Britain’s new Carolean age is beset by the unfinished business of history

Britain's King Charles III delivers his first address as a monarch to the nation and the Commonwealth from Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Thursday. Picture date: Friday September 9, 2022. (Yui Mok/Pool via REUTERS)

The complications of King Charles III’s reign start with the name of this new era. It is the Carolean age, from Carolus, the Latin for Charles. Not as intuitive, nor as easy to say or remember as the Elizabethan age, which ended with the September 8 death of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II. A Carolean age sounds somehow old world, mediaeval even, but it just can’t afford to be out of step with the seething demands of the 21st century.

Calls are growing ever louder for restitution, reparation and meaningful reconciliatory acknowledgement of past imperial excesses, colonial depredations and ruthless racial repression. How might Britain’s new King deal with them? Can he deal with them? More to the point, will he?

The list…