Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The current monarch and head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended the throne in 1952; the monarch and their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties. As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister; the monarch is commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces. Though the ultimate executive authority over the government is still formally by and through the monarch's royal prerogative, these powers may only be used according to laws enacted in Parliament and, in practice, within the constraints of convention and precedent; the British monarchy traces its origins from the petty kingdoms of early medieval Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England, which consolidated into the kingdoms of England and Scotland by the 10th century.
England was conquered by the Normans in 1066, after which Wales too came under control of Anglo-Normans. The process was completed in the 13th century when the Principality of Wales became a client state of the English kingdom. Meanwhile, Magna Carta began a process of reducing the English monarch's political powers. From 1603, the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England, which followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Roman Catholics, or those who married them, from succession to the English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain, in 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland joined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the British monarch was the nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of the world's surface at its greatest extent in 1921. In the early 1920s the Balfour Declaration recognised the evolution of the Dominions of the Empire into separate, self-governing countries within a Commonwealth of Nations.
After the Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent bringing the Empire to an end. George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states; the United Kingdom and fifteen other independent sovereign states that share the same person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms. Although the monarch is shared, each country is sovereign and independent of the others, the monarch has a different and official national title and style for each realm. In the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom, the monarch is the head of state; the Queen's image is used to signify British sovereignty and government authority—her profile, for instance, appearing on currency, her portrait in government buildings. The sovereign is further both mentioned in and the subject of songs, loyal toasts, salutes. "God Save the Queen" is the British national anthem. Oaths of allegiance are made to her lawful successors.
The monarch takes little direct part in government. The decisions to exercise sovereign powers are delegated from the monarch, either by statute or by convention, to ministers or officers of the Crown, or other public bodies, exclusive of the monarch personally, thus the acts of state done in the name of the Crown, such as Crown Appointments if performed by the monarch, such as the Queen's Speech and the State Opening of Parliament, depend upon decisions made elsewhere: Legislative power is exercised by the Queen-in-Parliament, by and with the advice and consent of Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Executive power is exercised by Her Majesty's Government, which comprises ministers the prime minister and the Cabinet, technically a committee of the Privy Council, they have the direction of the Armed Forces of the Crown, the Civil Service and other Crown Servants such as the Diplomatic and Secret Services. Judicial power is vested in the various judiciaries of the United Kingdom, who by constitution and statute have judicial independence of the Government.
The Church of England, of which the monarch is the head, has its own legislative and executive structures. Powers independent of government are granted to other public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council, Royal Commission or otherwise; the sovereign's role as a constitutional monarch is limited to non-partisan functions, such as granting honours. This role has been recognised since the 19th century; the constitutional writer Walter Bagehot identified the monarchy in 1867 as the "dignified part" rather than the "efficient part" of government. Whenever necessary, the monarch is responsible for appointing a new prime minister. In accordance with unwritten constitutional conventions, the sovereign must appoint an individual who commands the support of the House of Commons the leader of the party or coalition that has a majority in that House; the prime minister takes office by attending the monarch in private audience, after "kissing hands" that appointment is effective without any other f
Juan Luis Vives
Juan Luis Vives March was a Spanish scholar and Renaissance humanist who spent most of his adult life in the Southern Netherlands. His beliefs on the soul, insight into early medical practice, perspective on emotions and learning earned him the title of the "father" of modern psychology. Vives was the first to shed light on some key ideas that established how we perceive psychology today. Vives was born in Valencia to a family; as a child, he saw his father and great-grandfather, as well as members of their wider family, executed as Judaizers at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition. Shortly thereafter, he left Spain never to return. While still in Spain, he attended the Valencia Academy, where he was taught by Jerome Amiguetus and Daniel Siso; the school was dominated by scholasticism, with the dialectic and disputation playing a central role in the delivery of education. The youngest scholars are accustomed never to keep silence. Nor does one disputation, or two a day prove sufficient, as for instance at dinner.
