Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II Doubt Prince Charles' Leadership, Author Says

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip want Prince Charles' reign to be brief, claims one author.

According to Tom Bower, the Prince of Wales didn't have a smooth relationship with his parents. Prince Charles apparently resented his mom for teaching him the alphabet and his dad for ordering him to wear corduroy trousers to a birthday party, which made him feel humiliated. On the other hand, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip reportedly doubt his leadership skills and want his reign to be short.

Investigative journalist Bower wrote in his explosive new biography "The Power, Passion And Defiance of Prince Charles," which hit the bookshops yesterday, that at private dinner the Duke of Edinburgh had with friends in Mayfair, Prince Philip, 96, joked that he and the monarch wanted to live longer to keep their eldest son from the throne. Prince Philip added that Her Majesty, 91, was in robust health and even implied that she could live for another 10 years. This would mean that Prince Charles won't take over the kingship for a long while and will "have little opportunity to damage the monarchy."

In Graham Turner's semi-authorized biography of Prince Philip, the royal apparently criticized his son's capacity to be a leader. According to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles is "precious, extravagant and lacking in the dedication...to make a good king."

Prince Charles, 69, and Prince Philip's fractured relationship was also covered in Sally Bedell Smith's 2017 book, "Prince Charles: The Passion and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life." A relative told the biographer that the younger royal felt he was bullied by his father into marrying Princess Diana.

Pamela Hicks, Prince Charles' cousin, read the letter Prince Philip sent to Prince Charles and found it "measured and sensitive." But the Duke of Cornwall thought otherwise.

"He wasn't in love, he wasn't ready," Hicks said in the biography. "He saw it as a ghastly threat. Psychologically he assumed his father bullied him, so he read it as a bullying letter."

Jonathan Dimbleby, who was friendly with the next-in-line to the throne, also thinks that Prince Charles as king "will not shy away from issues that are contentious or controversial."

On the other hand, Queen Elizabeth II was worried about the changes that Prince Charles would bring to the monarchy as she has always been focused on continuity and stability. According to Bower, instead of following the Queen's wishes, Prince Charles re-emphasizes his own interests, which are opposite to what the Buckingham Palace orders. In addition, he "insisted on taking over more of his mother's public duties."

In the same book, Bower also claimed that the Queen was not supportive of Prince Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. In fact, the monarch didn't want to see her in any royal function or talk about her. The royal family had a "cold war" due to Camilla and the prince's romance.​