Britain’s Prince Charles arrived in Barbados late on Sunday evening, as the Caribbean nation prepares for a celebration marking the founding of a republic and the removal of the Queen as sovereign, cutting imperial ties some 400 years after English ships first arrived.
Barbados won independence from Britain in 1966 but has retained Queen Elizabeth as its official sovereign.
She will be replaced with a Barbadian President in an inauguration ceremony to be held when the country celebrates independence on Tuesday.
It will mark the first time in three decades that the queen is removed as head of state. Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, proclaimed itself a republic in 1992.
The shift may spur discussion of similar proposals in other former British colonies that have Queen Elizabeth as their sovereign, which include Jamaica, Australia and Canada.
