Throughout The Queen’s historic 70 year reign, both she and the Royal Family have had many significant milestones. The Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 is one of those milestones.
The ceremony took place at Caernarfon Castle on 26 July 1969 (although he had been given the title in 1958 by Letters Patent). Prior to the ceremony, Charles took an intensive, 10-week language course at University College of Wales, Aberstwyth to learn Welsh. He used these language skills during the ceremony when he gave his reply in both English and Welsh, and his address in Welsh.
Prior to 1969, the last Investiture of a Prince of Wales was in 1911 when the future King Edward VIII was invested at Caernarfon Castle in Wales. The tradition originally began in the fourteenth century when King Edward I invested his son with the title of Prince of Wales in 1301. However, the ceremony fell out of favour and was not reinstated until King George V’s reign.
When the Duke of Windsor went into exile, he took his father’s Prince of Wales Coronet with him. He had worn it himself in 1911, meaning that a new coronet had to be created for Charles.
Princess Margaret’s husband, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, led a committee that designed the new coronet. Notably, at the centre of the arch of the coronet is a gold-plated ping pong ball.
Prince Charles is now the longest-serving Prince of Wales, as well as the oldest Prince of Wales in British history.
