Prince Charles is "entirely unsuitable" to be king because of his out-of-date persona, as the Prince of Wales would "drive the monarchy over a cliff", the Daily Star reported Wednesday, citing royal author Clive Irving.
"Entirely unsuitable. I think it is in danger of driving over a cliff as soon as Charles appears", Irving said while expressing his thoughts on the monarchy's future in an interview with Australia's Today Extra.
The author of a new biography of the Queen, "The Last Queen", published last year, claimed Elizabeth II, who is the longest-reigning monarch in British history, is more timeless and modern than her son and heir to the throne.
"It's a curious thing the Queen seems more modern than Charles. She seems very much timeless, whereas Charles is fundamentally an 18th-century figure. He hates many modern things", Irving, whose book covers the last 70 years of the Queen's life and decisions, thinks. "That wouldn't be a problem if he didn't try to impose his own taste on other people".
The author claimed that 72-year-old Charles likes his "cocoon of the 18th century", and that the heir apparent prefers "to have sycophants around him, which is not a good sign for a future ruler", as Charles uses the said sycophants "to reinforce his own weird ideas".
"It's a pity they can't jump straight from the Queen to William, they can't do that because that's not how the constitution works", Irving added.
He also stated, after stressing that all Her Majesty's immediate successors are male, the Queen "will likely be the last female monarch in England".
"She's one of three outstanding figures in history who were Queens", Irving said. "It's a very emotional idea, I think. The whole history of queens in England will end with this one".
According to Great Britain's rules of succession under the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which demolished the nation's centuries of male-preference primogeniture, the eldest child of the monarch, regardless of sex, precedes their siblings in the line of succession, which means the Prince of Wales will become the next king, even though some polls show that a majority of citizens would prefer Prince William, Charles' oldest son, to take over.
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, follows his father as second-in-line, and his seven-year-old grandson Prince George, is third-in-line to the throne.
