Charles was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun Schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child, as well as the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School, Victoria, Australia, situated near Mansfield in the rugged Victorian Alps. After earning a bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served a tour of duty with the Royal Navy in 1971–76. He married Lady Diana Spencer before an enormous worldwide television audience in 1981. They had two sons, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge in 1982 and Prince Harry of Wales in 1984. The couple separated in 1992 following tabloid allegations concerning their relationship. They divorced in 1996 after Diana publicly accused Charles of having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Charles admitted adultery on television. Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. In 2005, after a lengthy continued association, the Prince married Camilla, who uses the title Duchess of Cornwall.
The prince is well-known for his charity work and sponsors The Prince's Trust, The Prince's Regeneration Trust, and the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, among other charities. He has been outspoken concerning architecture and the conservation of old buildings and has produced a book on the subject called A Vision of Britain (1989). He has also promoted herbal and other alternative medical treatment.
* 1 Early life
* 2 Youth
o 2.1 Education
o 2.2 Created Prince of Wales
o 2.3 Military training and career
* 3 Early romances
* 4 First marriage
o 4.1 Engagement and wedding to Diana
o 4.2 Separation and divorce
* 5 Second marriage
o 5.1 Engagement and wedding to Camilla
+ 5.1.1 Act of Penitence
+ 5.1.2 Legality of civil wedding
* 6 Personal interests
o 6.1 The built environment
o 6.2 The natural environment
o 6.3 Philosophies and religious beliefs
o 6.4 Alternative medicine
o 6.5 Humanitarian issues
o 6.6 Hobbies and sports
* 7 Official duties
* 8 Media
* 9 Residences
* 10 Titles, styles, honours and arms
o 10.1 Titles and styles
o 10.2 Honours and honorary military appointments
o 10.3 Arms
* 11 Ancestry
* 12 Issue
* 13 See also
* 14 Notes
* 15 References
* 16 Bibliography
* 17 External links
* HRH The Prince of Wales
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
o HRH The Duke of Cambridge
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge
o HRH Prince Harry of Wales
* HRH The Duke of York
o HRH Princess Beatrice of York
o HRH Princess Eugenie of York
* HRH The Earl of Wessex
HRH The Countess of Wessex
o Viscount Severn
o Lady Louise Windsor
* HRH The Princess Royal
* HRH The Duke of Gloucester
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester
* HRH The Duke of Kent
HRH The Duchess of Kent
* HRH Prince Michael of Kent
HRH Princess Michael of Kent
* HRH Princess Alexandra
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Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948, the first child of then Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Baptised in the palace's Music Room on 15 December 1948, using water from the River Jordan, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, the Prince's godparents were: the King (his maternal grandfather); the King of Norway (his cousin, for whom the Earl of Athlone stood proxy); Queen Mary (his maternal great-grandmother); the Princess Margaret (his maternal aunt); Prince George of Greece (his paternal granduncle, for whom the Duke of Edinburgh stood proxy); the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (his paternal great-grandmother); the Lady Brabourne (his cousin); and the Hon David Bowes-Lyon (his maternal great-uncle). By letters patent of Charles' great-grandfather, King George V, the titles of a British prince or princess, and the style Royal Highness, were only to be conferred on male-line children and grandchildren of the sovereign, as well as the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. However, on 22 October 1948, George VI issued new letters patent granting these honours to any children of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip; otherwise, Charles would have merely taken his father's title, and been titled by courtesy as Earl of Merioneth. In this way, the children of the heiress presumptive had a royal and princely status.
When Charles was three, his mother's accession as Queen Elizabeth II, immediately made him the heir apparent to the then seven countries over which she now reigned. He was ipso facto elevated to the rank of Duke of Cornwall (by a charter of King Edward III that gave said title to the sovereign's eldest son), and, in the Scottish peerage, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Though he moved to first in line to the throne in the United Kingdom order of precedence he is third, after his parents, and is typically fourth or fifth in other realms' precedence orders, following his mother, the relevant vice-regal representative(s), and his father. Charles attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, seated alongside his grandmother and aunt. As is customary for royal offspring, a governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed and undertook his education between the ages of 5 and 8. Buckingham Palace announced in 1955 that Charles would attend school rather than have a private tutor, making him the first heir apparent ever to be educated in that manner
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