Breaking: King Charles echoes late Queen with major gesture that has left critics fuming….See More

The monarch is known as a staunch Francophile but his attempts to not offend the French have not gone down well

King Charles has found himself on the end of criticism this week after it was claimed he intervened in the re-naming of a Royal Navy submarine. The nuclear-powered vessel, which is currently under construction, was due to be called HMS Agincourt after the famous English victory over the French in 1415.

But sources suggest Charles personally intervened last year despite the name being given the green light by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The The astute-class attack boat will now be called HMS Achilles, a name with links to the Royal Navy.

The decision by naval chiefs was branded “woke nonsense” by former defence secretary Grant Shapps. The Daily Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column notes that Charles may have been following in the footsteps of his mother who took similar action to avoid offending the French in 2004.

Then-French president Jacques Chirac had been invited to a banquet at Windsor to mark 100 years of the Entente Cordiale, the treaties of 1904 which ended centuries of Anglo-French rivalry and strengthened ties between the two powers. The dinner was to be followed by a performance of Les Miserables.

But when the queen found out that was to take place in the ‘Waterloo Chamber’, she requested a change, telling staff: “We’ll call it The Music Room – for one night only.” The Battle of Waterloo was a decisive defeat for the French armies of Napoleon at the hands of the pan-European Seventh Coalition, which included British troops led by the Duke of Wellington.

Charles is known as a strong Francophile. He can speak French and has often spoken of his desire to strengthen relations between the country and the UK. He has previously described France as “an essential part of the fabric” of his life.