Investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales

The ceremony formally presented the title of Prince of Wales to the 20-year-old Charles, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

[2] Queen Elizabeth II made her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester by letters patent on 26 July 1958 when he was only nine years old.

The UK's Labour government had ambitions to modernise Britain, including Wales where old industries were being replaced by new businesses and technology.

The event was organised by a specially established Investiture Committee, chaired by the earl marshal, Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk.

[9] The ceremony took place on a circular slate dais shielded by a large modern canopy of perspex which allowed the audience and television cameras to watch the proceedings.

[9] Charles consequently was able to give a speech at the investiture, in Welsh and English, where he pledged "to associate [himself] in word and deed with as much of the life of the Principality as possible".

Church representatives arrived, then the prime minister, Harold Wilson, and his wife, Mary; the home secretary, James Callaghan; and the chiefs of staff of the armed forces.

The secretary of state for Wales read the Letters Patent in Welsh as the Queen gave Charles a golden rod, a mantle, a sword, a girdle, the new coronet and a ring.

[21] The investiture occurred during a period of revival of the Welsh national consciousness with an outspoken section considering it as an English prince being imposed upon Wales.

Students in all of the University of Wales campuses held multiple sit-in protests and hunger strikes to show their opposition to the investiture.

Because of the tension and protests leading up to the investiture of July 1969, the UK government drafted many soldiers and detectives, as well as agents provocateurs, to ensure a smoothly running ceremony in Caernarfon.

Protests erupted at the moment Charles started his speech, with two large groups simultaneously walking out shouting slogans including "Urdd has been betrayed".

[30] The Welsh Language society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith) also held a rally against the investiture on 29 August, 1969 at Cilmeri, the site of the death of Llywelyn the Last.

[18]: 206 The day before the 1969 investiture, two members of MAC were killed when their home-made bomb exploded prematurely in Abergele, while they were planting it on a local government building.

Episode 6, named Tywysog Cymru (Prince of Wales) was first broadcast in November 2019, and portrays Charles's attendance at Aberystwyth University where he learnt to speak Welsh.

[9] The episode diverts from reality by showing Charles rewriting a Welsh-only speech to express an affinity with the Welsh struggle against oppression.