Prince of Wales?

Tomorrow will be 44 years since the investiture of Prince Charles as our current Prince of Wales. If he intends to break the record for years spent in the post, he has a bit to go though. Before his coronation in 1820, George IV had spent 57 years in the job. He also suffered the ignominy of being Prince Regent while his father spent a decade in various states of depression and dementia. Sadly for the king in waiting, his father still managed to live to the then ripe old age of 81 and even managed to outlive his son the Duke of Kent by a few days. It is reported that over the Christmas period of 1819, he spoke nonsense for 58 hours. Outside of the current House of Commons and last orders at your local pub, it is hard not to admire such an outstanding feat of jibberish.

Sadly for Prince Charles, it is not George IV who holds the current record. That belongs to the late Edward VII who spent a mind numbing 59 years as head of the Principality before Queen Victoria finally succumbed in1901.  This means that our own Prince Charles would need to still be Prince of Wales in 2029. This would take him to age 81 - the same age as George III at the time of his passing. More pertinently, the present Queen would need to still be in her reign at the age of 103. Given that her own mother was still with us in her 100th year, it would be folly to bet against such an eventuality. The late Edward VII spent the best part of 60 years as king-in-waiting only to survive for nine years when he eventually got there. What chance history repeating itself?

Of course, the greatest irony in all of this is that of all the names to which I have alluded in this piece, they none of them have even the remotest connection to the Principality. In truth, it is over 600 years since that was last the case. The last true Welsh version was Owain Glyndwr and he was never heard of again after a bruising encounter with Henry IV. Of course, should he accede to the throne, the youngest of Prince Charles' sons would become the latest incarnation of Henry (the 9th to be precise). Perhaps it would be more fitting to either dispense with the title Prince of Wales or be controversial and give the job to a Welshman. Now that would go down well in the Principality..