Charles, Prince of Wales
| Charles | |||||
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| Prince of Wales (more) | |||||
The Prince of Wales on Christmas Day 2017
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| Born | 14 November 1948 Buckingham Palace, London, England | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
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| House | Windsor | ||||
| Father | Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | ||||
| Mother | Elizabeth II | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
| Military career | |||||
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom[fn 2] | ||||
| Service/ |  Royal Navy Royal Air Force[fn 2] | ||||
| Years of service | 1971–1977 (active service) | ||||
| Rank | See list | ||||
| Commands held | HMS Bronington | ||||
| showRoyal family of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms |
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Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history.[2] He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958.[3]
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child, as well as the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer and they had two sons: Prince William (b. 1982) and Prince Harry (b. 1984). In 1996, the couple divorced following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married long-time partner Camilla Parker Bowles.
As Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. Charles founded The Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince's Charities, and is a patron, president and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations. As an environmentalist, he raises awareness of organic farming and climate change which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups.[4][5][6][7] His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been criticised by some in the medical community[8][9] and his views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received considerable attention from British architects and design critics.[10][11][12] Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his preferences. He is also an author and co-author of a number of books.
Contents
- 1Early life and education
- 2Prince of Wales
- 3Military training and career
- 4Bachelorhood
- 5Marriages
- 6Social interests
- 7Official duties
- 8Hobbies and personal interests
- 9Media image
- 10Residences and finance
- 11Titles, styles, honours and arms
- 12Issue
- 13Ancestry
- 14Notes
- 15References
- 16Further reading
- 17External links
Early life and education
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace in London during the reign of his maternal grandfather George VI on 14 November 1948, at 9:14 pm (GMT),[13][14] the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was baptised in the palace's Music Room by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, on 15 December 1948.[fn 3] The death of his grandfather and the accession of his mother as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 made Charles her heir apparent. As the monarch's eldest son, he automatically took the titles Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.[16] Charles attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953.[17]
As was customary for upper-class children at the time, a governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed and undertook his education between the ages of five and eight. Buckingham Palace announced in 1955 that Charles would attend school rather than have a private tutor, making him the first heir apparent to be educated in that manner.[18] On 7 November 1956, Charles commenced classes at Hill House school, in west London.[19] He did not receive preferential treatment from the school's founder and headmaster, Stuart Townend, who advised the Queen to have Charles train in football because the boys were never deferential to anyone on the football field.[20] Charles then attended two of his father's former schools, Cheam Preparatory School in Berkshire, England,[21] from 1958,[19] followed by Gordonstoun in the north-east of Scotland,[22] beginning classes there in April 1962.[19] Though he reportedly described Gordonstoun, noted for its especially rigorous curriculum, as "Colditz in kilts",[21] Charles subsequently praised Gordonstoun, stating it had taught him "a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative." In a 1975 interview, he said he was "glad" he had attended Gordonstoun and that the "toughness of the place" was "much exaggerated".[23] He spent two terms in 1966 at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, during which time he visited Papua New Guinea on a school trip with his history tutor, Michael Collins Persse.[24][25][26] In 1973, Charles described his time at Timbertop as the most enjoyable part of his whole education.[27] Upon his return to Gordonstoun, Charles emulated his father in becoming Head Boy. He left in 1967, with six GCE O-levels and two A-levels in history and French, at grades B and C respectively.[24][28] On his early education, Charles later remarked, "I didn't enjoy school as much as I might have, but that was only because I'm happier at home than anywhere else."[23]
Charles broke royal tradition a second time when he proceeded straight to university after his A-levels, rather than joining the British Armed Forces.[21] In October 1967, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read anthropology, archaeology, and history.[29][24] During his second year, Charles attended the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, studying Welsh history and language for a term.[24] He graduated from Cambridge with a 2:2 Bachelor of Arts on 23 June 1970, the first heir apparent to earn a university degree.[24] On 2 August 1975, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge.[24] (At Cambridge, Master of Arts is an academic rank, not a postgraduate degree.)
