{"id":283229,"date":"2025-11-14T20:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283229\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T20:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:11:08","slug":"king-charles-celebrates-77th-birthday-in-year-marked-by-trumps-state-visit-andrews-scandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283229\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles celebrates 77th birthday in year marked by Trump’s state visit, Andrew’s scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Britain’s King Charles III cuts into a castle-styled cake during a visit to the South Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil on Friday.KIN CHEUNG\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s King Charles celebrates his 77th birthday on Friday with a trip to Wales, where he can reflect on a year of some personal successes often overshadowed by family feuds, the scandals of his younger brother Andrew and his own illness.<\/p>\n

From deftly handling U.S. President Donald Trump to symbolically bringing the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church closer than they have been in five centuries, it has been a year the monarch can look back on with satisfaction.<\/p>\n

But as ever, the internal family issues that enthral the media and fascinate the public have cast a pall \u2013 none more so than the banishment of Andrew from public life over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. <\/p>\n

King Charles strips brother Andrew of titles, forces him out of his home<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that the monarchy is trying to do, everything the monarchy has been doing has been completely upstaged by this embarrassing saga,\u201d said royal biographer Robert Hardman after the king took away Andrew\u2019s title of prince and his mansion on the Windsor Castle estate.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Then-prince Andrew with King Charles during the funeral of Britain’s Katharine, Duchess of Kent in London.Toby Melville\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Despite the headlines being dominated by stories of Andrew, the estrangement of his younger son Prince Harry<\/a> and concerns about his health since his cancer diagnosis at the start of last year, royal commentators say Charles\u2019 first three years on the throne have actually gone better than many predicted.<\/p>\n

For much of his life, waiting in the wings during his mother Queen Elizabeth\u2019s record-breaking 70-year reign, there was concern that when he became sovereign, Charles would upend the ancient institution with radical ideas.<\/p>\n

When he finally became king in September, 2022, some observers suggested he would be little more than a placeholder until his eldest son Prince William and his wife Kate led the monarchy into the future.<\/p>\n

\u2018Benefit of low expectations\u2019Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump and King Charles inspect the Guard of Honour during Trump’s state visit, at Windsor Castle in September.Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Charles\u2019s reign has been a sort of unexpected triumph so far,\u201d royal author Tina Brown told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had the benefit, I suppose, of low expectations. We all kind of thought, this is the bridge reign, it\u2019ll just be sort of bumbling along until we get to the glamour of William. But actually, I think that he has really excelled on the world stage as a great statesman.\u201d<\/p>\n

His most notable success on that front has been his dealings with Trump, displaying diplomatic skills honed from years of meeting world leaders and dignitaries.<\/p>\n

His hosting of the president for an unprecedented second state visit in September \u2013 Queen Elizabeth had also entertained him in 2019 \u2013 was heralded as helping to smooth relations between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the Ukrainian President\u2019s chief of staff, while also cementing Britain\u2019s economic ties with the United States.<\/p>\n

Trump praises King Charles during Windsor Castle banquet as U.K. state visit kicks off<\/a><\/p>\n

While some world leaders, most notably Zelensky, have faced a hostile reception from Trump in the White House, royal sources say the President had gone out of his way on his trip to Britain to ensure everything he did fitted with protocol.<\/p>\n

In a careful balancing act, Charles had also shown overt support for Canada \u2013 where he made the unusual and highly symbolic step of opening the Canadian parliament in May \u2013 amid trade tensions and Trump\u2019s regular musings about the U.S. annexing its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to keep President Trump happy because you want favourable trade deals for the United Kingdom,\u201d royal commentator Afua Hagan told Reuters. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to also keep Canada happy because you\u2019re head of state of that country \u2013 it\u2019s a very, very difficult tightrope to walk. But he does it, and he does it well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Visits to France and Germany, where Charles spoke to lawmakers in French and German, have also been credited with helping repair Britain\u2019s relations with its European allies damaged by Brexit.<\/p>\n

Praying with the PopeOpen this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

King Charles and Queen Camilla following a service at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome in October.Remo Casilli\/Reuters<\/p>\n

For Charles, whose spirituality is well-known, his visit to the Vatican last month where he prayed with Pope Leo \u2013 the first joint worship by an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 \u2013 was a huge personal moment.<\/p>\n

It marked a historic reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.<\/p>\n

King Charles and Pope Leo pray together in a 500-year first<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, green shoots of reconciliation have also emerged in his relationship with Harry, with their first meeting in September for 20 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that … his years and years and years of experience have … trained him to be a really good monarch,\u201d Tina Brown said. \u201cPeople have always underestimated the king [and] he\u2019s always complained about it. It happens to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Britain’s King Charles III cuts into a castle-styled cake during a visit to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-283229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}