King Charles III

About

Charles III, referred to as Prince Charles prior to September 2022, is King of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. King Charles ascended to the throne at age 73 on September 8th, 2022, after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Charles III is the oldest person ever to assume the British throne. Memes and discussions about Charles appeared online shortly after Queen Elizabeth II's Death.

History

Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George) was born on November 14th, 1948, to Princess Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, during the reign of his grandfather George VI.^[1] He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied archaeology, anthropology and history. He then graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1975.

Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on July 26h, 1958, and crowned by his mother on July 1st, 1969. During the 1970s, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and in the Royal Navy. In 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he had two children, William and Harry. In August 1996, Charles and Diana divorced, and Princess Diana died in a car crash in August 1997.

In April 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, with whom he was periodically romantically involved during his first marriage.

On September 8th, 2022, following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II at age 96, Charles ascended to the throne at age 73 as King Charles III.

Online Presence

The Royal Family maintains an official Facebook^[2] page and Twitter^[3] account, while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry have their own Instagram profile. As of September 2022, the Facebook page has over 6.3 million followers, while the Twitter account has over 2.3 million followers.

On September 8th, 2022, King Charles III made his first statement as King of the United Kingdom, releasing an announcement on Twitter^[4] that read "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family …" The tweet received over 745,000 likes, 150,000 retweets and 18,500 quote retweets in 26 hours.

In Memes

Throne Assertion Reactions

On September 8th, 2022, following Charles' ascension to the throne, the subject became a topic of memes on social media. For example, on that day, Twitter^[5] user @tylercoates posted a joke about the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dog breed that received over 1,200 retweets and 12,900 likes in one day (shown below, left). Twitter^[6] user @Shaglom posted a Laser Eyes history meme that gained over 1,300 retweets and 13,400 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, center). On September 9th, Redditor^[7] DanieleMemoli posted a meme that received over 2,000 upvotes in /r/dankmemes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Dancing Prince Charles

Dancing Prince Charles is a photoshop meme based on a photograph of the British royal Prince Charles doing a jig during a round of Parachute game at the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Elizabeth II held on July 19th, 2012.

King Charles Sausage Fingers

King Charles Sausage Fingers refers to the fingers of King Charles III of the United Kingdom, which many find to be unusually and perhaps frighteningly large. While Charles has long been criticized for the size of his fingers, memes about them became especially prominent following the death of his mother Elizabeth II on September 8th, 2022 and Charles' accession to the throne.