Prince Charles

Prince Charles, born in 1948, prince of Wales and heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He is the son of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Philip Mountbatten, duke of Edinburgh. Charles’s full name is Charles Philip Arthur George. His titles, in addition to prince of Wales, are duke of Cornwall; duke of Rothesay; earl of Carrick; and Baron Renfrew, lord of the Isles and great steward of Scotland.

Breaking with the tradition of educating royal children at home, his parents enrolled Prince Charles in private schools in England and Scotland. He attended the Cheam School in Berkshire as a boarder from the age of 9 to 14 and the school his father attended, Gordonstoun, in Scotland from age 14 to 18. He has described his school years as unhappy and seems to have been especially ill-suited for the rugged and spartan conditions at Gordonstoun, the school chosen by the Duke of Edinburgh to toughen up his son. After Gordonstoun, Charles entered Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied archaeology, anthropology, and history.

Charles became the first heir to the British crown to earn a university degree when he graduated with honors from Cambridge University in June 1970. That year he also assumed his seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. At the age of 20, in 1969, he was formally invested as the Prince of Wales, a title he had been given in 1958.

Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1977. Although he has traveled widely as a representative of the crown, Charles has been viewed as a man with little to do while waiting to succeed to the throne. As one solution he founded the Prince’s Trust, an organization established to provide opportunities for young people through training, education, and financial support. As its president he has remained closely involved with the trust. Charles is also involved with some 200 other charitable organizations that reflect his wide range of interests, from architecture to alternative medicine and conservation.

Charles is a strong proponent of organic farming and has ensured that farming on his 500-hectare (1,200-acre) estate at Highgrove in Gloucestershire is carried out by organic methods. He uses his position to speak out on issues of national concern, although by long tradition the royal family does not become involved with politics. Some observers felt he came close to crossing the line when he spoke out against the genetic engineering of food crops in 1999.

In July 1981 Charles married Lady Diana Frances Spencer, a distant relative of the royal family. She was 19 and he was 32. Their first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, was born in 1982. Their second child, Prince Henry Charles Albert David, was born in 1984. After highly publicized marital difficulties, Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and were legally divorced in 1996. The publicity surrounding their marital problems was costly for the prince. The public perceived him as cold and uncaring, while the princess won the hearts of many with her obvious love for her children, her well-publicized charity work, and her “popular touch.” In August 1997 Diana was killed in an automobile accident in Paris, France.

After Diana’s death Camilla Parker Bowles, whom Charles had known before his marriage, became an increasingly important part of his life. But questions surrounded the possibility of Charles’s remarriage because the Church of England, which Charles will head upon his accession to the throne, opposes divorce and remarriage. Camilla, like the prince, had been divorced. Moreover Diana’s popularity with the British public hindered the acceptance of Camilla, whom Diana had blamed for the breakdown of her marriage. Over time, however, attitudes toward divorce and toward Camilla Parker Bowles gradually softened. After gaining the assent of the queen and the archbishop of Canterbury, Charles married his longtime companion in April 2005, and she became known as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.