is absolute nonsense, "he told director John Bridcut at Charles in 70 documentaries.

And if?

The probability that the future monarch will launch a constitutional crisis is being investigated in Mike Bartlett's play for 2014, King Charles IV.

Presented last week at the ADC Theater, part of Cambridge University – the prince's alma mater – the game is in a not too distant future in which the Queen is dead.

As a king, Charles raises national anger by denying the adoption of a government bill and eventually the dissolution of the British parliament.

The story sparked a real debate in Britain when the BBC sent a television version in 2017, accompanied by pictures of the Queen's and Diana's casket depicted as a ghost.

British Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said Mail's viewers on Sunday would find it "unpleasant" and "organized and undermined our royal family."

"We do not know if it's going to go down like that," said Ferdinand Holley, the 21-year-old law student who played Charles at Cambridge.

"That said, I'm worried about what happens when the queen dies. Charles is an ambitious figure."

The fantastic story sees Charles relinquishing and William joining the throne – an unlikely scenario that some Britons would like to see happening.

Two separate polls published last year in 2004 Sun and Daily Express found that more than half of Britons would prefer to see the Duke of Cambridge become the next monarch.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft, a longtime writer on politics and history, says that bypassing the Prince of Wales as a monarch "would be for the better."

Polls in the UK classify Charles as one of the less popular members of the royal family.

And, says Wheatcroft, the prince would be almost 80 when she would succeed if she lives to be the age of her mother. Queen Elizabeth II is 92 years old. Queen Mother died at 101.

"The great secret of the constitutional monarchy is that the monarch has no opinion," said Wheatcroft at his home in Bath, England.

"I'm not trying to be ominous, [but] the monarchy may not survive the reign of King Charles. "