by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Charles Philip Arthur George was born at Buckingham Palace in London, England on November 14, 1948. He was the first child of the four children of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born a Prince of Greece and Denmark).

• Unofficial Royalty: Ancestors of King Charles III of the United Kingdom
• Unofficial Royalty: First Cousins of King Charles III of the United Kingdom

The children of a daughter of a British sovereign, in this case, the then Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, would not have been accorded the style Royal Highness or the titles Prince/Princess as in the case of the children of Anne, Princess Royal. However, on October 22, 1948, Charles’ grandfather King George VI issued letters patent allowing the children of his eldest daughter and heiress presumptive, to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess. Therefore, Charles was His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Edinburgh at birth.

Charles was christened on December 15, 1948, in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace in London, England using water from the Jordan River. His grandparents were:

• King George VI of the United Kingdom  (his maternal grandfather)
• King Haakon VII of Norway (a distant cousin via both his parents’ descent from King Christian IX of Denmark, born Prince Carl of Denmark, represented by Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone)
• Queen Mary  (his mother’s grandmother)
• Princess Margaret  (his maternal aunt)
• Prince George of Greece and Denmark (his father’s paternal uncle, represented by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)
• Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (his father’s maternal grandmother born Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria)
• Lady Brabourne (his father’s first cousin, born Patricia Mountbatten later 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma)
• The Honorable David Bowes-Lyon  (his mother’s maternal uncle)

Christening of the future King Charles III with his parents and godparents: Seated left to right: Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (born Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), the then Princess Elizabeth holding the infant Charles and Queen Mary. Standing left to right: Patricia Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (representing godparent Prince George of Greece), King George VI, David Bowes-Lyon, Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (representing godparent King Haakon of Norway), and Princess Margaret

The infant Charles and his parents lived at Buckingham Palace until he was eight months old. The family then moved to Clarence House, a short distance from the palace. Two nannies, Helen Lightbody and Mabel Anderson, were in charge of the nursery.

Charles has one sister and two brothers:

• • Princess Anne, The Princess Royal (born 1950), married (1) Mark Philipps, had one son and one daughter, divorced  (2) Timothy Laurence, no children
  • Prince Andrew, The Duke of York (born 1960), married Sarah Ferguson, had two daughters, divorced
  • Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh (born 1964), married Sophie Rhys-Jones, had one daughter and one son

When King George VI died on February 6, 1952, his elder daughter Princess Elizabeth succeeded him as Queen Elizabeth II and three-year-old Charles became heir to the throne. Upon his mother’s accession to the throne, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and also the Scottish titles Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. The title Prince of Wales is not automatic and must be conferred by the sovereign.

Charles attended his mother’s coronation in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, and he sat between his grandmother The Queen Mother and his aunt Princess Margaret. Along with his sister Anne, Charles later joined his parents and other members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

Charles started his early education with a governess, Catherine Peebles. In 1955, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles would go to school, and not be educated by private tutors as had been the case with heirs to the throne in the past. On November 7, 1956, a week before his eighth birthday, Miss Peebles accompanied Charles to Hill House School, a preparatory day school in Knightsbridge, London. Charles then attended two schools that his father had also attended: Cheam School in Berkshire, England, and Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland.

In October 1967, Charles was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he studied anthropology, archaeology, and history. During his second year, Charles attended the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, Wales where he studied Welsh history and language for a term. He graduated from Cambridge with a 2:2 Bachelor of Arts in 1970, and was the first heir apparent to earn a university degree.

Charles had been created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1958. His formal investiture as Prince of Wales was held on July 1, 1969, at Caernarfon Castle in Wales where Charles gave his replies and speech in both Welsh and English.

Prince Charles has served in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. During his university years, he started his training in the air force and after university, he enrolled at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell to train as a jet pilot. Charles then enrolled at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth and served on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk (1971–1972) and the frigates HMS Minerva (1972–1973) and HMS Jupiter (1974). He qualified as a helicopter pilot at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton in 1974 and then joined the 845 Naval Air Squadron aboard the HMS Hermes. On February 9, 1976, Charles took command of the HMS Bronington, a coastal minehunter, for his last ten months of active service in the Royal Navy.

Charles reached the age of 30 without getting married and was considered the world’s most eligible bachelor. Among the women Charles had been linked to include Georgiana Russell, daughter of the British Ambassador to Spain; Lady Jane Wellesley, daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington; Davina Sheffield; Lady Sarah Spencer; and Camilla Shand, who later became his second wife.  Charles’ great-uncle Lord Mountbatten, encouraged a marriage with his granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull.  Supposedly, Charles did propose to Amanda Knatchbull sometime after the IRA bombing deaths of her maternal grandfather Lord Mountbatten, her paternal grandmother, and youngest brother Nicholas, but after the deaths of her family members, Amanda was reluctant to join the royal family.

Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while visiting her home, Althorp, while dating her elder sister Sarah. During the summer of 1980, Charles first became seriously interested in Diana as a potential bride when they were guests at a country weekend. The relationship continued to develop as Charles invited Diana for a sailing weekend aboard the royal yacht Britannia. Then an invitation to Balmoral followed for Diana to meet Charles’ family during a weekend in November of 1980. Diana was well received by Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Queen Mother. The couple continued to see each other in London. Charles proposed on February 6, 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks until it was officially announced on February 24, 1981. The wedding was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981. 3,500 invited guests attended the ceremony at St. Paul’s, 600,000 people lined the streets of London, and 750 million people watched on television.

