LONDON: Trained from childhood to be king, Charles III has endured the longest wait for the throne in British history.
But while his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned in 1953 with huge fanfare and national excitement aged just 25, her ageing, eldest son will attract less enthusiasm, royal commentators said.
"It will be very difficult for him in terms of following the queen," Robert Hazell, who founded the Constitution Unit at University College London, told AFP.
"The monarchy is likely to go through, I think, some testing times."
Born in 1948, Charles married Diana Spencer in 1981 and they had two sons, William and Harry, before their marriage fell apart, amid very public revelations of infidelities.
Diana died in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997, aged 36. In 2005, Charles married his divorced long-term lover Camilla Parker Bowles.
The new king has long been known for his outspoken comments on topics from farming to modernist architecture, and often faced mockery and accusations of meddling, even if his environmental concerns have now become mainstream.
As king, he will have to change to be "scrupulously neutral", said Hazell.
In a 2018 BBC interview, Charles made it clear he understood he would have to stop his public campaigning.
"I'm not that stupid," he said.
- Independence debate -
But neutrality could prove difficult as Scottish nationalists push for another referendum on independence, while saying it will keep the monarchy, said Hazell.
It would be "very difficult... for the monarch to remain scrupulously neutral throughout the referendum campaign".
At the same time, Hazell praised Charles's "very strong sense of public service and public duty".
"I think that will carry him in very good stead when he becomes king."
Opinion polling by YouGov shows the prospect of Charles as monarch divides British public opinion almost equally.
In 2022, just under a third of respondents said he would not make a good king, while almost exactly the same proportion said he would.
"I don't expect that to change much when he becomes king," said Hazell.
By contrast, over 80 percent say the queen has done a fairly good or very good job.
Britain is a constitutional monarchy, with the king or queen as head of state. Support for a republic has stood at around 15 percent in the last two years.
Sensing a changing mood, the pressure group Republic began a billboard campaign in mid-2021 calling for the abolition of the monarchy.
Republic's chief executive Graham Smith said Charles's accession would be "a major turning point", with Barbados having ditched the monarch as head of state in November 2021, raising the prospect that others may follow suit.
"It's not going to be 1952 all over again," he added, referring to the queen's accession on the death of her father, king George VI.
"He's not protected by the almost impenetrable shield of deference that surrounds the queen."
By contrast, "Charles has had a lifetime of being criticised, being lampooned", he added.
Hazell suggested there may be pressure on Charles to abdicate in favour of his son William, born in 1982, and he could "conceivably" do so, unlike his mother.
Belgium's king Albert stood down in 2013, at 79, in favour of his son, as did Juan Carlos I of Spain, the following year.
For Smith, however, Charles "is not going to give up".
- Slimming down -
With public scrutiny of royal finances increasing, Charles reportedly wants to reduce the number of royals on official duties -- now around a dozen.
Several other European royal families have done this already.
However, numbers have fallen lately, with Prince Harry moving to California and Charles's brother Prince Andrew stepping down because of a furore over his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Limiting royal roles is not primarily about saving money, but reducing the risk that "one of them will go off the rails", Hazell said.
Yet, this would reduce the numbers available to attend public events, he conceded.
Harry's wife Meghan complained in a sensational Oprah Winfrey interview that the couple's son Archie had not received the title "prince".
She linked this to slimming down, but also said that one or more royal had made racist remarks before Archie's birth.
- 'No discrimination' -
"There's been no change that I know of to the rules, there's been no discrimination against Harry," Hazell said.
At the same time, Charles will be able to choose on titles, for example, including whether to make William the prince of Wales -- the title he held since 1958, Hazell said.
"Ultimately it's the choice of the monarch, whether to confer a title."
The Sun tabloid reported that Charles does not plan to make his youngest brother Edward the duke of Edinburgh, even though it was his late father's wish.
But in one of her last decisive acts over the succession, the queen settled the issue about what Charles's wife Camilla will be called, giving her blessing for "queen consort".
Charles has been a controversial royal over the years, from his affair while married to Princess Diana, and alleged persistent political interference, to occasional gaffes and scandals involving aides.
Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son has never enjoyed the same public affection as his mother, which may add to the challenges he now faces as king.
He has battled a string of public relations headaches dating back decades, including accusations of being cold towards his enduringly popular first wife Diana.
Despite some better press more recently, the tabloids had become well versed in taking shots at him for seeming distant and aloof.
Meanwhile, the depiction of his marital woes in the hit Netflix series "The Crown" is unlikely to have garnered Charles much sympathy several decades on from that troubled time.
He has also faced accusations of interfering in politics on various topics spanning architecture, homeopathy and climate change.
And in 2021 his most trusted aide resigned for a second time in his royal courtier career amid controversy.
"I think all of this stuff is damaging, from 'The Crown' to reality to everything that's going on," royal author Penny Junor said in late 2021, as a cash-for-honours scandal involving Charles's charity empire erupted.
"None of it is good news. The queen is much loved, Charles is less loved. I think it will be difficult for him whatever happens, but all these revelations are not helpful."
- 'Three people' -
Charles's image took a devastating hit during his acrimonious separation from Diana.
In her extraordinary 1995 interview in which she revealed her feelings over his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana famously said "there were three people" in her marriage.
The royal couple had made the bombshell announcement they were separating in 1992, but following the fallout from the controversial sit-down with the BBC's "Panorama" programme they finally agreed to divorce.
Giving her version of events -- and admitting her own infidelity -- Diana laid bare her struggles within Britain's most famous family, criticising the royals and questioning Charles's fitness to be king.
It drew horror in parts of the British establishment but won her public sympathy, which was only amplified after her death in a Paris car accident in 1997.
Charles was long vilified both for the extra-marital affair, which was blamed for the breakup, and in part for the royals' poor initial handling of Diana's death, when they were widely criticised for appearing heartless and out of step with the public.
However, he has gradually won back some public support and begrudging acceptance that he has found happiness with Camilla, whom he married in 2005.
- 'Black spider' -
Charles has courted controversy for speaking out and appearing to pressure politicians privately, on various contentious public issues from health to the environment.
In a now-infamous series of letters between him and government ministers known as the "black spider" memos because of his scrawled handwriting, Charles quizzed them on an array of topics.
Made public in 2015 after a decade-long legal battle waged by The Guardian newspaper, they included the plight of the Patagonian Toothfish and his famous bugbear, modernist building schemes.
Charles's opposition to bold new design first grabbed public attention in 1984 when he likened plans for altering the National Gallery in London to adding a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".
The disclosure of the "black spider" letters sparked a backlash against the then-future king and concerns he was overstepping his role.
However, in a 2018 interview marking his 70th birthday, Charles insisted he never directly meddled in party politics and understood the difference between being Prince of Wales and monarch.
- Cash for honours? -
More recently, Charles has become embroiled in an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.
A series of newspaper revelations claimed his close aides coordinated work to grant a royal honour and even UK citizenship to a Saudi businessman who donated large sums to restoration projects of particular interest to Charles.
Michael Fawcett, his former valet who rose through the ranks to become chief executive of his charitable foundation, resigned in 2021 following the launch of an internal investigation into the accusations.
It was the latest claim to tarnish Fawcett -- and, by association, Charles.
In 2003, Fawcett resigned after being accused of bending palace rules and accepting valuable royal perks.
He was later cleared of allegations of financial misconduct over the sale of unwanted royal gifts, but an internal report found various members of Charles's household guilty of "serious failings".