Heavy is the head that wears that nearly 5-pound crown. Even if King Charles III will only actually wear the solid gold, ruby- and amethyst-encrusted St. Edward's Crown for a few moments during his May 6 coronation.
Because the metaphorical weight of carrying the monarchy his mother Queen Elizabeth II deftly helmed for more than 70 years until her death last September can feel far more intense.
Or, as a 21-year-old Charles once put it to a BBC radio program, realizing that he would one day be king was "something that dawns on you with the most ghastly, inexorable sense."
Because even though the former Prince of Wales has only been on the job for eight months, it's a role he's been preparing for literally his entire life. And Charles, who was only 3 years old when he watched his mother begin her lengthy reign, had quite the formidable tutor.
In his first address following his mother's death, Charles recalled the speech a then-21-year-old Princess Elizabeth made in 1947 where she pledged "to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples," he detailed. "That was more than a promise: it was a profound personal commitment which defined her whole life. She made sacrifices for duty."
Noting how her dedication to her country never wavered "through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss," he vowed to emulate what he called "the hallmark of her reign."
Insisted the king, "I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. As The Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation."
And as he calmly carries on, the 74-year-old monarch will also take with him a lifetime's worth of wisdom garnered from his late mother.