17 Hans Pl, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 0EP, United Kingdom
In 1956, Charles was sent to a local day school, Hill House in Knightsbridge
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Charles at Hill House School
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Prince Charles at Hill House School
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Cheam School, Newbury Rd, Thatcham RG19 8LD, United Kingdom
In 1957 Charles enrolled the Cheam School in Hampshire, an upper-class preparatory school which his father had attended.
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Prince Charles in his schooldays
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The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne on a walk around the Windsor Castle grounds
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Royal family in the grounds of Balmoral Castle
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The Queen Mother, Prince Charles and Princess Anne pose with the baby Prince Andrew
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Gordonstoun School, Gordonstoun, Elgin IV30 5RF, United Kingdom
The prince attended Gordonstoun School from 1962 to 1966.
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Prince Charles with his father at Gordonstoun School in Scotland
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Prince Charles at Gordonstoun School in Scotland
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Prince Charles with his mother at Gordonstoun School in Scotland
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The Prince of Wales plays polo during a Household Brigade Club match
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The Prince of Wales performs the dagger scene in Gordonstoun School's production of Shakespeare's " Macbeth"
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50 Biddlecombe Ave, Corio VIC 3214, Australia
Charles spent almost a year at the outback branch of the prestigious Geelong Grammar School in Australia.
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Australia
Prince Charles, during his year at Timbertop School in Geelong
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Australia
Prince Charles horseriding, during his year spent at Geelong Grammar's Timbertop
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Australia
Prince Charles, during his year at Timbertop School in Geelong
College/University
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Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom
Prince Charles entered Trinity College in October 1967 and studied there till the spring of 1969. He returned to Cambridge in the fall of 1969 and received his degree in 1970.
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Cambridge, United Kingdom
Prince Charles at Trinity College
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Cambridge, United Kingdom
Prince Charles at Trinity College
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Cambridge, United Kingdom
Prince Charles at Trinity College
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Cambridge, United Kingdom
Prince Charles at Trinity College
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Cambridge, United Kingdom
Graduating day at Trinity College
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University College of Wales, Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3FL, United Kingdom
In the spring of 1969 Prince Charles was sent to University College of Wales at Aberystwyth in order to learn Welsh history, language, and literature. He studied there till the fall of 1969.
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Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, United Kingdom
The Prince of Wales at the Prince Charles at University College of Wales learning Welsh in the language lab
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United Kingdom
The Prince is invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle
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Royal Air Force College, Cranwell Village, Sleaford NG34 8HB, United Kingdom
Charles attended the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell, receiving his wings in 1971.
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Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom
During his time in the Royal Navy the prince served tours of sea duty, learned to fly helicopters and to skydive.
Career
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United Kingdom
The Prince, as Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment, talks to young recruits at the Airborne Forces Parade in Aldershot
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The Prince serving as a Sub-Lieutenant on the bridge of the Frigate Minerva at Devonport
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United Kingdom
The Prince at the South Cerney drop zone in Gloucestershire
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The Prince of Wales tries windsurfing in Cowes during the Regatta week
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Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
The Prince of Wales visits Port Moresby
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The Prince of Wales attends the Badminton Horse Trials
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The Prince and Princess of Wales on their wedding day
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Prince Charles in the cockpit of an RAF Hawk trainer plane
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The Prince of Wales walking in Scotland
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Charles and William playing in the garden of Kensington Palace
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Charles and Diana with their son William
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The Prince of Wales cuts the birthday cake made for him at a huge party to celebrate his 40th birthday
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The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey
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Prince Charles takes his son Prince Harry on tour to South Africa
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The Prince of Wales watches Prince William play on a fire engine
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Charles gives a speech at the " What on Earth" conference about the environment
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Scilly Isles
The Prince and Princess of Wales with sons Prince William and Prince Harry are on their holiday in the Scilly Isles
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The Prince of Wales visits a rainforest
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Charles reads from his book, The Old Man of Lochnagar
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Prince Charles with his family
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Germany
Prince Charles and Camilla are during their visit to Germany
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Charles and Camilla on their wedding day
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United Kingdom
Charles and Camilla
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Ireland
Prince Charles visits Wicklow Mountains National Park
Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom
Prince Charles entered Trinity College in October 1967 and studied there till the spring of 1969. He returned to Cambridge in the fall of 1969 and received his degree in 1970.
