The new Carolingian era began with the coronation of Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor as Charles III, Carolos Rex, King of the United Kingdom and ruler of the fourteen kingdoms that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations and head of the Church of England.

Ever since his days as the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Rothesay and Edinburgh, his versatile and sometimes controversial figure has always been criticized and condemned for a modern and progressive agenda for the conservative line of the Royal House. Profiling himself as a king closer to people who know how to listen, a conservationist and an environmentalist, big changes will now be seen.

With the symbolism of a thousand-year-old ceremony, Carlos III is the fortieth king to be crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. There he swore to serve the people and obey God. This is the only monarchy in the world with a ceremony of this magnitude where honor and glory were the motto on the historic day.

Compared to his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation ceremony, this one was modest and subdued. Pomp and circumstances, everything was under control, except for the weather, it rained occasionally. It is estimated that more than 300 million viewers followed him on television around the world.

Beautiful arrangements of the official flowers of the United Kingdom adorned the royal carriage route, thistles from Scotland, daffodils from Wales, shamrocks from Ireland and roses from England, some probably imported from the rose bushes of our Ecuador. In a show of great recycling, after the ceremony all those flowers were taken to battered women’s shelters, nursing homes and hospitals.

Long before he inherited an incalculable fortune from his mother, Carlos III, he built his own economic empire. Using tax breaks, offshore accounts and shrewd real estate investments, he turned the static legacy of his royal estate into a multi-million dollar business and lucrative income. The best example is what has been achieved with the Duchy of Cornwall, with a property portfolio of around 52,000 hectares generating millions of dollars a year in rental income.

To improve the lives of disadvantaged young people by giving them the opportunity to confidently believe in their ideas and the money to make them happen, in 1976 the then Prince of Wales founded The Prince’s Trust or The Prince’s Trust. Since then, more than a million young people have been helped to reach their potential, and nearly $1.8 billion in value has been returned to society.

The new king has finally found his destiny for which he has been preparing for more than 70 years, now he has to find his way in a country with economic crisis, recession and inflation. Some Commonwealth countries have opted for the new rules and do not want to continue to have him as a representative of the British Crown.

In one of his speeches he once said: “It is only when you risk going very far that you find out how far you can go.” Now his main challenge will be to win over the people in front of the growing anti-monarchy movement where many young people are also his allies, God save the king! (OR)