Despite Andrew saga, King Charles celebrates birthday after notable successes

By Michael Holden and Sarah Mills

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's King Charles celebrates his 77th birthday on Friday with a trip to Wales, where he can reflect on a year of some personal successes often overshadowed by family feuds, the scandals of his younger brother Andrew and his own illness.

From deftly handling U.S. President Donald Trump to symbolically bringing the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church closer than they have been in five centuries, it has been a year the monarch can look back on with satisfaction.

But as ever, the internal family issues that enthral the media and fascinate the public have cast a pall - none more so than the banishment of Andrew from public life over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

ANDREW HAD UPSTAGED THE MONARCHY

"Everything that the monarchy is trying to do, everything the monarchy has been doing has been completely upstaged by this embarrassing saga," said royal biographer Robert Hardman after the king took away Andrew's title of prince and his mansion on the Windsor Castle estate.

Despite the headlines being dominated by stories of Andrew, the estrangement of his younger son Prince Harry and concerns about his health since his cancer diagnosis at the start of last year, royal commentators say Charles' first three years on the throne have actually gone better than many predicted.

For much of his life, waiting in the wings during his mother Queen Elizabeth's record-breaking 70-year reign, there was concern that when he became sovereign, Charles would upend the ancient institution with radical ideas.

When he finally became king in September 2022, some observers suggested he would be little more than a placeholder until his eldest son Prince William and his wife Kate led the monarchy into the future.

'BENEFIT OF LOW EXPECTATIONS'

"I think Charles's reign has been a sort of unexpected triumph so far," royal author Tina Brown told Reuters.

"He had the benefit, I suppose, of low expectations. We all kind of thought, this is the bridge reign, it'll just be sort of bumbling along until we get to the glamour of William. But actually, I think that he has really excelled on the world stage as a great statesman."

His most notable success on that front has been his dealings with Trump, displaying diplomatic skills honed from years of meeting world leaders and dignitaries.

His hosting of the president for an unprecedented second state visit in September - Queen Elizabeth had also entertained him in 2019 - was heralded as helping to smooth relations between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to the Ukrainian President's chief of staff, while also cementing Britain's economic ties with the United States.

While some world leaders, most notably Zelenskiy, have faced a hostile reception from Trump in the White House, royal sources say the president had gone out of his way on his trip to Britain to ensure everything he did fitted with protocol.

In a careful balancing act, Charles had also shown overt support for Canada - where he made the unusual and highly symbolic step of opening the Canadian parliament in May - amid trade tensions and Trump's regular musings about the U.S. annexing its northern neighbour.

"You have to keep President Trump happy because you want favourable trade deals for the United Kingdom," royal commentator Afua Hagan told Reuters.

"But you have to also keep Canada happy because you're head of state of that country - it's a very, very difficult tightrope to walk. But he does it, and he does it well."

Visits to France and Germany, where Charles spoke to lawmakers in French and German, have also been credited with helping repair Britain's relations with its European allies damaged by Brexit.

PRAYING WITH THE POPE

For Charles, whose spirituality is well-known, his visit to the Vatican last month where he prayed with Pope Leo - the first joint worship by an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 - was a huge personal moment.

It marked a historic reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.

Meanwhile, green shoots of reconciliation have also emerged in his relationship with Harry, with their first meeting in September for 20 months.

"I think that ... his years and years and years of experience have ... trained him to be a really good monarch," Tina Brown said. "People have always underestimated the king (and) he's always complained about it. It happens to be true."

(Reporting by Michael Holden)