University College of Wales, Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3FL, United Kingdom
In the spring of 1969 Prince Charles was sent to University College of Wales at Aberystwyth in order to learn Welsh history, language, and literature. He studied there till the fall of 1969.
(An old, cave-dwelling man attempting to climb a cliff fal...)
An old, cave-dwelling man attempting to climb a cliff falls into the Loch of Lochnagar, where, after sinking for one hour, he meets lagopus Scoticus, a bubble-blowing god of the sea.
A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture
(Makes a personal plea for urban development that preserve...)
Makes a personal plea for urban development that preserves the unique character and tradition of towns and cities, arguing that architecture serves the aesthetic and practical needs of the average citizen.
Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming
(A gorgeously illustrated, coffee-table history of how the...)
A gorgeously illustrated, coffee-table history of how the Prince of Wales turned his Highgrove estate into a model of environmentally-benign gardening and farming.
(The Prince of Wales gave an overview of how the garden ha...)
The Prince of Wales gave an overview of how the garden had developed over 20 years. In this more practical book he describes the organic practices that have turned Highgrove into one of the finest gardens in the country.
(The Prince of Wales reveals how the solutions to our most...)
The Prince of Wales reveals how the solutions to our most pressing modern challenges, from climate change to poverty, can only be found in regaining a balance with nature.
Prince Charles is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh. He has also held the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952 and Prince of Wales since 1958.
Background
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, was born on November 14, 1948, in Buckingham Palace. He has a younger sister, Princess Anne, born in 1950, and two younger brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, who were born in 1960 and 1964, respectively. After the death in February 1952 of his grandfather, King George VI, and his mother's succession as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles became the Duke of Cornwall, a dukedom which includes considerable-and lucrative-property, and the heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom.
Education
Like all parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were very concerned about their children's education, and the academic training of the future monarch naturally entailed much thought and planning. Like previous royal heirs, Charles was first taught at home by a governess. His parents broke with tradition in 1956, however, when they decided to send him to a local day school, Hill House in Knightsbridge. During his time at Hill House Prince Charles was much pursued by members of the London press. Despite severe warnings from the royal press secretary, this situation was not much alleviated by the prince's enrollment in 1957 at Cheam in Hampshire, an upper-class preparatory school which his father had attended.
On July 26, 1958, during his stay at Cheam, the Queen named Charles Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. Nonetheless, while at Cheam Prince Charles was treated as much like the other boys as possible, sharing a dormitory room with nine others and doing chores. It was also while at Cheam that the prince refined his sense of humor, developed his taste for practical jokes, and discovered his interest in and talent for acting.
In part to avoid the overly-enthusiastic attentions of the press, Gordonstoun, located in a remote area of northern Scotland, was the public (British equivalent of our private) school selected for Prince Charles. It also was Prince Philip's alma mater and was noted for its strict discipline, its spartan living conditions, and its dedication to the ideals of social responsibility and community service. The prince attended Gordonstoun from 1962 to January 1966, when he was sent to Australia to attend Timbertop, the outback branch of the prestigious Geelong Grammar School. Here, in an egalitarian social milieu very different from that to which he was accustomed, the isolated location and rigorous physical activity provided the prince with an increased sense of self-reliance. Prince Charles returned to Gordonstoun in September 1966 and during his last year rose to become head boy of the school. He enjoyed acting in plays and became interested in classical music.
After consultations which involved Church of England dignitaries, the prime minister, Prince Philip's much-admired "Uncle Dickie, " Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles, it was decided that Prince Charles would complete his academic education by attending Trinity College, Cambridge, which his grandfather George VI had also attended. The prince entered Trinity in October 1967 and lived very much like other well-to-do students there. He enjoyed his time at Cambridge, continuing his musical and acting pursuits and attaining satisfactory if undistinguished academic credentials in anthropology, archaeology, and history.
