The heir’s long wait is over. At the moment of the Queen’s death, the Prince became King.
The very simplicity of dynastic succession is one reason why the monarchy has survived as an institution to this day. Another is that, with a hereditary monarch as head of state, no one else may occupy or aspire to that position, leaving the Crown largely above the politics of day to day, but with a crucial small residue of power.
The constitutional constraints on the monarch will not change with the accession of Charles III, nor is the King likely to seek to loosen them. But he will probably not be as reticent on public matters as his mother either, who worked more through intimations and wishes conveyed indirectly. Her advice to Scots to “think carefully” before casting their vote in the independence referendum was about as clear as her political intervention ever became.
