The state of the British monarchy at King Charles' coronation

In the days, weeks, and months since he took the throne on September 8, 2022, Charles has been slowly showing the UK and the world the kind of monarch he will be — a leader who is different from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II but still carries on her legacy.

As Bob Morris, an honorary senior research associate in the Constitution Unit at the University of London who studies royal issues, told Insider, some of King Charles' strongest moments as monarch have been those where he's differentiated himself from the Queen with more modern moves.

For instance, he directly condemned Russia's "unprovoked full-scale attack" on Ukraine in a press statement, which the Queen had avoided, and he planned a "slimmed-down" coronation with less fanfare than his mother's 1953 ceremony.

He also highlighted that his reign will be fit for the modern world by inviting faith leaders from multiple religions to Buckingham Palace on September 16, 2022, and telling them he sees it as his duty to "protect the diversity of our country."

The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, but the king's statement suggested that he intends to be an inclusive leader.

"He made that statement very swiftly and very importantly, I thought," Morris said.

On walkabouts with the public, King Charles personally interacts with people, even allowing citizens to kiss him on the cheek and hand.

Morris described the people's comfort with the king as a "lack of reverence" for his role compared to what they felt for the Queen, but Marlene Koenig, a royal historian, told Insider that the public's more laid-back attitude toward King Charles makes sense given how often he's been in the press in his life.

"It's a different kind of popularity," she said, adding that he appears to be leaning into this more approachable persona.

At the coronation, he and Camilla, who will be crowned Queen at the ceremony, will be attended by pages of honor, who include Prince George and Camilla's grandsons, and her great-nephew.

Queen Elizabeth II was attended by maids of honor who were all members of the aristocracy for her coronation, so the king and Camilla's more personal attendants indicate the different message they hope to send with their own coronation.

"They've made it continue to be formal, but they're including people who are important to them, not people who are wives of peers," Koenig said.

On September 13, the king got upset over a leaky pen during a filmed appearance. Darren McGrady, a former royal chef, previously told Insider's Mikhaila Friel that it didn't surprise him given how Charles' former aides behaved when he made requests.

"They just shot up, left their food, and ran off to see what he wanted, because he expects it now and wants it now," McGrady said.

The king also didn't look great in Prince Harry's memoir "Spare," with Harry writing that his father worried he and Meghan Markle would take attention away from him; that the king didn't hug Harry after telling him Princess Diana died; and that he initially didn't want to pay for Meghan to be a member of the royal family.

"He has to be careful of optics right now," Kristen Meinzer, an author and royal watcher, told Insider. She also noted that right before he became monarch, Charles' charity, The Prince's Foundation, faced an investigation after Michael Fawcett, a close aide of the king at the time, offered a Saudi millionaire the chance to become a knight, which could help him secure a British citizenship visa, in exchange for money, The Times of London reported.

In a separate article The Times published, the publication reported that Charles was "100%" behind the offer to help the Saudi tycoon gain citizenship, though a spokesperson for Charles told The Mirror at the time that he had "no knowledge of the alleged offer" and fully supported the investigation into The Prince's Foundation.

"He's done a few things in the past year that have looked very, very petty," Meinzer said. "He needs to be careful going forward to not just look like he's petty and has temper tantrums."

According to a study from the National Centre for Social Research published just two days after the Queen's death, the majority of British people believe it is "important for Britain to continue to have a monarchy," though that support is at an all-time low of 55%.

Citizens have met King Charles with protests at some of his public appearances, and nearly egged him at a statue unveiling in York in November 2022.

Younger people who participated in the study were least likely to show support for the monarchy, though it also noted that it's not unusual for people to age into approving of the monarchy.

"This seems to be a cohort phenomenon," Morris told Insider. "As they get older, they become more appreciative of the monarchy."

But he also noted that the monarchy will continue to be an older institution because the king is 74 and his heir, Prince William, is already 40, so it may be harder for younger UK citizens to connect with their sovereigns moving forward.

