Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and he is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history.
He is also 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 VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child. Charles also spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia.
Stink bombs in Charles' office to flies in the Queen's sugar bowl – Royal family's best pranks
ok.co.ukThe royals clearly still enjoy a good giggle – despite all their pomp and ceremony. During his remarkable 99 years on Earth, the late Duke of Edinburgh appeared to instil a strong sense of humour and mischief through the family, and in last year’s BBC documentary Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Prince William, Zara Tindall and her brother Peter Phillips shared an endearing memory of one of their grandfather’s outlandish practical jokes.They recalled how he would take the lid off a squeezy tube of mustard and put it in their hands. “He would squish your hands together and fire the mustard at the ceiling,” said William. “He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother.” Although the Queen may have frowned upon the mustard trick, she got used to Philip’s daft pranks over the years.
During a 1951 tour of Canada, he purportedly chased her down a train corridor wearing a set of giant false teeth. And on another occasion, the Duke left a fake can of nuts on her desk, which gave her an almighty shock when a toy snake popped out.
A shared sense of humour was the bedrock of their long marriage, as William explained in the ITV documentary Elizabeth: Queen, Wife, Mother in 2012. “One of the things they have loved over the years is when things go wrong: they absolutely adore it because obviously everything always has to be right but when things go wrong around them they are the first people to laugh,” he said.
Royal author Andrew Morton tells us that the Queen’s dry wit is still one of her greatest attributes. “She finds humour in all kinds of situations.
Read more on ok.co.uk