They wrangle at breakfast. At home they dispute, out of doors, they wrangle over their food, in the bath, in the sweating room, in the church, in the town, in the country, in public, in private. At all times they are wrangling. Vives studied at the University of Paris from 1509 to 1512, in 1519 was appointed professor of humanities at the University of Leuven. At the insistence of his friend Erasmus, he prepared an elaborate commentary on Augustine's De Civitate Dei, published in 1522 with a dedication to Henry VIII of England. Soon afterwards, he was invited to England, acted as tutor to the Princess Mary, for whose use he wrote De ratione studii puerilis epistolae duae and, ostensibly, De Institutione Feminae Christianae, on the education of girls. While in England, he resided at Corpus Christi College, where Erasmus had strong ties. Vives lectured on philosophy. Having declared himself against the annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, he lost royal favour and was confined to his house for six weeks.
On his release, he withdrew to Bruges, where he devoted the rest of his life to the composition of numerous works, chiefly directed against the scholastic philosophy and the preponderant unquestioning authority of Aristotle. The most important of his treatises is the De Causis Corruptarum Artium, ranked with Bacon's Novum Organon, his most important pedagogic work are Introductio ad sapientiam. His philosophical works include De anima et vita, De veritate fidei Christianae. Vives detected through philological analysis that the supposed author of the so-called Letter of Aristeas, purporting to describe the Biblical translation of the Septuagint, could not have been a Greek but must have been a Jew who lived after the events he described had transpired, he died in Bruges in 1540, at the age of 47, was buried in the St. Donatian's Cathedral. During the Middle Ages, poor relief was the responsibility of the Church and individuals through almsgiving; as society became more advanced, these efforts became inadequate.
In 1525, the Dutch city of Bruges requested Vives to suggest means to address the issue of relief for the poor. He set out his views in his essay De Subventione Pauperum Sive de Humanis Necessitatibus. Vives argued that the state had a responsibility to provide some level of financial relief for the poor, as well as craft training for the unskilled poor; the city of Bruges did not implement Vives's suggestions until 1557, but his proposals influenced social relief legislation enacted in England and the German Empire during the 1530s. Vives described a comprehensive theory of education, he may have directly influenced the essays of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne. He was admired by Thomas More and Erasmus, who wrote that Vives "will overshadow the name of Erasmus."Vives is considered the first scholar to analyze the psyche directly. He did extensive interviews with people, noted the relation between their exhibition of affect and the particular words they used and the issues they were discussing. While it is unknown if Freud was familiar with Vives's work, historian of psychiatry Gregory Zilboorg considered Vives a godfather of psychoanalysis. and the father of modern psychology by Foster Watson Vives taught monarchs.
His idea of a diverse and concrete children's education long preceded Jean Jacques Rousseau, may have indirectly influenced Rousseau through Montaigne. However influential he may have been in the 16th century, Vives now attracts minimal interest beyond specialized academic fields; the values of Vives inspired two Belgian Schools for higher education (KATHO and Katholieke Hogeschool B
Princess of Wales' Own Regiment
The Princess of Wales' Own Regiment is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Forces. The regiment was created on 16 January 1863 as the 14th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada from the amalgamation of Kingston, Ontario’s seven independent rifle companies. Shortly after the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the regiment asked for and was given permission to become The Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment. During the Fenian Raid of 1866, when the Irish extremists attempted to bring Britain to her knees by attacking Canada, the regiment was called to active duty, both to Niagara and to Cornwall; the band mace presented to the regiment by its officers "In Remembrance of Cornwall" is in the museum. In 1885, during the Riel Rebellion the PWOR was again activated, but not for field service in the West, as it had hoped, it was destined for garrison duties at Fort Henry. The Boer War, in South Africa, in 1899, again brought members of the 14th to the Colours.
A number of members served in various units and because of the 14th’s contribution, “South Africa 1900” became the first battle honour. As a matter of interest, a PWOR officer by the name of Major Wallace Bruce Matthews Carruthers, made his own way to South Africa, after being turned down for South Africa service, in Canada, he was "signed-on" as a Lieutenant and distinguished himself sufficiently that he was asked to join the regular force. When he returned to Canada, he was asked to set up the Canadian Signal Corps; the outbreak of World War I in 1914 resulted in a response by members of the regiment, quite remarkable. A contingent of 80 men was formed under Captain George T. Richardson, sent to the 2nd Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, of the 1st Canadian Division, part of Canada’s First Contingent. At the same time, the 21st Battalion, CEF was formed in Kingston, under the Commanding Officer of the PWOR, Lieutenant-Colonel St Pierre Hughes; the PWOR contributed officers and men to the 59th, 146th, 253rd Battalions, CEF.