"His successor is likely to be nearer Charles' age than not," Morris said of William's age when he becomes king. "That may be thought to have implications, particularly for the support from younger people."

After ascending the throne, King Charles became the monarch of not only Britain, but 14 other realms of the Commonwealth. There are 56 member nations of the Commonwealth, but only 14 still have the monarch as their head of state.

Many of those remaining realms may consider removing the king as sovereign in light of the Queen's death, and there was already traction for some countries to move in that direction before Charles ascended the throne because of the Commonwealth's direct involvement in colonialism and slavery.

Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state in 2021, and after Prince William and Kate Middleton's disastrous Caribbean tour in 2022, where photographers captured them in "tone-deaf" photos and protestors who wanted them to speak out against the monarchy's historical ties to slavery met them. Nations including Belize and Jamaica may consider removing Charles as well.

Koenig and Morris told Insider the king is likely well aware he will lose realms during his reign — though there isn't much he can do about it.

"It's not something the UK can or should influence and that has been the policy of the successive monarchs as well," Morris said. "It's up to these other states to decide whether they want to change the arrangements of the head of state."

Similarly, Scotland may consider removing the king as monarch within the next five years, according to royal expert Omid Scobie, further decreasing his power.

The Times of London reported in 2019 that King Charles intended to slim down the monarchy to just seven key working royals, though he never put that plan into action as his coronation approached.

Today, there are 11 official "working royals" who work for the monarchy full time. The working royals include:

• King Charles III;
• Camilla, Queen Consort, who will be known as Queen Camilla after the coronation;
• Princess Anne, the Princess Royal;
• Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh;
• Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh;
• Prince William, the Prince of Wales;
• Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales;
• Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester;
• Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester;
• Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent;
• Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were also working royals before they stepped back from royal life in January 2020, as was Prince Andrew until Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his royal title and patronages in January 2022.

Camilla will be crowned alongside King Charles at his coronation, which is a marked change from Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as Prince Philip was not crowned king, likely because he would have outranked the Queen with the title.

Buckingham Palace also confirmed Camilla would be known as Queen, not Queen Consort, after the coronation through the invitation to the event. An anonymous palace source previously told The Guardian the coronation marked "an appropriate time" to shift Camilla's title.

"It made sense to refer to Her Majesty as the Queen Consort in the early months of His Majesty's reign, to distinguish from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II," the palace source told the outlet.

"'Queen Camilla' is the appropriate title to set against 'King Charles' on the invitation. The coronation is an appropriate time to start using 'Queen Camilla' in an official capacity. All former queen consorts have been known as 'Queen' plus their first name," the source went on to say.

Camilla has been Charles' partner in every sense of the word since he ascended, appearing alongside him at engagements and supporting him in his duties.

The British tabloids have supported Camilla as she stepped into her new role. The tabloids were critical of her in the years after the news of her affair with the king broke in 1992, but since marrying Charles in 2005, she has rebuilt her public image.

By the time of the Queen's death, the tabloids were praising Camilla, with The Sun even calling her the "royals' greatest secret weapon," Insider's Anneta Konstantinides reported.

"Camilla has worked very, very hard to clean up her image," Meinzer told Insider, though she added that the public's view of her is not unshakable. "That comes with a lot of scrutiny too because her press team includes the former executive from the Daily Mail, the very publication that has been at odds with Harry and Megan."

The king and Camilla hired Tobyn Andreae, a former deputy editor at the Daily Mail, as their communications secretary in 2022, The Times of London reported.

In addition, Prince Harry did not paint a favorable image of Camilla in his memoir or in his interviews surrounding the book, saying his stepmother willingly traded stories about other royals with the press due to her sordid history with the king.

"She was the villain. She was the third person in the marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image," Harry said in a January interview with Anderson Cooper. "That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging with the British press."

King Charles gave William the title of Prince of Wales, a title Charles held for 64 years, in his first televised address as monarch on September 9, 2022.

The title is not automatically inherited, so it was significant that one of Charles' first acts as monarch was to pass it down to his eldest son.