In the spring of 1969 Prince Charles was sent to University College of Wales at Aberystwyth in order to learn Welsh history, language, and literature in preparation for his investiture as Prince of Wales in a spectacular ceremony at Caernarvon Castle on July 1, 1969. Prince Charles returned to Cambridge in the fall of 1969 and received his degree in 1970, the first member of the royal family to do so. Following family tradition, Prince Charles spent the next seven years in the military. He attended the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell, receiving his wings in 1971, and then went to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. During his time in the Royal Navy the prince served tours of sea duty, learned to fly helicopters and to skydive, and in 1975 got a command of his own, the HMS Barrington.
In 1977, his preliminary education and training complete, Prince Charles began his real career as Prince of Wales. Up to this time the prince had taken some part in public events. In 1964, for example, he, Princess Anne, and Prince Philip had attended the wedding of King Constantine of Greece, and in 1965 he attended Sir Winston Churchill's funeral. On November 14, 1966, he constitutionally came of age and was designated prince-regent in case of his mother's absence or incapacitation. In October 1967 for the first time he went with the queen to the formal opening of Parliament, and in the same year he represented her at the funeral of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt.
From 1977 on, however, his public activities as Prince of Wales took a qualitative and quantitative leap. As Prince of Wales he espoused many charitable causes, especially those having to do with youth, such as the Queen's Silver Jubilee Fund. He also promoted environmental causes. As Prince of Wales he represented the monarchy at home and served as a good-will ambassador abroad. In the spring of 1978 he visited South America and in the same year served as the queen's representative at the funerals of respected Commonwealth statesmen Sir Robert Menzies and Jomo Kenyatta. The prince went to Yugoslavia in 1979, to the Far East in the same year, to India in 1980, and to Australia in the spring of 1981.
In 1981 Prince Charles married to Lady Diana Spencer. However, marriage and the birth of his two sons did not affect the prince's busy schedule. Princess Diana accompanied him on many trips - a tour of Wales shortly after their marriage, an excursion to Australia and New Zealand in the spring of 1983, and a trip to Canada in the summer of 1983 - and because of her youth, beauty, and style she developed a loyal following of her own that served to support but later overshadow her husband's position. The couple divorced in 1996. A year later Diana died in an auto accident, and popular feeling for her, stronger even in death than in life, served to jeopardize the traditional form of monarchy that Charles represented. He subsequently spent much effort in modernizing his public image as the heir apparent. In 2005, he married Camilla Parker Bowles, who, after the wedding, took the title of duchess of Cornwall. Since then, Prince Charles has accomplished his official visits with Camilla.
As Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph declared Charles the "hardest-working member of the royal family." He carried out 560 official engagements in 2008, 499 in 2010, and over 600 in 2011. Prince Charles makes regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd. In 2000, Charles revived the tradition of the Prince of Wales having an official harpist, in order to foster Welsh talent at playing the harp, the national instrument of Wales. He and the Duchess of Cornwall also spend one week each year in Scotland, where he is patron of several Scottish organisations.
In 2010, Charles represented the Queen at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. He attends official events in the United Kingdom in support of Commonwealth countries, such as the Christchurch earthquake memorial service at Westminster Abbey in 2011. From 15 to 17 November 2013, he represented the Queen for the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall made their first joint trip to the Republic of Ireland in May 2015. The trip was called an important step in "promoting peace and reconciliation" by the British Embassy. During the trip, Charles shook hands with Sinn Féin and supposed IRA leader Gerry Adams in Galway, which was described by the media as a "historic handshake" and a "significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations".
Charles has made frequent visits to Saudi Arabia in order to promote arms exports for companies such as BAE Systems. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, he met with the commander of Saudi Arabia's National Guard Mutaib bin Abdullah. In February 2014, he took part in a traditional sword dance with members of the Saudi royal family at the Janariyah festival in Riyadh.
