William, Prince of Wales
William Arthur Philip Louis
Prince William of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor), born 21 June 1982, is a member of the British Royal Family, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and first son of the Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Prince William is second in the line of succession to the British throne, after his father and before his brother, Prince Harry.
Prince William is expected to ascend the thrones of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms sometime in the future.
Birth
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Prince William was born on June 21, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London. His father is HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His mother was Diana, Princess of Wales, a daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer. He has a younger brother, HRH Prince Harry of Wales. 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.
He was christened on his great-grandmother's Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 82nd birthday on August 4, 1982 in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie. His godparents were: King Constantine of Greece, Sir Laurens van der Post; Princess Alexandra, the Duchess of Westminster, and Lady Susan Hussey, Lady-in-waiting to The Queen.
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.
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997 Prince William's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales 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 and brother and 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 saw little of him and Diana's mother in future years.
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.
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 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's degree with upper-second class honours. At St Andrews, William used the name William Wales.
Royal duties
In July 2005, William carried out his first official engagements, representing Queen Elizabeth at World War II commemorations in 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 [1], which works with homeless young people. This is the first organization to which William is patron. During his mother's patronage of Centrepoint, William would occasionally accompany her on visits.
Media
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| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |
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 disrespect 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.
Prince William has become something of a heart-throb. For a flavour of this, see the website Will Not [2], which tells the story of how an ordinary Londoner's email address was mistaken for Prince William's.
Future
As the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, it is expected that William will ascend the throne in the future. If William decides to use his first name as King, he will be known as King William V.
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, but he has insisted that he will not marry until he is older. News reports emerged in August 2005 that Middleton will move into Clarence House with William. Rumors of an imminent royal wedding have also circulated[3].
As with many of his predecessors, Prince William has expressed a desire to enter the Armed Forces; he has stated that he wishes to join his brother at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to train as an Officer Cadet. He has also 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 seems unlikely that this wish will be fully realised.
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, so frustrated by the monarchy's restraints is he. Needless to say, such claims are largely empty speculation at this point, as the Prince, like all members of the immediate royal family, does not give open interviews.
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. He will, however, become Duke of Cornwall in the event of his father's accession.
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.
The prince's official family name is that of Windsor, according to his grandmother's royal proclamation of 1960, but some of the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II appear to utilize the surname Mountbatten-Windsor as personal preference. Princes William used "Wales" as a last name during his years of education. His brother continues this usage. William's York cousins modified their own father's title for a last name in the same manner as William.
See also