The King was once described by Princes William and Harry as so obsessed with paperwork that he would regularly fall asleep at his desk. Photo / AP
The King was once described by Princes William and Harry as so obsessed with paperwork that he would regularly fall asleep at his desk. Photo / AP
News that the Queen has told “workaholic” King Charles to slow down in the wake of his recent health scare will come as no surprise to his dedicated team of staff. “The people who work for him are worried he is doing too much for a man of 75,” confirmed one well-placed insider. “It’s sometimes a struggle to keep up with him.”
As the monarch recovers from a procedure to correct an enlarged prostate, he would undoubtedly be wise to reflect on the concerns of his nearest and dearest.
Yet the truth is that, like his late mother, the King has long had a routine that works for him and it is unlikely he will deviate from it regardless of his advancing years.
No stranger to early morning starts and post-midnight finishes, the grandfather-of-five was once described by his sons Princes William and Harry as so obsessed with paperwork that he would regularly fall asleep at his desk.
“He does need to slow down, this is a man who has dinner ridiculously late at night,” revealed Harry in a 2018 documentary to mark his father’s 70th birthday. “And then goes to his desk later that night and will fall asleep on his notes to the point where he’ll wake up with a piece of paper stuck to his face.”
The King typically starts his day well before the bagpipes sound and continues working late into the night. Photo / Getty Images
Praising his father’s “amazing personal discipline,” William added: “He has – and it’s frustrated me in the past a lot – he has a routine. The only way to fit all this stuff in is things have to be compartmentalised. The man never… I mean when we were kids there were bags and bags and bags of work that the office just sent to him. We could barely even get to his desk to say goodnight to him.” Even phone calls with his son and heir are scheduled, taking place every Sunday.
The Queen also told the BBC programme Prince, Son and Heir that she had tried to encourage her husband to “pace himself” but conceded he is too driven to take any notice.
So what does an average day in the life of the King look like?
Royal aides will tell you that there is no such thing as an “average” day for the sovereign, who carries out more than 509 royal engagements a year. His schedule varies depending on where he is and what’s in the diary.
Notwithstanding that a “state visit day” is very different to, say, a day at Birkhall, the couple’s Scottish home, there are some common themes in the way the King structures his waking hours.
Although the late Queen used to be woken by a military piper at 9am every morning, the “early riser” King is wide awake by the time Pipe Major Paul Burns, of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, blows on his bagpipes.
King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort attend a reception at Clarence House in London. Photo / AP
His Majesty typically enjoys a light breakfast of fruit, eggs or muesli. In her 2022 book,The Palace Papers, Tina Brown writes of a time when a guest was inspecting the breakfast buffet at Highgrove “when he lifted a tureen that offered Charles’ preferred heap of linseed”. According to Brown: “Prince William said: ‘Oh no, don’t go near the bird table - that’s only for Pa’.”
Before and after breakfast, the King will make a series of “off-diary” phone calls to discuss whatever is on his mind with the relevant body. It will usually be a thought that will have struck him overnight or perhaps even a headline in the morning newspapers. “He has a constantly active mind,” remarked someone who knows him well.
Because the King does not own a mobile phone, he makes the calls on a landline. (If anyone ever needs to get hold of the monarch in an emergency, they invariably contact a member of his protection team, who are with him 24/7).
Between 8.30 and 9am, he will have his first meeting of the day with his private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, to discuss the business of the day and other outstanding matters. This is not to be confused with the more formal “red box” session which takes place later.
After this, the King will then typically sit at his desk and go through his non-red-box paperwork. Because he “doesn’t do emails”, he will either write to people by hand or dictate more formal letters to his “executive secretary” before signing them, with a fountain pen.
As demonstrated during the signing of a visitors’ book at Northern Ireland’s Hillsborough Castle after the late Queen died in 2022, he prefers not to use a fountain pen when he can avoid it and instead is never without a felt tip, usually red, to annotate the reams of paperwork he pores over on a daily basis.
When in London, he sleeps at Clarence House because Buckingham Palace is being renovated. But by mid-morning he will move over to the palace for the more formal business of the day, such as meetings with key political, military, diplomatic and religious figures. A stickler for punctuality, he likes to be on time and dislikes it when others are late – not least when everything has usually been diarised weeks in advance. “Time is his most precious commodity,” explained a source.
Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla greet the crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the coronation ceremony in London, Saturday, May 6, 2023. Photo / AP
As such, he rarely stops for lunch unless a royal engagement requires it. If he is at one of the more rural royal residences then he will always find time for a brisk walk.
Most weekday afternoons will see the King undertake a visit and, when he is travelling between royal residences, he insists that the journey serves two purposes and includes an outside engagement en route.
Similarly, if there is a gap in the royal diary then the King will insist that it is filled rather than taking a rest break. He will always work when he is travelling on helicopters, planes and trains because he doesn’t suffer from travel sickness.
Upon his return, he will go through his red box with the duty private secretary. Embossed with the gold royal cypher, the scarlet container holds paperwork relating to affairs of state, as opposed to his personal correspondence.
The King has inherited his late mother’s uncanny eye for detail and can apparently spot a spelling mistake or grammatical error at 10 paces. He often changes the words of statements and responses written on his behalf if he does not think they are quite right.
The King taking tea at his 75th birthday party in 2023. Photo / Getty Images
At around 5pm, the King takes tea (he favours Darjeeling tea with honey), sandwiches and cakes with an invited guest. Early evening appointments are not uncommon. Every Wednesday, for example, he meets with the Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace at around 5.45pm.
He will then return to his desk to plough through more paperwork before eating a late supper, usually of fish (very seldom red meat) at around 9pm. He rarely drinks but if he does fancy a tipple, it’s usually a Dubonnet – the royal family’s favourite aperitif – or a dry martini, which he is said to mix “very generously” for visitors.
While the Queen relaxes by watching television, the King prefers to read and will often return to his desk after dinner.
Because he prefers to work late into the night, there is a special roster of evening executive secretaries so someone is always on duty to set up telephone calls, take notes and pass on messages. Often staff will wake up to receive correspondence that has been delivered in the small hours.
When he is entertaining guests at the weekend, the King will customarily retreat to his study at 11pm to make sure he can cram in another hour or so.
As Prince of Wales, the King followed the same exact schedule, so it seems improbable he will change it now. Ironically, it is the Queen who understands his “do or die” mentality more than most. “Does she think he works too hard?” asked one insider. “Yes, he always has done. But she knows it gives him an enormous sense of fulfilment and that she’s never going to change the habits of a lifetime.”