On 7 March 2019, the Queen hosted a Buckingham Palace event to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles's investiture as the Prince of Wales. The same month, at the request of the British government, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall went on an official tour to Cuba, making them the first British royalty to visit the country. The tour was seen as effort to form a closer relationship between the UK and Cuba.
Since founding The Prince's Trust in 1976, Charles has established 16 more charitable organisations, and now serves as president of all of those. Together, these form a loose alliance called The Prince's Charities. In 2010, The Prince's Charities Canada was established in a similar fashion to its namesake in the UK. Charles is also patron of over 400 other charities and organisations, and carries out duties related to these throughout the Commonwealth realms. For example, he uses his tours of Canada as a way to help draw attention to youth, the disabled, the environment, the arts, medicine, the elderly, heritage conservation, and education. In Canada, Charles has supported humanitarian projects. Along with his two sons, he took part in ceremonies that marked the 1998 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Charles has also set up The Prince's Charities Australia, which is based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Prince's Charities Australia is to provide a coordinating presence for the Prince of Wales's Australian and international charitable endeavours.
Charles was one of the first world leaders to express strong concerns about the human rights record of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, initiating objections in the international arena, and subsequently supported the FARA Foundation, a charity for Romanian orphans and abandoned children. In 2013, Charles donated an unspecified sum of money to the British Red Cross Syria Crisis appeal and DEC Syria appeal, which is run by 14 British charities to help victims of the Syrian civil war.
According to The Guardian, It is believed that after turning 65 years old in 2013, Charles donated his state pension to an unnamed charity that supports elderly people. In March 2014, Charles arranged for five million measles-rubella vaccinations for children in the Philippines on the outbreak of measles in South-East Asia. According to Clarence House, Charles was affected by news of the damage caused by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. International Health Partners, of which he has been Patron since 2004, sent the vaccines, which are believed to protect five million children below the age of five from measles.
Since the early 1980s, Charles has promoted environmental awareness. Upon moving into Highgrove House, he developed an interest in organic farming, which culminated in the 1990 launch of his own organic brand, Duchy Originals, which now sells more than 200 different sustainably produced products, from food to garden furniture. The profits are donated to The Prince's Charities.
Documenting work on his estate, Charles co-authored Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming, published in 1993, and offered his patronage to Garden Organic. Along similar lines, the Prince of Wales became involved with farming and various industries within it, regularly meeting with farmers to discuss their trade. In 2004, he founded the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, which aims to support British sheep farmers and make mutton more attractive to Britons.
In 2007, Charles launched The Prince's May Day Network, which encourages businesses to take action on climate change. Speaking to the European Parliament on 14 February 2008, he called for European Union leadership in the war against climate change.
(The Prince of Wales gave an overview of how the garden ha...)
2007
Religion
Although it had been rumoured that Charles would vow to be "Defender of the Faiths" or "Defender of Faith" as king, he stated in 2015 that he would retain the monarch's traditional title of "Defender of the Faith", whilst "ensuring that other people's faiths can also be practised", which he sees as a duty of the Church of England.
Views
Prince Charles has angered the medical profession, including one of Britain's most eminent doctors, with his controversial views on alternative therapies. He has come under fire after he became the patron of a homeopathy group, the Faculty of Homeopathy, which supports registered medical professionals with alternative treatment. And in May 2006, Charles made a speech at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, urging the integration of conventional and alternative medicine and arguing for homeopathy.
Quotations:
"Christianity was literally born in the Middle East, and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ."
"Grandparenthood is a unique moment in anyone's life, as countless kind people have told me in recent months, so I am enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future."
"Forests are in fact the world's air-conditioning system-the very lungs of the planet-and help to store the largest body of freshwater on the planet essential to produce food for our planet's growing population. The rainforests of the world also provide the livelihoods of more than a billion of the poorest people on this Earth. In simple terms, the rainforests, which encircle the world, are our very life-support system-and we are on the verge of switching it off."
