It was the biggest moment of his life, so it was no surprise that as his mother the Queen placed the coronet on 20-yearold Prince Charles' head during his investiture as Prince of Wales, he looked mildly terrified.
A worldwide audience of 500 million people watched the live broadcast of the ceremony from Caernarfon Castle in Wales on July 1, 1969. Charles had spent nine weeks at Aberystwyth University studying Welsh so he could make his acceptance speech in the language. And thankfully, the day went without a hitch.
Charles looked regal in a velvet gown with ermine cape and the Prince of Wales coronet - which had to be made specially for him because the previous one had vanished (it turned out the last Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, had taken it with him when he was exiled following his abdication in 1936).
Poet laureate Sir John Betjeman marked the occasion by writing, "You knelt a boy, you rose a man/And thus your lonelier life began." Looking back, those words seemed very prophetic.
After leaving school, the young prince had gone to Cambridge University, where he became the first British heir apparent to earn a degree (a Bachelor of Arts).
A career in the military was always on the cards and he first joined the Royal Air Force while still at university. After training as a jet pilot, he then switched to the Royal Navy and served for five years, during which time he learned to fly helicopters and commanded a minehunter.
この記事は New Zealand Woman's Weekly の May 19, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は New Zealand Woman's Weekly の May 19, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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