Prince William of Wales
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Template:Redirect Prince William of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor), (born 21 June 1982) is second in the line of succession to the British throne and thrones of each of the other Commonwealth Realms. He is the elder son of the Prince of Wales and his first wife, the late Diana Spencer. As the son of the Prince of Wales and grandson of Queen Elizabeth II Prince William is a member of the British Royal Family.
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Birth, family, and childhood
Prince William was born on 21 June, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London. His father is Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His mother was Diana Spencer, youngest daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer. As a grandchild of the British monarch and son of the Prince of Wales, he is styled His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales. As a child, his parents affectionately called him Wombat. He is sometimes known as Wills, his preferred nickname.
He was christened on his great-grandmother's 82nd birthday on 4 August, 1982 in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie. His godparents were: King Constantine II of the Hellenes, Sir Laurens van der Post, Princess Alexandra, the Duchess of Westminster, Lord Romsey and Lady Susan Hussey.
Through his mother, Prince William is descended from both the Duke of Grafton and the Duke of Richmond, two illegitimate sons of King Charles II of England. Thus, upon his expected ascension as King, he will be the first British monarch descended from Charles II, as well as the first descended from Charles I since the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
He has a younger brother, Prince Harry. His father's second wife, Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall, is their stepmother, giving the princes a step-brother, Tom Parker Bowles, and step-sister, Laura Parker Bowles.
Sporting Accident
On 3 June 1991 Prince William was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after being hit on the side of the forehead with a golf club while playing with a friend at school. The Prince did not lose consciousness, but suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and was operated on at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997 Prince William's mother, Diana, and her companion, Dodi Al-Fayed, were killed in a car accident in Paris, France. Her death came days after she spent a holiday in southern France with both Prince William and Prince Harry. Both princes were staying with the Queen at Balmoral Castle at the time. Their father, Charles, woke them from their sleep to tell them the news.
At Diana's funeral, Prince William accompanied his father, brother, his grandfather Prince Philip and his uncle the 9th Earl Spencer to walk behind Diana's funeral cortege from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. During his eulogy, the Earl Spencer promised that the Spencer family would take an active interest in looking after Diana's children, although William has seen little of him since then or of Diana's mother before her death.
Education
Prince William attended the Mrs Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-prep Wetherby School both in West London. He later attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire. William was the first British prince to attend a primary school. He later attended the prestigious Eton College in Eton, Berkshire. He studied geography, biology and history of art at A-level. The prince is left handed.
Like many British teenagers, Prince William chose to take a gap year after finishing Eton College. He took part in British Army training in Belize. He spent the final stage of his gap year in southern Chile as a volunteer with Raleigh International. Pictures of the prince cleaning a toilet were broadcast around the world.
After his gap year, Prince William attended the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland from 2001 until he was graduated in 2005. He embarked on a degree course in Arts History, although he later changed his main subject to Geography and gained a Scottish Master of Arts degree with upper-second class honours, the highest academic achievement of any heir to the British throne. At St Andrews, William used the name William Wales.
In January 2006, the prince began his course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to train as an Officer Cadet. William joined his brother who had been there since May 2005.
Royal duties and career
Template:Infobox hrhstyles In July 2005, William carried out his first official engagements at World War II commemorations in New Zealand, representing Queen Elizabeth, as Queen of New Zealand. In September of the same year, it was announced that William will become president of The Football Association in May 2006 and patron to the UK charity Centrepoint, Template:Ref which works with homeless young people. Centrepoint is the first organization to which William is patron. During his mother's patronage, William would occasionally accompany her on visits.
In October of 2005, the prince worked in land management at Chatsworth House, a Peak District estate of the Duke of Devonshire. William's second work placement was with the HSBC Group in London, which he completed in November 2005.
As with many of his predecessors, Prince William has chosen to serve in the Armed Forces. Following his education at Sandhurst, he has expressed a desire to be a 'proper officer', and go wherever his men go. Given his position, and the reluctance of previous British governments to allow the Heir to the Throne into dangerous situations, it remains to be seen if this wish will be fully realised.