"A large number of us have developed a feeling that architects tend to design houses for the approval of fellow architects and critics, not for the tenants."
"It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities."
"Why can't we have those curves and arches that express feeling in design? What is wrong with them? Why has everything got to be vertical, straight, unbending, only at right angles - and functional?"
"I find myself born into this particular position. I'm determined to make the most of it. And to do whatever I can to help. And I hope I leave things behind a little bit better than I found them."
"There is no doubt that we live in an age of unprecedented, and sometimes terrifying, technological advance where the speed of advance so often outstrips the necessary ethical considerations."
"It is baffling, I must say, that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything - until, that is, it comes to climate science."
"If you think about the impact of climate change, it should be how a doctor would deal with the problem. A scientific hypothesis is tested to absolute destruction, but medicine can't wait. If a doctor sees a child with a fever, he can't wait for endless tests. He has to act on what is there. The risk of delay is so enormous that we can't wait until we are absolutely sure the patient is dying."
"What I have been trying to remind people of for the past 40 years is that you can’t operate an entire conventional system, whether it’s economics, business or the way we live and surround ourselves, what we eat, without recognizing that there are severe negative externalities that are not being accounted for."
Membership
Prince Charles is a patron, president and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations.
Personality
Prince Charles has an eclectic range of interests. Like other members of his family he loves country life and polo, fast cars, flying, and fishing. He also frequently took part in fox hunting until the sport was banned in the United Kingdom in 2005.
Charles is a devotee of the theater, classical music, an avid reader of history and English literature, and notably an outspoken critic of architecture. He is a keen and accomplished watercolourist who has exhibited and sold a number of his works. He is also an author of several books that reflect his own interests. And surely he must be the only Prince of Wales who ever wrote and published a fairy tale - The Old Man of Lochnagar - based on a story he told his younger brothers when they were children.
In his youth, Charles was amorously linked to a number of women. His girlfriends included Georgiana Russell, the daughter of Sir John Russell, who was British ambassador to Spain, Lady Jane Wellesley, the daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington, Davina Sheffield, Lady Sarah Spencer, and Camilla Shand, who later became his second wife and Duchess of Cornwall.
Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while he was visiting her home, Althorp. Their official engagement was announced on February 24, 1981. The royal wedding, on July 29, 1981, was a magnificently orchestrated yet touching event which was viewed via television by millions worldwide. Marriage and the birth of his two sons (Prince William on June 21, 1982, and Prince Henry on September 15, 1984) did not curtail the prince's activities in any way. And because of Diana's youth, beauty, kindness and style there developed a loyal following of her own which served to enhance and later eclipse her husband's position.
While there had always been rumblings about the shaky status of Charles and Diana's marriage, the royal couple rode out the rest of the eighties making the standard monarchic ribbon cuttings and raising their two sons. Reports indeed did began to emerge in the mid-1980 of Charles' continued affair with old girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles but none were substantiated until a series of love tapes surfaced in the early 1990. The age difference between Charles and Diana, a presumed intellectual gap, and the claim that Charles was pressured into marriage by his father, Prince Philip, were several theories thought to be the reason for the breakup of the marriage. In December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the couple's formal separation in Parliament. With Diana retaining custody of their two sons, it was originally speculated that she would still be able to be crowned Queen one day. However, when Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996, these plans were shuttled, though she was able to retain the title of Princess of Wales. In addition to keeping her title, Diana was awarded a settlement of $23 million, plus $600, 000 a year to maintain her private office, where she continued to do charity work. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August of the following year.
Prince Charles met the former Camilla Shand at a polo match in 1970 and right away Camilla and Charles were a hot item of the British tabloids. It was never to be though, and after refusing Charles' marriage proposal Camilla, for reasons of privacy and the lack of which being a royal comes with, married cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973. Charles, who didn't attend the wedding, nonetheless became their son Tom's godfather in 1974.
In a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994, Charles 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". The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005. They had a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall and a subsequent religious blessing at St George's Chapel on 9 April 2005.