Strange Facts About King Charles' Time In College

From the beginning of his education, King Charles was setting new precedents for royal schooling options. While Queen Elizabeth's instructors came to her, Charles started attending school just before he turned eight. As a teen, Charles went to Gordonstoun in Scotland. Although fans of "The Crown" might be more familiar with the stark fictional depiction of Gordonstoun, in real life, Charles' academic experiences at the school paved the way for his college career at Cambridge University.

Charles attended Cambridge's Trinity College from 1967 to 1970. Unlike the U.S., UK universities frequently offer three-year programs, so Charles completed his studies on schedule. Besides graduating with honors, the then-prince set a new standard for how far the royal family got in school: he was the first future monarch to be a college graduate. Years earlier, his grandfather, King George VI, had briefly gone to Cambridge. However, George VI segued into full-time royal work before completing a degree.

Charles appreciated the opportunity and made the most of his college experience. "'I really wanted to go to university because I felt I hadn't had enough education at school," the monarch later recalled (via Daily Mail). "I felt that by going to university for another three years it would round it off and give me just that much more." Besides academics, the king had some wild times as he got involved with extracurricular activities, engaged his creative side, and luckily avoided a serious accident.

While he was in college, King Charles loved to act. In 1968, he began performing in comedies on campus. Even though Charles didn't become a dad until 1982, he showed an enthusiasm for "dad joke" wordplay onstage. According to "Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life," the then-prince had silly lines like "I wreak vengeance" in a joke about his character smelling bad. Some of the lines Charles delivered were his own creative efforts.

The then-prince also wasn't afraid to wear outlandish costumes or engage in slapstick humor. Film clips of Charles' performances show him being pulled offstage while fishing and wrestling on the floor with unruly bagpipes. In one instance, however, a pie thrown by fellow performer Peter Hensman almost went horribly awry when Charles inadvertently inhaled some of the flying dessert. "Foam went down his windpipe, and he spent the next five minutes stumbling round stage choking," Hensman recalled to The Times. "That's the closest I have been to high treason."

On stage or off, Charles has continued to display his signature sense of humor, like when he once tried to vacation incognito with a getup that included a bulbous nose. "I love imitating and mimicking," Charles explained in the documentary "Charles R." (via Newsweek). "So much of what one does requires — I find — acting ability in one way or another, and it's extremely useful if you enjoy it."

In 2016, King Charles casually shared a chilling college anecdote during a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum. "Quite how I survived being run over by a bus when I was on a bicycle just outside here, I don't know," he commented to the audience (via Express). Charles didn't elaborate on this stunning bit of info, so it's unknown what exactly happened during this close call.

The king's enthusiasm for biking apparently has waned over time, although he still rides in the name of philanthropy. In June 2021, the then-Prince of Wales took a short jaunt to support the British Asian Trust. Instead of riding, the king is reportedly a fan of walking for exercise, and he likes going for nature hikes on the Balmoral estate.

If the unthinkable had happened and Charles had been killed in a bus accident, it would have had far-reaching implications for the crown. Even though Princess Anne is the next-oldest of Queen Elizabeth's children, because she's female, Anne is surprisingly lower in the line of succession. It took until 2013 for the Succession to the Crown Act to prioritize birth order alone rather than a potential heir's sex. During Charles' college days, Prince Andrew would have become the heir, followed by Prince Edward, and then Anne behind him. This situation could have been increasingly complicated in 2019 when Andrew's infamous interview about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein became the beginning of the end of his career as a working royal.

In fall 1967, King Charles began his coursework at the University of Cambridge's Trinity College, focusing on archaeology and anthropology before moving to history. Charles graduated in June 1970, and while some at the university considered his exams solidly in the middle of the pack, Lord Butler, then-master at Trinity College, was more impressed. Like a lot of college students, Charles was working part-time. However, in his case, he was working for the royal Firm and undertaking some overseas tours. "We think it was rather remarkable that he could get a good degree, considering all his other duties," Butler proclaimed in The New York Times in 1970. "That he has managed to do so much work ... shows a rare degree of concentration."

However, one area where Charles didn't have to do any work was in getting a master's degree. By 1975, the then-prince's Bachelor of Arts morphed into a Master of Arts. However, this wasn't a special favor based on royal status. According to Cambridge policy, "the MA is conferred by right on holders of the BA degree of the University ... and is not available as a postgraduate qualification." Charles' new degree also gave him access to other perks, like ongoing library privileges and a voice in selecting chancellors. In addition, Charles has a longstanding role with a Cambridge scholarship program, and he's made some royal appearances at the school.

During his college days, King Charles played cello. While he made the cut to perform with Trinity College's orchestra, Charles was rather critical of his playing ability, and he recalled his ill-fated attempts to practice with a recording of professional players. "I tried," he explained to Simon Armitage in a 2021 interview. "I was a very bad member of the cello section."

Despite these lackluster cello skills, Charles' presence unexpectedly caused over two dozen women to attend the same audition. However, it's unclear whether any of them would have been accepted since Trinity was comprised of only male students. In addition, their efforts may have been wasted on the dating front since Charles was said to be pretty reserved at this time in his life. Midway through college, in 1969, Charles reportedly began his first significant romance with Lucia Santa Cruz.

Although his cello efforts ended when Charles entered the Navy post-graduation, his lifelong passion for music remains. "It is extraordinary because the sound completely surrounds you," Charles commented (via Classic FM). "It's that wonderful sensation of being part of an immense whole." To add to this sense of synergy, years after Charles parted ways with his cello, the antique instrument made an encore performance at his 2023 Coronation Concert. Since it's unusually large, his old cello presented a learning curve even for the experienced Royal College of Music student who played it at the event.

King Charles has been an enthusiastic artist for his entire life. For most of his adulthood, watercolors have been his favored medium. However, Charles also dabbled in pottery for a time. Concurrent with his early painting efforts, Charles sculpted clay animals at Gordonstoun, and he continued these pursuits at the University of Cambridge. 

In 2024, one of Charles' college-era clay creations was purchased for a whopping £8,500. Interestingly, this vibrantly striped goat doesn't bear Charles' signature. Instead, a former cook at Cambridge had attested to Charles' handiwork and gifted the piece to a family member. Since it's not known what happened to Charles' Gordonstoun-era creations, the goat was such a moneymaker because of its rarity. "As far as we are aware it is the only example of pottery made by King Charles in existence," asserted Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers. "Perhaps Charles was inspired by the goat mascot of The Royal Regiment of Wales."

In contrast, the King's watercolors are more affordably priced since they're prints rather than original art. There's also a range of price options, from small notecards to larger, limited-edition framed pieces. While Charles has never commented on his experiences working with clay, he's noted that painting helps him quiet his mind. "It transports me into another dimension which, quite literally, refreshes parts of the soul which other activities can't reach," Charles wrote as part of a 2022 exhibit of his work (via The Telegraph).