The history of the 21st Battalion, which the PWOR perpetuates, is far too long to relate here, however, it should be mentioned that the unit earned eighteen Battle Honours were won in three years of frontline service. A great deal of the 21st Battalion history, including its Colours, is found in the regimental museum. There is a photo tribute to the 21st Battalion; the mascot of the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment during the Great War, a white goat named `Nan`, retired to the Royal Military College of Canada stables from 1918 until her death on September 22, 1924 at 12 years of age. She was buried in the Cataraqui CemeteryIn 1920, in the post war re-organization of the Militia, the 14th Battalion Rifles was re-designated as a line infantry regiment so that it could carry the Battle Honours and Colours of the 21st Battalion, CEF; the Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment, became allied on 15 July 1926 with the South Lancashire Regiment who count among their Battle Honours Louisburg and Niagara. In the mid-1960s, the South Lancashire Regiment was amalgamated with other Lancashire regiments to form the present allied regiment- The Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
In the Second World War, the decision was made not to mobilize the regiment, because of the heavy losses suffered in the First World War. Instead, it provided one complete company to the Stormont and Glengarry Highlanders, which went under canvas at the Kingston fairgrounds; the Glens went ashore on D-Day under a PWOR officer, Lieutenant-Colonel GH Christiansen, as part of the 9th Brigade, commanded by another PWOR officer, Brigadier-General Douglas Gordon Cunningham. In June 1942, the 1st battalion PWOR was formed under Lieutenant-Colonel E Cockburn and it served in Sherbrooke and Debert, Nova Scotia, where it was deployed for east coast defence. All told, the regiment supplied 1500 men for active service including one Brigadier, four Colonels and eight Lieutenant-Colonels. In 1963, the PWOR celebrated its Centennial, was granted freedom of the City of Kingston, it was presented with the new Colours by the Honorable Earl Rowe. On the Colours was emblazoned the badge of the Stormont and Glengarry Highlanders, 1939–1945, commemorating the service of PWOR members in that regiment.
The PWOR went through a decline during the 1970s and 1980s, where a measure of a unit’s success was the ability to remain active and keep off the increasing list of once proud units now relegated to the supplementary order of battle. The regiment was reduced to a minor unit, with only one authorized company for most of the Seventies, until in 1978, it was again elevated to major unit status; the regiment has always acquitted itself well in competition over the years, whether in sports, shooting or skill at arms. In 1895 the Regimental Quarter Master represented Canada at Bisley, his rifle and some of his winnings are on display in the museum. More a member of the unit was part of the 1990 Canadian Forces Bisley Team and a member of the unit's Cadet Corps distinguished herself on the same ranges. Today, the regiment is composed of men and women from all walks of life including students and farmers. Members of the regiment have distinguished themselves on recent peacekeeping tours in Cyprus and the former republics of Yugoslavia.
Members of the regiment have served on combat missions in Afghanistan during Operation Medusa. The Freedom of the City was exercised by the Princess of Wale
Edward the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince, was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, thus the heir to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward still earned distinction as one of the most successful English commanders during the Hundred Years' War, being regarded by his contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his age. Edward was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337, he was guardian of the kingdom in his father's absence in 1338, 1340, 1342. He was created Prince of Wales in 1343 and knighted by his father at La Hogne in 1346. In 1346 Prince Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy, his father intentionally leaving him to win the battle, he took part in Edward III's 1349 Calais expedition. In 1355 he was appointed the king's lieutenant in Gascony, ordered to lead an army into Aquitaine on a chevauchée, during which he pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary, sacked Carcassonne, plundered Narbonne.
The next year on another chevauchée he ravaged Auvergne and Berry but failed to take Bourges. He offered terms of peace to King John II of France, who had outflanked him near Poitiers, but refused to surrender himself as the price of their acceptance; this led to the Battle of Poitiers where his army took King John prisoner. The year after Poitiers, the Black Prince returned to England. In 1360 he negotiated the treaty of Bretigny, he was created Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1362, but his suzerainty was not recognised by the lord of Albret or other Gascon nobles. He was directed by his father to forbid the marauding raids of the English and Gascon free companies in 1364, he entered into an agreement with don Pedro of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Pedro covenanted to mortgage Castro de Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan. In 1367 he received a letter of defiance from Henry of Trastámara, Don Pedro's half-brother and rival; the same year, after an obstinate conflict, he defeated Henry at the Battle of Nájera.
