Happy Birthday, Bonny Prince Charles!

Yes, today marks the 70th birthday of Prince Charles!

Prince Charles, who will become King of England on his mother’s passing, will be the oldest person to ascend the throne.

Certainly, people speculate about how he feels and how he should feel and how he must feel but who really knows how he really feels?  He seems to be doing quite well, thank you!  He continues to keep enormously busy taking on more and more as the Queen hands more and more to him.

His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall says in a birthday tribute in The Telegraph Magazine, “I don’t think he thinks he’s 70”.   “I think it’s just a number to him. There’s no way that he will slow down. You must be joking. I keep saying 70 is getting on a bit. It’s not very old but it is old. You have to slow down a bit.”

The royal family is in the midst of a slow, understated transition. The patriarch, 97-year-old Prince Philip, has formally retired from public life, although he makes occasional appearances in support of the Queen.

For her part, the Queen still maintains a busy schedule, but she no longer makes long haul flights to far flung parts of the 53-nation Commonwealth, and this year she took the unusual step of lobbying the Commonwealth countries to specify that Charles would be the next leader of the group, a position that is not hereditary.

So, clearly, Prince Charles is taking on more and more…..and his family grows!

Camilla says the public doesn’t understand how “incredibly kind” and funny Charles is, and William and Harry — taking part in a rare BBC interview to mark his father’s birthday — praise the way he has used his undefined position as Prince of Wales to advocate so many important causes, such as environmental protection, something he will not be able to do when he is King.  The reigning monarch must take a neutral position on all things.

Many happy returns, Your Royal Highness!