Queen Elizabeth had a special bond with Scotland, but it will now forever mark a turning point for her son Charles and the United Kingdom.
In Scotland, at Balmoral Castle, Queen Elizabeth died on Thursday at the age of 96, sealing the rise to the throne from Charles III.
In his inaugural speech as monarch on Friday, Charles pointed out that his son William, now heir to the crown, also inherited the Scottish titles that “meant so much” to him.
At the top is that of the Duke of Rothesay, a title held by the heir to the British monarchy and now passed to William, 40, his eldest son.
Charles was the longest holder of the title for 70 years, equaling the length of his mother’s reign, a record for the British monarchy.
Earlier this month, Prince Charles, as he often does, wore the kilt at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering, an event celebrating Scottish heritage with traditional events such as tug-of-war.
– ‘Colditz in a kilt’ –
At 13, Charles was sent to Gordonstoun, the strict Scottish boarding school his father attended. Desperately lonely, he hated it, describing his years there as “absolute hell,” a “prison sentence,” and “Colditz in a kilt.”
But in 1975 he recalled that his years at boarding school had taught him “to accept challenges and take the initiative”.
Always a nature lover, Charles, who has a private home on the Balmoral estate, painted watercolors of Scottish landscapes.
According to Whiskey Magazine, he traveled the same landscapes as he skied or hunted, always with a bottle of Bruichladdich or Laphroaig whisky.
In 1994, Prince Charles awarded the Laphroaig Distillery the Royal Warrant, allowing it to display the Royal Coat of Arms on its products.
Eager to preserve Scottish heritage, Charles intervened to save Dumfries House, an ancient residence bought by a consortium led by the Prince in 2007 and incorporated into his foundation in 2018.
– Picnics in the Cairngorms –
Not only did Queen Elizabeth have Scottish ancestry – her parents had a common ancestor in Robert II, King of Scots in the 14th century – but spent much of her childhood at Balmoral, her summer residence, where she breathed her last.
“Scotland has played a very special role in our lives and those of my family over the years,” she said on a visit to Perth in 2012.
The Queen, who appeared beaming in a recent photo with her late husband Prince Philip in the Cairngorms massif, where she loved to picnic, had traveled to Scotland to celebrate her silver, gold and diamond jubilees.
But she was also there in times of tragedy, like the Lockerbie plane bombing that killed 270 people in 1988, or the Dunblane school shooting in 1996 that killed 16 children and their teacher.
En route to her annual visits to Balmoral, the Queen also attended a week of royal events at the official residence of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where her coffin arrived on Sunday.