• Unofficial Royalty: Wedding of King Charles III and Lady Diana Spencer

Charles and Diana had two sons:

• Prince William, The Prince of Wales (born 1982), married Catherine Middleton, had two sons and one daughter
  • Prince George of Wales (born 2013)
  • Princess Charlotte of Wales (born 2015)
  • Prince Louis of Wales (born 2018)
• Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (born 1984), married Meghan Markle, had one son and one daughter
  • Prince Archie of Sussex (born 2019)
  • Princess Lilibet of Sussex (born 2021)

Unfortunately, Charles and Diana’s marriage was not the fairy tale marriage it was expected to be. Within five years, the couple’s incompatibility and age difference of almost 13 years, as well as Diana’s concern about Charles’s previous girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles, became visible and was damaging to their marriage. Diana exposed Charles’s affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana, Her True Story. Audiotapes showing evidence of her own extramarital affairs also surfaced. In December of 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the formal separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in Parliament. Charles and Diana divorced on August 28, 1996. Tragically, Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. Charles flew to Paris with Diana’s sisters to accompany her body back to London.

In 1994, two years after the Prince and Princess of Wales had separated, Charles finally spoke about his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles in a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. He told Dimbleby, “Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine…a friend for a very long time. She will continue to be a friend for a long time.” The same year Charles admitted in The Prince of Wales: A Biography written by Dimbleby that his relationship with Camilla rekindled after his marriage had irretrievably broken down in 1986. In 1995, Andrew Parker-Bowles and Camilla, who had been living apart for quite a while, announced their divorce.

Following both Charles and Camilla’s divorces, Charles let it be known that his relationship with Camilla was “non-negotiable.” Charles knew that the relationship was causing much negative publicity and he had Mark Bolland, his Deputy Private Secretary, work on the rehabilitation of Camilla’s image which occurred from 1999 until 2005. Camilla was occasionally seen with Charles at unofficial events, then at some public events, and then Camilla accompanied Charles on some public engagements. Camilla socialized with Queen Elizabeth II at the 60th birthday party for former King Constantine II of Greece in 2000 and this meeting was seen as the Queen’s approval of the relationship. Camilla attended events related to Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002. In 2003, she moved into Clarence House which had become Charles’ official residence that same year. By 2004, Camilla was accompanying Charles on almost all of his official engagements.

On February 10, 2005, the couple’s engagement was announced and polls conducted in the United Kingdom showed support for the marriage. Charles and Camilla married on April 9, 2005, in a civil ceremony held at the Guildhall in Windsor. Prince William and Tom Parker Bowles, Camilla’s son, served as the witnesses to the civil wedding ceremony. Later that afternoon, a Service of Prayer and Dedication was held at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, presided over by The Archbishop of Canterbury.

• Unofficial Royalty: Wedding of King Charles III and Camilla Parker Bowles

While Prince of Wales, Charles had no constitutional role. With the support of his wife Camilla, he strived to make a positive difference in his country and internationally. To do this, he undertook royal duties in support of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a charitable entrepreneur, and promoted and protected national traditions, virtues, and excellence.

As Prince of Wales, Charles was the Patron or President of over 400 charitable organizations. Two organizations supported a number of areas:

• The Prince’s Trust: provided training programs, mentoring support and financial grants to build the confidence and motivation of disadvantaged young people
• The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation: uses the profits from the sale of Duchy Originals from Waitrose and Highgrove Enterprises to support the environment, responsible business and enterprise, young people and education, and global sustainability

King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the Presentation Of Addresses by both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall, London on September 12, 2022

Upon the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022, Charles succeeded to the throne as King Charles III of the United Kingdom. King Charles III is the first British monarch to be descended from two children of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. All monarchs after Queen Victoria have been descendants of her eldest son and heir King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. Through his father, Charles is also a descendant of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter and third child of Queen Victoria. Prince Philip’s royal pedigree also brings a good deal more royal heritage into the British royal family because both of Prince Philip’s parents were royal while only one parent of Queen Elizabeth II was royal.

The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla was held on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey. Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation lasted nearly three hours and had 8,000 guests. King Charles III’s coronation was shorter, more diverse, and had fewer guests.

• Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla (2023)

On February 5, 2024, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles had been diagnosed with “a form of cancer.” The statement from Buckingham Palace said:

During The King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted. Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer. His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties. Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business and official paperwork as usual. The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure. He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible.

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House of Windsor Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
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• Birth of the House of Windsor
• British Royal Weddings
• Children, Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren, and Great-Great-Grandchildren of King George V
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
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• History and Traditions: Windsor Weddings Part 1 – Children of King George V
• History and Traditions: Windsor Weddings Part 2 – Later Windsor Weddings
• House of Windsor Christenings
• House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and House of Windsor Burial Sites
• Line of Succession to the British Throne
• Windsor Weddings Part 1 – Children of King George V
• Windsor Weddings Part 2 – Later Windsor Weddings
• When The British Monarch Dies