Charles, Prince

Charles, Prince (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 consort, Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh. Charles’s full name is Charles Philip Arthur George. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and invested as such in 1969 at Caernarfon Castle on his coming of age. He assumed his seat in the House of Lords in February 1970 and became the first heir to the British Crown to take a university degree when he graduated with honours from the University of Cambridge in June 1970.

Charles has served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy (1971-1977) and has travelled widely as a representative of the Crown. In 1976 he founded the Prince’s Trust, an organization set up to provide opportunities for young people through various training and support programmes, remaining closely involved with the trust as its president. Charles is also involved with some 200 other charitable organizations that reflect his wide range of interests; from architecture to complementary medicine. He famously ensures that the farming of his 1,200-acre estate at Highgrove, Gloucestershire, is pursued by organic methods. He is active in using his position to speak out on issues of national concern, and in 1999 attracted some criticism for potentially compromising the delicate balance between monarchy and partisan politics when he chose to raise questions about the genetic modification of food crops.

In July 1981 he married Lady Diana Frances Spencer, a distant relative of the royal family. Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982; their second child, Prince Henry, was born in 1984. After highly publicized marital difficulties, Charles and Diana separated in 1992. Negotiations for a formal divorce began in 1996, and in July of that year a decree nisi was awarded. The couple were officially divorced on August 28, 1996. Diana was killed in a car crash on August 31, 1997, in Paris. In April 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles.