A new book has revealed what those around King Charles III really thought about his outbursts over pens at the time of his accession to the throne, which garnered worldwide press coverage and left the public with "serious questions about the royal temper."
Charles fell victim to two pen-related inconveniences in the immediate aftermath of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II's, death, the first of which saw him angrily gesturing to an equerry to remove a tray and inkwell from the desk he was signing documents on during his accession council.
At the St James's Palace ceremony, on September 10, 2022, which officially recognized Charles as the new king, news cameras caught the royal outburst, which was compounded when Prince William asked for the offending tray to be returned when he needed a pen to sign his name to the documents.
The clip quickly went viral online, sparking both ridicule and censure.
This was revived just three days later, when during an accession visit to Northern Ireland, he erupted over the fountain pen he was using to sign a visitors book at Hillsborough Castle leaking over his hand.
The outburst, which again was caught on camera, saw Charles exclaim: "Oh God, I hate this pen! Can't bear this bloody thing! [It's] what they do every stinking time."
Now, in his new book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, which was published in Britain on Thursday, royal biographer Robert Hardman has provided a behind-palace-walls insight into the mood of the king's staff at the time.
"On social media, there was more mirth," Hardman wrote of the leaking pen incident. "Although some were now asking more serious questions about the royal temper."
"After the inkwell incident at St James's Palace and now this moment at Hillsborough, people were going to take a much closer interest in the hitherto banal ritual of the signing of the visitors' book," he wrote, going on to cite one of the new monarch's aides who supportively highlighted the pressures Charles was under and who defended him:
"'He's had very little sleep. His mother's died. And everyone keeps asking him questions,'" they told Hardman. "'Now his pen's leaking and he's cross. If that's the worse so far, we'll live with that.'"
Another source cited about the pen incident is Penny Mordaunt, best known for her role as royal sword carrier during the coronation, who as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council in England was present at the king's accession council at St James's Palace.
According to Hardman, Mordaunt believed that the cross exchange over pens and desks was small-scale considering the multitude of issues that could have arisen.
"Of all the things that could have gone wrong," she told Hardman, "'I think just the pen not working was a good outcome.'"
The author went on to write that Charles has now learned to joke about the pen fiasco, no doubt helped by some members of the public who appeared to find it funny.
During a visit to Cardiff Castle in Wales in the days after the second pen drama, Charles was presented with a biro ballpoint pen by a member of the crowd who had come to see him. "Just in case," he was told.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more