As Koenig told Insider, William has been preparing to step into his father's shoes for years because his own future as monarch has always been clear.

"He grew up knowing his father was the heir," she said, adding that Queen Elizabeth had also trained William individually during his life. "When William attended Eton, she would invite him over to the castle because Windsor is literally across the bridge."

But William also seems to be working to modernize the monarchy and make himself look more approachable than his grandmother or even his father, both in how he appears in public and how he works within the monarchy.

He has become much more relaxed at his public appearances in recent years, and a member of William's staff told Valentine Low, who published "Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown," that they didn't have to wear suits in his office because "he wants to keep it casual."

But "Spare" spelled trouble for William, as Harry described his brother as his "archnemesis" and said he and William were never as close as they seemed to be to the public.

According to Harry, their relationship only grew tenser when he met Meghan, saying William physically attacked him during an argument about her in 2019.

King Charles gave Kate the title of Princess of Wales after the Queen's death, making her the first person to hold the title since Princess Diana.

In addition, she became the Colonel of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, which Queen Victoria formed 1900, in December 2022, inheriting the title from William.

As she steps into these new positions, Kate is seemingly trying to change her public image. She hired Alice Corfield, a public-relations specialist, as a senior aide, The Sunday Times reported.

One source who spoke to The Sunday Times about Corfield described her as a "ball-breaker," while another said she was "an unusual fit" for the royal family "but there is a move to recruit more modernizers and people with private-sector experience, not just civil servants."

"She will run rings around the courtiers and shake things up a bit," the source added.

For years, Kate and William both had very formal public personas, as Eric Schiffer, a celebrity-brand-management expert, previously told Insider's Anneta Konstantinides.

"They were manicured to the nth degree, and played their public persona with a Buckingham Palace excellence, out of the playbook that's been mastered for centuries," Schiffer said.

But since Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah Winfrey about their experience in the royal family in 2021, they have been working to make themselves look more approachable. The interview gave them an edge with the public, Schiffer said.

"It created this contrast, and Harry and Meghan's PR strategy, in essence, is to be the unanointed modern-day royals of the populace," he said.

Hiring someone like Corfield, who has a more modern and relaxed approach to PR, may help Kate seem more relaxed to the public.

Despite making unfavorable statements about his family members in his memoir, Harry made clear in interviews leading up to "Spare" that he wants a relationship with both his father and his brother.

"I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back," he said in an ITV interview. "The door is always open. The ball is in their court. There's a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they're willing to sit down and talk about it."

Though the king evicted Harry and Meghan from Frogmore Cottage following the release of "Spare," The Times reported that he is planning to do the same with other royal family members' homes to decrease spending and open the door for new revenue streams.

Charles also invited Meghan and Harry to the coronation, and they appeared to reciprocate by inviting him, Camilla, William, and Kate to their daughter's christening.

The royals did not attend the christening, but in March, the monarchy updated the line of succession to refer to Harry and Meghan's children as Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex. Insider's Mikhaila Friel previously reported that giving Archie and Lilibet their titles could serve as an important step for healing between Charles and Harry and Meghan. The couple previously told Oprah Winfrey the royals were denying Archie his title due to his race.

Prince Harry will be attending the coronation, while Meghan will be staying in California with their kids, Buckingham Palace announced. Scobie said Prince Archie's birthday falling on the same day as the coronation "played a factor in the couple's decision." Royal experts also told Insider's Maria Noyen and Erin McDowell that Meghan Markle's decision to skip Charles' coronation was a "brilliant" strategy in an impossible situation.

Princess Anne played an integral role in supporting the royal family when the Queen died, escorting her body from Balmoral, where she died, back to London.

The Princess Royal even rode behind the Queen's casket for six hours on Sunday, September 11.

Koenig told Insider it made "absolute sense" that Anne became a big source of support for the king in the weeks after their mother's death because she is closest in age to him of his three siblings.

