Why is King Charles III called Charles in Russia
After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son, Prince Charles, became the British monarch. He ascended the throne on September 10 and announced that he had taken the name Charles III. But in Russia and some other countries in the news called the newly-made king Charles III. This translation of the name caused controversy. Someone did not understand why Charles became Carl, and someone guessed, but was surprised by the strange interpretation of the name. Linguist Dmitry Petrov revealed the "royal secret" and explained where the names of European monarchs and their Russian translations come from.
It just so happened that the names of Western European monarchs have Germanic roots: Clovis, Louis. But in In the Middle Ages, Latin played the role of the international language of diplomats. Therefore, variants of names in Latin reading were most often used. Charles thus became Charles, as, indeed, the French Charles.
From this tradition of transliteration, the custom of changing royal names appeared, which is still in effect. An expert in the field of linguistics Dmitry Petrov described the most interesting cases of name changes in favor of traditions:
In classical Latin, there can be no such names as Charles, George and Louis. Therefore, they were simply replaced. In Germany, Charles will be called Karl, but in Spain — Carlos. It's a Catholic tradition to change names in your own way. Associate Professor of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, Candidate of Historical Sciences Vasily Istratov also spoke about the Russian manner of giving Christian names to monarchs.
In the 17th century, Britain was ruled by two Charles at once. These were Kings Charles I and Charles II. But we knew them by these names, and in their homeland they were both Charles. In the state documents of that time, you can see the signatures of these monarchs who wrote their name as Charles. But in English documents, especially international ones, there was also a variant of Karl. This Latin version was more familiar outside the kingdom.
It seems that everything is clear — Charles has remained Charles, it's just that some people prefer to use the Latin form Karl. But not everyone knows that the prince, assuming the throne, could choose any name he liked at all. At birth, the prince was given the long name Charles Philip Arthur George. He could have chosen any of these names as the main one.
Moreover, there was a reason not to take the name Karl. The two previous monarchs with such names, the ones from the 17th century, ruled quite restlessly. At this time, the kingdom was shaken by troubles, revolutions and epidemics of the plague. Charles I ended up very badly — after losing the civil war, he ended up on the block in 1649 and lost his head. By the way, there is a hypothesis that Charles II, who died in 1685, was poisoned with mercury.
Based on the fact that the name Charles was unlucky for English kings, everyone assumed that Charles would call himself George VII in honor of his great-grandfather. Moreover, this name has become traditional for male Windsors. But the son of the late queen still decided to continue the succession of Charles and this is his full royal right.
It seems that the king will be called Charles in Europe only in countries where the official language is German, in Russia and Belarus. Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Melinda Simmons recommended Ukrainians to call the monarch of their country Charles. The diplomat insists that this version is the most correct.
Simmons called for abandoning the Russian tradition of changing the names of kings in the German way. Speaking to the press on the occasion of the coronation of the prince, the British ambassador said that in London the monarch is called "King Charles, that is, Charles III". Don't the king's subjects know better than anyone what his real name is?
It remains to add that, having become king, Charles (Charles) III became the monarch of such countries as Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Jamaica. These are all independent states, but they were all British colonies at one time and traditionally recognize the English king. By the way, he will be Charles III everywhere.