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Charles III is the longest-serving heir-apparent in British history.
Aged 73, he has been heir to the throne since the age of just three, when his mother became Queen Elizabeth II.
Following are key dates in his life:
– Early years -November 14, 1948: His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George of Edinburgh is born in Buckingham Palace, second in line to the throne.
December 15, 1948: Charles is christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the palace’s Music Room.
February 6, 1952: Death of Charles’s grandfather, King George VI, and ascent of Queen Elizabeth II. As the sovereign’s eldest son, Charles, aged just three, becomes heir to the throne.
June 2, 1953: Charles becomes the first heir to the throne to attend his mother’s coronation.
July 26, 1958: He becomes the 21st Prince of Wales, aged nine.
April 1962: Charles starts at Gordonstoun, a boarding school in northeast Scotland, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, attended.
– Gown and crown -1967: Charles leaves Gordonstoun and goes to Trinity College at Cambridge University to study archeology and anthropology, then history.
July 1, 1969: He is invested as Prince of Wales in a televised ceremony at Caernarfon Castle, after spending a term at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, learning Welsh.
1970: Charles graduates from university — the first heir to the throne to do so.
– In the navy -September 1971: The future king joins the Royal Navy, a path also taken by his father. Serves on the guided missile destroyer HMS Norfolk and two frigates.