Anne is the most active working royal today, attending more engagements annually than even Charles, according to The Guardian's "Cost of the Crown" series. She attends an average of 528 engagements per year.

She hasn't shown any signs of slowing down now that her brother is king. In October 2022, just a few weeks after her mother's death, Anne visited New York City for an engagement, and she is still in leadership positions for several charities.

Prince Philip was the Duke of Edinburgh until his death in 2021, and he said before he died that he intended for the title to go to Prince Edward. However, Charles automatically inherited it as his eldest son.

On March 9, Buckingham Palace announced that the King conferred the Duke of Edinburgh title on Edward. Edward's wife, Sophie, is now the Duchess of Edinburgh.

"The new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are proud to continue Prince Philip's legacy of promoting opportunities for young people of all backgrounds to reach their full potential," the palace statement read.

Like his sister, Edward also attends engagements in his role as a working royal, going to an average of 351 per year, according to The Guardian. His responsibilities include charity work and overseeing The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, an award Prince Philip created to motivate and support young people in the UK.

Prince Andrew has not been in the public eye much since Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his royal patronages and military titles in January 2022.

Elizabeth relieved him of his royal duties after Virginia Giuffre's sexual-assault lawsuit against him, in which she alleged Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the Duke of York when she was 17 years old. Andrew repeatedly denied the claims.

Andrew and Giuffre reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount in February 2022, and Andrew kept a low profile until his mother's death, after which he appeared at her funeral and at a vigil for her alongside his siblings.

The Times also reported in September 2022 that he seemed to be the most likely member of the Queen's family to inherit her dogs after her death, though his representative did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the matter in April 2023. Sarah Ferguson, Andrew's ex-wife, told People in March 2023 that she adopted two of the dogs.

Andrew proved to be a distraction from both his mother and the king during his public appearances after her death. A heckler disrupted a procession behind the Queen's coffin in Scotland to call Andrew "a sick old man."

In addition, Charles told Andrew he has to "downsize" from his current home, the Royal Lodge, as Omid Scobie reported for Yahoo! News. Charles offered Prince Andrew Frogmore Cottage after evicting Harry and Meghan, according to Scobie.

With the lowest-ever public support for the monarchy and an ever-shrinking Commonwealth, the royal family will have to modernize alongside the UK to maintain relevance.

Meinzer told Insider she thinks the king can improve upon positive work he has already done to connect with younger generations, such as his work in environmentalism. She said he speaks about protecting the planet while riding on private jets and traveling more than what might be necessary, a contradiction that won't sit well with many young people.

"That version of environmentalism is not what the rest of us need," she said. "It's a very dated version of environmentalism. We need a version of environmentalism to come out of him that is more in line with what is going to affect the rest of us in future generations."

Morris also told Insider it will be key for the monarchy to remain politically neutral while moving into the future.

"What the monarchy brings here is political impartiality, and if it didn't, then it would be out," Morris said.

But Meinzer noted that the royal family may need to adjust their perception of what a "political" statement is.

"Talking about feminism and racism is not saying, 'I'm a Tory,' or, 'I'm a Labor Party person,'" she said. "That's not siding with anything. It's just human rights."

Morris pointed to Charles' work with The Prince's Trust, as an example of the royal family functioning at its best. Charles founded the organization when he was the Prince of Wales to support "disadvantaged young people in the UK," according to its website.

The king had to step back from that work, but Morris said that it would be wise for William and Kate to carry it on because it allows them to play an important role in the UK in an "entirely nonpolitical way."

Koenig said keeping an eye on the next generation of leaders will also benefit the monarchy, saying that Charles is "more of a caretaker" of the throne as opposed to his mother, who took the throne when she was 25 and reigned for 70 years.

"He will not reign as long as his mom, and he will be setting up for the future as William takes more of a role," she said. Koenig said the monarchy under King Charles will be different than it was under the Queen, but that doesn't mean it's going anywhere.

"The monarchy is in no danger," she said.

This story is part of "Charles in Charge," our package of stories all about King Charles' coronation. Read the rest here.