However, after a wait of several months, during which he failed to obtain either the province of Biscay or liquidation of the debt from Don Pedro, he returned to Aquitaine. Prince Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles. Drawn into open war with Charles V of France in 1369, he took Limoges, where in 1370 he gave orders for an indiscriminate massacre in revenge for the voluntary surrender of that town to the French by its bishop, his private friend; the Black Prince returned to England in 1371 and the next year resigned the principality of Aquitaine and Gascony. He led the commons in their attack upon the Lancastrian administration in 1376, he died in 1376 of dysentery and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, where his surcoat, helmet and gauntlets are still preserved. Edward, the eldest son of Edward III and Queen Philippa, was born at Woodstock on 15 June 1330, his father on 10 September allowed five hundred marks a year from the profits of the county of Chester for his maintenance.
In the July of that year the king proposed to marry him to a daughter of Philip VI of France. On 18 March 1333, Edward was invested with the earldom and county of Chester, in the parliament of 9 February 1337 he was created Duke of Cornwall and received the duchy by charter dated 17 March; this is the earliest instance of the creation of a duke in England. By the terms of the charter the duchy was to be held by the eldest sons of kings of England, his tutor was Dr. Walter Burley of Oxford, his revenues were placed at the disposal of his mother in March 1334 for the expenses she incurred in bringing up him and his two sisters and Joan. Rumours of an impending French invasion led the king in August 1335 to order that he and his household should remove to Nottingham Castle as a place of safety; when two cardinals came to England at the end of 1337 to make peace between Edward III and Philip VI, the Duke of Cornwall is said to have met the cardinals outside the City of London, in company with many nobles to have conducted them to the King Edward.
On 11 July 1338 his father, on the point of leaving England for Flanders, appointed him guardian of the kingdom during his absence, he was appointed to the same office on 27 May 1340 and 6 October 1342. In order to attach John, Duke of Brabant, to his cause, the king in 1339 proposed a marriage between the young Duke of Cornwall and John's daughter Margaret, in the spring of 1345 wrote urgently to Pope Clement VI for a dispensation for this marriage. On 12 May 1343, Edward created the duke Prince of Wales, in a parliament held at Westminster, investing him with a circlet, gold ring, silver rod; the prince accompanied his father to Sluys on 3 July 1345, Edward tried to persuade the burgomasters of Ghent and Ypres to accept his son as their lord, but the murder of Jacob van Artevelde put an end to this project. Both in September and in the following April the prince was called on to furnish troops from his principality and earldom for the impending campaign in France, as he incurred heavy debts in the king's service his father authorised him to make his will, provided that in case he fell in the war his executors should have all his revenue for a year.
Edward, Prince of Wales sailed with K
British people
The British people, or the Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals; when used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Celtic Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany, whose surviving members are the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons. It may refer to citizens of the former British Empire. Though early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity; the notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, developed further during the Victorian era. The complex history of the formation of the United Kingdom created a "particular sense of nationhood and belonging" in Great Britain and Ireland.
Because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by Unionists. Modern Britons are descended from the varied ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century: Prehistoric, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Normans; the progressive political unification of the British Isles facilitated migration and linguistic exchange, intermarriage between the peoples of England and Wales during the late Middle Ages, early modern period and beyond. Since 1922 and earlier, there has been immigration to the United Kingdom by people from what is now the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth, mainland Europe and elsewhere; the British are a diverse, multinational and multilingual society, with "strong regional accents and identities". The social structure of the United Kingdom has changed radically since the 19th century, with a decline in religious observance, enlargement of the middle class, increased ethnic diversity since the 1950s.
