His Majesty and our travesty: Amid No Kings protests, Charles trumped the tyrant president

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The last time Charles came here for a state visit, nobody seemed to notice. I saw him up close during his trip in the autumn of 1985, from his stop at J.C. Penney in a suburban mall to promote British clothing to a starry state dinner. I was impressed.

The Prince of Wales had a reputation back then as a bit of a wimp, always chafing in the shadow of his towering mother, resentful about being relegated to cutting ribbons.

In a flashy decade full of bling kings like New York developer Donald Trump, Charles seemed like a man from another time. He yearned to be taken seriously and to have an impact on global issues. As charming British actor Peter Ustinov, who attended the state dinner, told me: “He has a clear sense of what he would do if allowed to. One regrets that he didn’t live in 1400.”

Touring the sights in Washington, Prince Charles impressed sales clerks and senators alike with his genuine interest in culture and politics and his playful and self-deprecating small talk.

As I wrote in The New York Times back then, “He went out of his way to move past protocol, and was equally at home discussing the architecture of Baltimore, the actresses on the television show Dynasty, the opera roles that Beverly Sills made famous and the tenuous state of international relations.”

It didn’t matter. Nobody was paying attention. He was simply the man who accompanied Princess Diana to Washington. Even without talking much, just tucking her chin in shyly and looking up out of those luminous blue eyes, Diana outshone her prince. It was pretty much a total eclipse of the son. I don’t remember seeing a single........

© Brisbane Times