Media
Prince William is known to be wary of the media and tries to avoid the spotlight. When Paul Burrell was publishing his story of his time working with Diana, Princess of Wales, William issued a statement with his brother condemning those people who show disrespect to her memory. His uncle, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, was also criticised for breaking media guidelines by sending a TV crew to film Prince William during his education at St Andrews.
Future
As the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, it is currently expected that William will ascend the throne of the United Kingdom, as well as those of the other Commonwealth Realms. If William decides to use his first name as his regnal name, he will be known as King William V. Prince William might well choose another name, as did Prince Albert Edward in 1901 and Prince Albert in 1936.
Like his mother, William is said to possess a strong dislike for excessive royal protocol, and desires greater personal independence. Some journalists have even speculated that William may choose not to become king at all, due to frustration with the constraints of the monarchy. Such claims are largely speculation. His brother, Harry, has stated that William has promised him that he will never abdicate, forcing Harry to take on the role.
Romances
Image:William and Kate.jpg William's love life has been the subject of speculation. Many young and eligible women have been linked to the prince, most recently Kate Middleton. Periodically, rumours of an imminent royal wedding circulate, Template:Ref although the couple stress they have no plans to marry in the near future.Template:Fact
Style and arms
Prince William is styled as a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the style His Royal Highness. As the eldest son of the future monarch, it is likely that he will be created Prince of Wales after his father's accession, although this is not automatic. (Should his father predecease Queen Elizabeth II, leaving William as first-in-line to the throne, William may well be created Prince of Wales in his own right directly.) He will, however, automatically become Duke of Cornwall in the event of his father's accession or death. The issue of what title, if any, Prince William might receive prior to his father's accession to the throne is more problematic. Buckingham Palace has refused to speculate as to what title Queen Elizabeth may award to Prince William in the future.
Image:PW arms.gif On his 18th birthday, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II granted Prince William his own personalised coat of arms. His arms are those of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with a label for difference: Quarterly 1st and 4th, Gules three Lions passant guardant in pale Or (England) 2nd, Or a Lion rampant within a Double Tressure flory counterflory Gules (Scotland) 3rd, Azure a Harp Or stringed Argent (Ireland) the whole differenced by a Label of three points Argent the central point charged with an Escallop Gules. The Escallop Gules is in reference to his mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, as the Escallop appears in the Spencer coat of arms. As the eldest son of the eldest son of the sovereign, his arms are differenced by a label of three points unlike the arms of other grandchildren of the sovereign (if granted) which are differenced by a label of five points.
Surname usage
Under an Order-in-Council in 1960, the non-titled descendants of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were given the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, combining the surnames of Elizabeth and Philip. However, though titled, the Queen's children have all decided to use the surname also in honour of their father. For their banns for their first marriages, both William's aunt, Anne, Princess Royal and his own father, the Prince of Wales, used Mountbatten-Windsor rather than Windsor. Mountbatten-Windsor is now officially treated as being the surname of all descendants of the Queen and the Duke except those, like the children of the Princess Royal, who have a new paternal surname (in that case, "Phillips").
As with Royal Family tradition, Prince William used "Wales" as a last name during his years of education, as has Prince Harry. William's York cousins in turn use "York" (other Royal Families also use their parents' title as their own working surname). Past precedent however is that such title-surnames are dropped from usage in adulthood, with either title alone or name and Mountbatten-Windsor being used on legal documents and banns of marriage.
See also
- Royal William, a German red rose named after Prince William shortly after his birth.
- British prince
External links
Notes
Template:Start box Template:Succession box two to one Template:End boxde:William Mountbatten-Windsor eo:William MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR es:Guillermo Mountbatten-Windsor et:William Mountbatten-Windsor fi:Prinssi William fr:William de Grande-Bretagne he:ויליאם, הנסיך מווילס it:Principe William del Galles ja:ウィリアム・マウントバッテン＝ウィンザー nl:William Mountbatten-Windsor no:William av Wales pl:William Windsor pt:Príncipe William de Gales sv:William av Wales th:เจ้าชายวิลเลียมแห่งเวลส์ zh:威廉王子 (威爾斯)