The population of the UK stands at around 66 million, with a British diaspora of around 140 million concentrated in Australia and New Zealand, with smaller concentrations in the United States, Republic of Ireland, South Africa and parts of the Caribbean. The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Great Britain may have come from 4th century BC records of the voyage of Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British Isles. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them. Pytheas called the islands collectively αἱ Βρεττανίαι, translated as the Brittanic Isles, the peoples of what are today England, Wales and the Isle of Man of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Pritani or Pretani; the group included Ireland, referred to as Ierne "inhabited by the different race of Hiberni", Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albions". The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.
Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that this name derives from a Gaulish description translated as "people of the forms", referring to the custom of tattooing or painting their bodies with blue woad made from Isatis tinctoria. Parthenius, a 1st-century Ancient Greek grammarian, the Etymologicum Genuinum, a 9th-century lexical encyclopaedia, mention a mythical character Bretannus as the father of Celtine, mother of Celtus, the eponymous ancestor of the Celts. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia, although the people of Caledonia and the north were the self same Britons during the Roman period, the Gaels arriving four centuries later.
Following the end of Roman rule in Britain, the island of Great Britain was left open to invasion by pagan, seafaring warriors such as Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons and Jutes from Continental Europe, who gained control in areas around the south east, to Middle Irish-speaking people migrating from what is today Northern Ireland to the north of Great Britain, founding Gaelic kingdoms such as Dál Riata and Alba, which would subsume the native Brittonic and Pictish kingdoms and become Scotland. In this sub-Roman Britain, as Anglo-Saxon culture spread across southern and eastern Britain and Gaelic through much of the north, the demonym "Briton" became restricted to the Brittonic-speaking inhabitants of what would be called Wales, North West England, parts of Scotland such as Strathearn, Morayshire and Strathclyde. In addition the term was applied to Brittany in what is today France and Britonia in north west Spain, both regions having been colonised by Britons in the 5th century fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
Howev
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover following the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father's final mental illness. George IV led an extravagant lifestyle, he was a patron of new forms of leisure and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, Sir Jeffry Wyattville to rebuild Windsor Castle, his charm and culture earned him the title "the first gentleman of England", but his dissolute way of life and poor relationships with his parents and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, earned him the contempt of the people and dimmed the prestige of the monarchy. He forbade Caroline to attend his coronation and asked the government to introduce the unpopular Pains and Penalties Bill in a desperate, unsuccessful attempt to divorce her. For most of George's regency and reign, Lord Liverpool controlled the government as Prime Minister.
George's ministers found his behaviour selfish and irresponsible. At all times he was much under the influence of favourites. Taxpayers were angry at his wasteful spending during the Napoleonic Wars, he act as a role model for his people. Liverpool's government presided over Britain's ultimate victory, negotiated the peace settlement, attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. After Liverpool's retirement, George was forced to accept Catholic emancipation despite opposing it, his only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte, died before him in 1817 and so he was succeeded by his younger brother, William. George was born at St James's Palace, London, on 12 August 1762, the first child of the British king George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; as the eldest son of a British sovereign, he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth. On 18 September of the same year, he was baptised by Archbishop of Canterbury, his godparents were the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the Duke of Cumberland and the Dowager Princess of Wales.
George was a talented student, learned to speak French and Italian, in addition to his native English. At the age of 18 he was given a separate establishment, in dramatic contrast with his prosaic, scandal-free father, threw himself with zest into a life of dissipation and wild extravagance involving heavy drinking and numerous mistresses and escapades, he was a witty conversationalist, drunk or sober, showed good, but grossly expensive, taste in decorating his palace. The Prince of Wales turned 21 in 1783, obtained a grant of £60,000 from Parliament and an annual income of £50,000 from his father, it was far too little for his needs – the stables alone cost £31,000 a year. He established his residence in Carlton House, where he lived a profligate life. Animosity developed between the prince and his father, who desired more frugal behaviour on the part of the heir apparent; the King, a political conservative, was alienated by the prince's adherence to Charles James Fox and other radically inclined politicians.
Soon after he reached the age of 21, the prince became infatuated with Maria Fitzherbert. She was a commoner, six years his elder, twice widowed, a Roman Catholic; the prince was determined to marry her. This was in spite of the Act of Settlement 1701, which barred the spouse of a Catholic from succeeding to the throne, the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which prohibited his marriage without the King's consent; the couple went through a marriage ceremony on 15 December 1785 at her house in Park Street, Mayfair. The union was void, as the King's consent was not granted. However, Fitzherbert believed that she was the prince's canonical and true wife, holding the law of the Church to be superior to the law of the State. For political reasons, the union remained secret and Fitzherbert promised not to reveal it; the prince was plunged into debt by his exorbitant lifestyle. His father refused to assist him, forcing him to quit Carlton House and live at Fitzherbert's residence. In 1787, the prince's political allies proposed to relieve his debts with a parliamentary grant.
