Hard reign
Even monarchists fear King Charles will struggle
Tom Clark
Editorial
If you go by the historical record, the odds of things ending unhappily for a King Charles are exactly 50 per cent. And if the palace insiders that Emily Andrews talks to (p20) are any guide, you wouldn’t want to stake any more on a successful reign for Charles III than on the toss of a coin. The sense of foreboding is, at one level, strange. After all, if hereditary monarchies are good for anything, it ought to be the transition between parent and son; having been in the works for 65 years, the next transition ought to be especially smooth. So why the unease?