It was a banner year for King Charles: his first full year on the throne, not to mention the global spectacle of his coronation earlier this May, and now, as the year winds to a close, he finds himself on Time magazine’s shortlist for Person of the Year.
Time announced their shortlist on Monday morning, and the King has stiff competition against the likes of Barbie, Taylor Swift, the striking actors and writers in Hollywood, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, the prosecutors at the centre of former US President Donald Trump’s many ongoing trials, Jerome Powell (Chairman of the US Federal Reserve), and Sam Altman (the CEO of OpenAI).
King Charles, Time wrote, “signified the power of tradition” after a “decades-long wait for the throne,” one that signified “a moment of change for the monarchy.”
The Royal Family are no strangers to Time’s Person of the Year award. In 1952, the newly-ascended Queen Elizabeth II was named Person of the Year, but she was beaten to the punch by the Duchess of Windsor, whose scandalous affairs with Edward VIII landed her the title in 1936 amidst the Abdication Crisis.
As for Time 100, a yearly list of the world’s most influential people, the Princess of Wales has been named three times (2011, 2012, and 2013), the Prince of Wales once (2011), and King Charles was on the list this past year.
When King Charles was named to the Time 100 list in the spring, Edward Enniful, editor of British Vogue wrote: “As a man, the King is not always who people expect him to be. He is charming, funny, socially confident, with a kindness that always seeks to put others at ease. His love for the environment is well documented, but his love for his subjects burns even brighter. The monarchy is not perfect, but in Charles, we have a King who understands both tradition and what it takes to evolve with the times. It is a delicate balance and a rare ability. I am excited to see him carry his passions with him into a whole new era.”
Time will announce its Person of the Year on the morning of 6th December.
