April 21 would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday, and Charles chose that day to post a video message recorded in the Balmoral Library, wearing a zebra tie and with three photographs of his mother in the background.
It was a personal speech, that of a son remembering his mother with a mixture of admiration and nostalgia that does not disappear even when one wears a crown.
The most striking aspect of the message was his honesty about the present. Charles said that many things in today’s world would have “troubled her deeply,” though he avoided pointing to specific causes.
His advisers clarified that the reference encompassed both international issues and situations closer to the family, without pointing to anything specific. Even so, the King added that he holds onto his mother’s conviction that “goodness will always prevail” and that a better tomorrow is never far away.
For someone undergoing his own cancer treatment and navigating a rather complicated family situation, that phrase sounds like more than just a rhetorical flourish.
Charles recalled the words Elizabeth spoke at the age of just 14 in her first public address, in the midst of World War II, when she said that we can all help make tomorrow a better and happier place. The King quoted this message from 1940 as if it were still relevant today, because for him, it is.
He also mentioned the moment of the jam sandwich with Paddington Bear during the Platinum Jubilee, that scene remembered by millions, and that “marvellous twinkle of the eye” with which he described his mother, a sparkle in her eyes that was part of her way of being in the world.
The commemorative week included several events, including an exhibition of her favorite outfits in the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, the unveiling of the Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park by Princess Anne, and plans for a permanent memorial featuring a statue of the young Queen in her Garter robes alongside Prince Philip in naval uniform, facing The Mall.