King Charles and Camilla leave Dunfermline Abbey after his first official duties in Scotland as monarch in October
By James Cook
Scotland editor
He is the kilted king, a monarch with his heart in the Highlands, but is Scotland ready to claim Charles as its own?
The new king is descended from Robert the Bruce, the revered warrior king who fought for Scotland’s independence in the 14th century.
He also has deep roots on Royal Deeside, where he maintains Birkhall as a family home and is reportedly planning to turn Balmoral Castle into a museum honouring his late mother.
In Edinburgh, the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the foot of the Royal Mile is available to him for official engagements, while the Castle of Mey, purchased by his grandmother after the death of her husband King George VI in 1952, provides a private refuge on the northernmost tip of Great Britain.
But supporters of Charles say his interest in Scotland goes well beyond touring his castles and palaces, and shooting on his estates.
Those who know the king say he cares deeply about the nation and its people and that his connection to the land is more practical than romantic.
Image source, PA Media
Charles in front of the Castle of Mey, a private refuge on the northernmost tip of Great Britain
“If you’re lucky enough to shake his hand, he’s got a very tough hand,” says David Whiteford, who knows the king well.
“That’s because he’s a practical man,” he says.
“He loves farming, hedgerow creation, fencing. He’ll cut peats. He is of the land.”
For more than a decade, Mr Whiteford ran the North Highland Initiative, a charity set up by Charles in 2005 to address challenges in rural communities.
He describes the king as “a farmer at heart”.
“It’s absolutely his idea to help support the area, the traditional industries of the area, the farming, the fishing, the artisanal food production and the tourism,” he says.
Mr Whiteford’s wife, Joanie, the monarch’s representative as Lord-Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty, thinks Charles’s love for Scotland is reciprocated.
“I think the people up here feel a real passion for the king. A closeness. He always wears the kilt up here,” she says.
“So he’s making an effort to be one of us and I think people really appreciate that in him.”
Image source, Getty Images
Charles resplendent in a kilt of Balmoral tartan on his seventh birthday in 1955
Supporters of the king also hail the work of his charities in Scotland, in particular at Dumfries House, a stately home near Cumnock in Ayrshire whose restoration he championed and helped to fund.
When he was Prince of Wales – and the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland – Charles used his Prince’s Foundation to campaign for causes in which he believed, for example criticising what he called “the great tragedy” of “a lack of vocational education in schools”.
Ewan Venters, a trustee of the foundation, said one of the king’s “great passions” was the power of education and training “and recognising that the traditional education systems often fail many hundreds of thousands of children”.
Mr Venters said Charles’s love and passion for Scotland was well known.
“I think he has, actually, a very deep understanding of Scottish people and why Scotland is such an important part of the union,” he says.
Image source, Getty Images
Charles with his son William and daughter-in-law Catherine at Dumfries House in Ayrshire
Of course there are two unions.
Scotland and England have shared a monarch since 1603, a century longer than they have shared a parliament at Westminster.
Over the past two decades, British politics has been shaped by debate about the 1707 union of the parliaments but the older union of the crowns also faced strain during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a period characterised by fading memories of the British Empire, a rise in Scottish nationalism, and a marked decline in deference.
Political tension was obvious as early as 1977 when the Queen appeared to publicly criticise Labour’s plans to devolve power to Scotland and Wales.
It surfaced again in 2014 when, just days before Scotland voted on independence, the Queen was reported to have told an onlooker at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral: “Well, I hope people will think very carefully about the future.”
Buckingham Palace denied the comment was political but that denial was later undermined by the Conservative prime minister at the time David Cameron.
Image source, Getty Images
Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth during the Ceremony of the Keys at Edinburgh Castle in 1953
Historian Sir Tom Devine, emeritus professor at Edinburgh University, sketches immense changes between the start of Elizabeth’s reign and her son’s accession to the throne.
Sir Tom recalls 1950s Scotland embracing a young queen who appeared to embody hope for a nation emerging from the shadow of war.
“I think that was the opening of a new age symbolised by the new monarchy,” says Sir Tom, who argues that the contrast with her son’s coronation 70 years on could not be more stark.
“There’s very little celebration of where we are in society at the moment,” he says.
“Depression is abroad among the citizenry.”
There is also evidence of a lack of excitement about the coronation in Scotland.
Image source, PA Media
King Charles maintains Birkhall in Aberdeenshire as a family home
A poll for YouGov earlier this month indicated that people in Scotland were less enthusiastic about the upcoming event than those in other parts of Britain, with four-fifths of respondents in Scotland saying they didn’t care very much, or at all, about the coronation.
Prof Ailsa Henderson, of Edinburgh University, points to a strong correlation between party voting intention and opinion on the monarchy, with support for the Crown strongest among Conservative voters, weaker among Labour supporters and lowest for those who vote for the Scottish National Party.
However the situation is not straightforward.
In a report on the monarchy released this week, Prof Henderson, writing with Fraser McMillan of Glasgow University, said: “Independence supporters are more republican than supporters of the union, but to the extent that the Scottish electorate supports the monarchy as a whole it is because of residual support among those who want to end the union.”
That nuance may help to explain why the SNP’s official position is to retain Charles as head of state in the event that Scotland votes for independence, at least to begin with.
SNP councillor Roza Salih thinks her party should be bolder in setting out a vision for an independent Scottish republic.
Image source, Getty Images
King Charles with his sons William and Harry on the Balmoral Castle estate in 1997
On the day of the coronation, Ms Salih, who represents Greater Pollok in Glasgow, is due to speak at a republican rally on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, organised by the campaigning group Our Republic.
“I think we are in the future now, and many young people like myself believe in a new generation, a new era, and believe that the monarchy is out of date,” she said.
Ms Salih would prefer an elected head of state.
“I don’t think we as working class people should be paying tens of millions a year to the monarchy,” she says.
“We’re in a democratic country. We, the people, should have a say on whether they want the monarchy or not.”
Humza Yousaf, who took over from Nicola Sturgeon as first minister and SNP leader last month, is a declared republican but the 1603 Union of the Crowns is probably not the most pressing issue on his desk at present.
The recent political turmoil engulfing the SNP makes the idea of any independent Scotland, never mind a republic, less of a prospect during the Carolean Era than it appeared at times during the Elizabethan Age, argues Sir Tom Devine.
“Given recent events, I would honestly have to say that the cause of independence is virtually dead for at least a generation,” he tells the BBC.
Compared to his mother, Sir Tom adds, this puts the King “in a position of much greater strength as far as the unity of his kingdoms are concerned”.
