Biographer reveals moment Charles learnt he was King

Robert Hardman gives insights into monarch’s first year

- ATHENA STAVROU

A royal biographer has given an insight into King Charles’s first hours as monarch after being told the news of the Queen’s death in a car.

Robert Hardman told an audience at the Henley Literary Festival – at which The Independent is the exclusive news partner for a second year – how Charles’s reign differed from his mother’s, as well as revelations about the late Queen’s final days.

His book, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, chronicles the King’s first year as monarch – the first time the majority of Britain’s population had encountered a ruler other than Queen Elizabeth II.

He told the audience in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, how Charles became aware that he had become King over the phone while driving back to Balmoral Castle to see his mother.