The prince's relationship with Fitzherbert was suspected, revelation of the illegal marriage would have scandalised the nation and doomed any parliamentary proposal to aid him. Acting on the prince's authority, the Whig leader Charles James Fox declared that the story was a calumny. Fitzherbert was not pleased with the public denial of the marriage in such vehement terms and contemplated severing her ties to the prince, he appeased her by asking another Whig, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, to restate Fox's forceful declaration in more careful words. Parliament, granted the prince £161,000 to pay his debts and £60,000 for improvements to Carlton House. In the summer of 1788 the King's mental health deteriorated as the result of the hereditary disease porphyria, he was nonetheless able to discharge some of his duties and to declare Parliament prorogued from 25 September to 20 November. During the prorogation he became deranged, posing a threat to his own life, when Parliament reconvened in November the King could not deliver th
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history, he is the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George Queen Elizabeth, he 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 in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer and they had two sons: Prince William —later to become Duke of Cambridge—and Prince Harry —later to become Duke of Sussex. In 1996, the couple divorced following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties.
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married long-time partner Camilla Parker Bowles; as Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. Charles founded The Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince's Charities, is a patron, president and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations; as an environmentalist, he raises awareness of organic farming and climate change which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups. His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been criticised by some in the medical community and his views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received considerable attention from British architects and design critics. Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his preferences, he is an author and co-author of a number of books. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace in London during the reign of his maternal grandfather George VI on 14 November 1948, at 9:14 pm, the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
He was baptised in the palace's Music Room by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, on 15 December 1948. The death of his grandfather and the accession of his mother as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 made Charles her heir apparent; as the monarch's eldest son, he automatically took the titles Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Charles attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953; as was customary for upper-class children at the time, a governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed and undertook his education between the ages of five and eight. Buckingham Palace announced in 1955 that Charles would attend school rather than have a private tutor, making him the first heir apparent to be educated in that manner. On 7 November 1956, Charles commenced classes in west London, he did not receive preferential treatment from the school's founder and headmaster, Stuart Townend, who advised the Queen to have Charles train in football because the boys were never deferential to anyone on the football field.
Charles attended two of his father's former schools, Cheam Preparatory School in Berkshire, from 1958, followed by Gordonstoun in the north-east of Scotland, beginning classes there in April 1962. Though he described Gordonstoun, noted for its rigorous curriculum, as "Colditz in kilts", Charles subsequently praised Gordonstoun, stating it had taught him "a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities, it taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative." In a 1975 interview, he said he was "glad" he had attended Gordonstoun and that the "toughness of the place" was "much exaggerated". He spent two terms in 1966 at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, during which time he visited Papua New Guinea on a school trip with his history tutor, Michael Collins Persse. In 1973, Charles described his time at Timbertop as the most enjoyable part of his whole education. Upon his return to Gordonstoun, Charles emulated his father in becoming Head Boy, he left in 1967, with six GCE O-levels and two A-levels in history and French, at grades B and C respectively.
On his early education, Charles remarked, "I didn't enjoy school as much as I might have, but, only because I'm happier at home than anywhere else."Charles broke royal tradition a second time when he proceeded straight to university after his A-levels, rather than joining the British Armed Forces. In October 1967, he was admitted to Trinity College, where he read anthropology and history. During his second year, Charles attended the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, studying Welsh history and language for a term, he graduated from Cambridge with a 2:2 Bachelor of Arts on 23 June 1970, the first heir apparent to earn a university degree. On 2 August 1975, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge, in accordance with the university's practice. Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 26 July 1958, though his investiture was not held until 1 July 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle, he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970, he made his maiden speech at a debate in June 1974, becoming the first royal to speak in the Lords since his great-great-grandfather Edward VII speaking as Prince of Wales, in 1884.
Ch
.jpg)
.jpg)