If King Charles' rule as King of England will be characterized by a bunch of countries bouncing from the Commonwealth, do you think that will make the British monarch stronger in a way? No. It will diminish Britain's soft power and influence because having the King as head of state over these realms where there's 150 million people total is a way of maintaining Britain's power and influence overseas. But at the same time, you'll see, I think, announcements from Charles that he's fine with all of these realms leaving because there's nothing he can do.
King Charles is struggling to get his subjects to care about the historic coronation this weekend. Professor Brooke Newman explains the complicated road to ditching the monarchy.
This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Serena Solin, Laura Bullard and Matt Collette, engineered by Michael Raphael and Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices