Born this way: Why Prince Charles was destined to be a king
CBC Archives | Posted: November 14, 2018 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 27, 2023
'The new prince will be trained right from infancy for his high role on a future stage'
From the day he was born, the path was clear for Prince Charles.
"The new prince will be trained right from infancy for his high role on a future stage," the CBC's Matthew Halton reported, after the prince's birth in 1948.
And while the Queen Elizabeth's first-born would thus one day succeed her in future, Charles was the first child born as a direct successor to the throne in a half-century.
"Neither his mother, nor his grandfather, the present king, nor his great-grandfather, King George V, were expected — at the time of their births — to inherit the crown," Halton explained to listeners.
That's because it was an unexpected abdication by King Edward VIII that put George VI on the throne and subsequently Queen Elizabeth, after her father's death in 1952.
But, as Halton pointed out, because of the relatively young age of the then-still-living George VI and Elizabeth, it was possible that Charles "may well be 50 or 60 years old before he ascends the throne."
Charles was 73 when he became King in September 2022 upon the death of his mother at age 96.