Prince of Wales
Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 26 July 1958,[30][31] though his investiture was not held until 1 July 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.[32] He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970,[33][34] and he made his maiden speech in June 1974,[35] the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884.[36] He spoke again in 1975.[37] Charles began to take on more public duties, founding The Prince's Trust in 1976,[38] and travelling to the United States in 1981.[39] In the mid-1970s, the prince expressed an interest in serving as Governor-General of Australia, at the suggestion of Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser, but because of a lack of public enthusiasm nothing came of the proposal.[40] Charles accepted the decision, if not without some regret; he said: "So, what are you supposed to think when you are prepared to do something to help and you are just told you're not wanted?"[41]
Charles is the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having surpassed the record held by Edward VII on 9 September 2017.[3] He is the oldest and longest-serving British heir apparent, the longest-serving Duke of Cornwall, and the longest-serving Duke of Rothesay.[2] If he becomes monarch, he will be the oldest person to do so; the current record holder being William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830.[42]
Military training and career
Charles followed family tradition when he served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. During his second year at Cambridge, he requested and received Royal Air Force training. On 8 March 1971, he flew himself to the Royal Air Force College Cranwell to train as a jet pilot.[43] After the passing-out parade that September, he embarked on a naval career and enrolled in a six-week course at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth. He then served on the guided missile destroyer HMS Norfolk (1971–1972) and the frigates HMS Minerva (1972–1973) and HMS Jupiter (1974). In 1974, he qualified as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Yeovilton, and then joined 845 Naval Air Squadron, operating from HMS Hermes.[44]
On 9 February 1976, Charles took command of the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington for his last ten months of active service in the navy.[44] He learned to fly on a Chipmunk basic pilot trainer, a BAC Jet Provost jet trainer, and a Beagle Basset multi-engine trainer; he then regularly flew the Hawker Siddeley Andover, Westland Wessex and BAe 146 aircraft of The Queen's Flight[45] until he gave up flying after crashing the BAe 146 in the Hebrides in 1994.[46][47]
Bachelorhood
In his youth, Charles was amorously linked to a number of women. His great-uncle Lord Mountbatten advised him:
Charles's girlfriends included Georgiana Russell, the daughter of Sir John Russell, who was British ambassador to Spain;[49] Lady Jane Wellesley, the daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington;[50] Davina Sheffield;[51] Lady Sarah Spencer;[52] and Camilla Shand,[53] who later became his second wife and Duchess of Cornwall.[54]
Early in 1974, Mountbatten began corresponding with Charles about a potential marriage to Amanda Knatchbull, who was Mountbatten's granddaughter.[55][56] Charles wrote to Amanda's mother—Lady Brabourne, who was also his godmother—expressing interest in her daughter, to which she replied approvingly, though she suggested that a courtship with the not yet 17-year-old girl was premature.[57] Four years later, Mountbatten arranged for Amanda and himself to accompany Charles on his 1980 tour of India. Both fathers, however, objected; Philip feared that Charles would be eclipsed by his famous uncle (who had served as the last British Viceroy and first Governor-General of India), while Lord Brabourne warned that a joint visit would concentrate media attention on the cousins before they could decide on becoming a couple.[58] However, in August 1979, before Charles would depart alone for India, Mountbatten was killed by the IRA. When Charles returned, he proposed to Amanda, but in addition to her grandfather, she had lost her paternal grandmother and youngest brother Nicholas in the bomb attack and was now reluctant to join the royal family.[58] In June 1980, Charles officially turned down Chevening House, placed at his disposal since 1974, as his future residence. Chevening, a stately home in Kent, was bequeathed, along with an endowment, to the Crown by the last Earl Stanhope, Amanda's childless great-uncle, in the hope that Charles would eventually occupy it.[59] In 1977, a newspaper report mistakenly announced his engagement to Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg.[60]
Marriages
Marriage to Lady Diana Spencer
Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was the companion of her elder sister, Sarah, and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend's barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of his uncle, Lord Mountbatten. Soon, according to Charles's chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride", and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.[61]
Charles's cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her.[62] Meanwhile, the couple's continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana's reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten's criteria), Charles construed his father's advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.[63]
Prince Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981; she accepted and they married in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July of that year. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits generated by the Duchy of Cornwall from 50% to 25%.[64] The couple lived at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (b. 1982) and Henry (known as "Harry") (b. 1984). Charles set a precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children's births.[18]
Separation and divorce
Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple's incompatibility and near 13-year age difference.[65][66] In a videotape recorded by Peter Settelen in 1992, Diana admitted that by 1986, she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment."[67][68] It is thought she was referring to Barry Mannakee,[69] who was transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986 after his managers had determined that his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate.[68][70] Charles resumed his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana commenced one with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor.[71] Charles and Diana's evident discomfort in each other's company led to them being dubbed "The Glums" by the press.[72] Diana exposed Charles's affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana, Her True Story. Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced.[72] Persistent suggestions that Hewitt is Prince Harry's father have been based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time Diana's affair with Hewitt began.[73][74]
In December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the couple's formal separation in Parliament. Earlier that year, the British press had published transcripts of a passionate bugged telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla from 1989.[75][76] Prince Charles sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994. In the interview, he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla, saying that he had rekindled their association in 1986 only after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down".[77][78][79] Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996.[80] Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August of the following year; Charles flew to Paris with Diana's sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.[81]
Marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles
The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005; he presented her with an engagement ring that had belonged to his grandmother.[82] The Queen's consent to the marriage (as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772) was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on 2 March.[83] In Canada, the Department of Justice announced its decision that the Queen's Privy Council for Canada was not required to meet to give its consent to the marriage, as the union would not result in offspring and would have no impact on the succession to the Canadian throne.[84]
Charles was the only member of the Royal Family to have a civil rather than a church wedding in England. Government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by the BBC, stated that such a marriage was illegal,[85] though these were dismissed by Charles's spokesman,[86] and explained to be obsolete by the sitting government.[87]
The marriage was scheduled to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at St George's Chapel. The venue was subsequently changed to Windsor Guildhall, because a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone who wished to be married there. Four days before the wedding, it was postponed from the originally scheduled date of 8 April until the following day in order to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.[88]
Charles's parents did not attend the civil marriage ceremony; the Queen's reluctance to attend possibly arose from her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.[89] The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh did attend the service of blessing and later held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle.[90] The blessing, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, was televised.[91]
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