From Prince Charles to King Charles: His life through the lens of Polo
Tracing the legacy of King Charles in Polo
Since time immemorial, Polo has been known to be the game of Kings and so it has always had a quaint royal touch to it. For centuries it has enjoyed continued patronage among the ruling class. In pre-modern times it was thought of as a simulating past-time, that challenged players to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing conditions on the field. The prime reason for the sport’s popularity with royals has been linked to the mental, and to a certain extent, the physical demands of the game, skills that are also required to be exhibited on a battlefield, it even formed part of princes’ royal education. Polo was therefore considered a fitting pastime for the warrior class.
With the arrival of a world sans monarchy, the sport’s earlier benefit to the royals faded away, but it was still passed on across generations as a valuable piece of heritage. While a number of royal families across the world still patronize the sport, very few have members of their families participating and excelling in it. Of those, the British royal family has long considered itself a staple in the polo world. Prince Charles Of England has been an inseparable part of it.
The now King Charles has been a long-running patron of polo, so much so that he passed on his passion for the game to both his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, who themselves have blazed a trail in the sport. In the piece, we trace the King’s journey through the world of polo.
On King Charles’s life
Charles III (the then Prince Charles) is King of the United Kingdom and the fourteen other Commonwealth realms. He was born on 14th November 1948, in Buckingham Palace, the London royal residence of Britsh Monarchs, during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI. He has three younger siblings, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. The then-Prince Charles became the heir apparent at the age of three, when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne in 1952. The Queen subsequently anointed him the title, Prince of Wales. The young Prince Charles spent his early years boarding at prestigious schools in England and Australia. He thereafter went on to the University of Cambridge to wrap up his academic career. Following in the footsteps of other royal members, Charles served in the military, both in the Air Force and Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he wed Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he shared two sons, William and Harry. Prince Charles’ wife Diana accompanied him on numerous royal engagements, and become an international icon of her own accord. In 1996, after years of instability, plagued their marriage, the couple finally settled for a divorce. Diana died in a car crash the following year. Despite their years of marital discord, Prince Charles on Diana's death deeply mourned the loss of the mother of his sons. In 2005, Prince Charles went on to marry, the now Queen Consort, Camilla Parker Bowles.
As the Prince of Wales, Charles undertook several official engagements most of which had a charitable element to them. He is a patron of over four hundred charitable organisations, with a majority of them advocating the cause of environmental conservation.
Most of his family members reside in Britain, but Prince Charles’ son Prince Harry left the royal household after complaining of continued media harassment of his wife, in 2020.
He was the longest-serving heir apparent, becoming the oldest person to accede to the British throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of his ascension, Prince Charles's age was 73. His ceremony is set to take place in the summer of 2023.
King Charles’ legacy in Polo
The Royal Family is known for its patronage of many different sporting activities, but if there’s one sport in which they’ve actively participated, it would be none other than polo. Interestingly, the royals have been passionate polo players and polo watchers since the time of King George VI. Since then, there has been at least one senior member of the family that has participated in competitive polo. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, along with both of Prince Charles’ sons: the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex have all tried their hand at the sport. Their prowess at it has been remarkable with them having swept up several trophies over the years. As for his siblings, Prince Charles’ sister Princess Anne is a prolific equestrian herself, winning one gold medal in 1971 and two silver medals in 1975 at the European Eventing Championships. In 1976, she became the first member of the British royal family to compete in the Olympic Games. Both of Prince Charles’ brothers on the other hand haven’t been as prolific on the equestrian front, but they ardently cheer on their siblings from the sidelines nonetheless.
The then Prince Charles’ polo passion has seen him raise funds through the sport. Similarly, To increase participation in the sport, the royal family from time to time organises charitable matches to encourage young people to take up the sport. He also often contributes from his own wealth, considering Prince Charles’ netwoth of $600 million. Other royals are also known to raise money for humanitarian causes through polo. For instance, Prince Harry's Sentebale Cup has raised nearly £792 million in its lifetime, to create awareness around various humanitarian issues faced in Southern Africa. The raised money is then deployed to support work with children and young people in Southern Africa whose lives have been affected by extreme poverty among others.
It is said that the new King Charles inherited his love of the sport from his father, the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip. Prince Phillip was in turn encouraged to take up the sport by his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Mountbatten himself had a close association with the sport, for he had authored one of the sport’s earliest books, An Introduction to Polo, which is an extensive guide on Polo. The young Charles also had the honour of playing polo matches alongside his father and took valuable input from him after the former retired from the sport. From his teen years right until his mid-forties, Charles was an avid player of competitive polo. He took part in his first game at the age of fifteen in a team captained by his father, the Duke of Edinburgh. Despite her lack of active participation in the sport, Prince Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth played a pivotal role in encouraging him to excel in polo. For most of his games, Prince Charles’s young family comprising of his wife and two sons often could be cheering him on from the sidelines. In his youth, the sport was considered a classic British High Society sport -- ‘with dashing young riders cheered on by champagne-guzzling debutantes’. The sport also has a personal element for the King given that the then Prince Charles’ now-wife Camilla and he met during one of his earlier polo matches, sometime in the 1970s. Interestingly, he was also known to play the sport while on royal tours of other countries, Prince Charles in India was no different. Prince Charles showed off his skills in Jaipur during a tour of India in 1992.
He continued to play the sport albeit with lesser intensity than previously, mostly for charity, until 2005. But the family polo-playing tradition has lived on. Both his children, William and Harry, appear on the polo fields regularly attracting an adoring coterie of fans from across the world.
