Prince Charles investiture: How royal family was accused of 'never once saying SORRY' - Today News Prince Charles will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his investiture as Prince of Wales today, coming after Friday’s St David’s Day celebrations for the Welsh nation. He was formally invested as Prince of Wales when he was 20 years old, at the historic Caernarfon Castle by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. BBC Radio 4’s “In Our Time”, in an episode which first aired in 1999, heard from journalist and royal author Bea Campbell, who talked about the investiture ceremony and how its ceremony and pageantry symbolised colonialism. Camilla Parker Bowles SHOCK: William and Harry's 'naughty surprise' Prince Charles' SHOCK rant REVEALED: 'I'm getting SICK of my face!' She said: “[Pageantry] has been absolutely crucial to the way the royal family has displayed itself and how it appears to be the parent of this great empire.” She added: “The royal family has never, never, never once said sorry. “Even, for instance, in those ridiculous ceremonies in the investiture of the Prince of Wales. “Here we have a prince, speaking to the Welsh, in Welsh, with an English accent. “In a way that can only, in the most schizoid way, confirm their experience of subordination to the English. “All of these ceremonies are about domination and personal dominion.” She described how the Prince of Wales’ role also pointed to that of the Queen as “the mother of this Commonwealth". She said: “I’ve always thought it was kind of sick, actually, this maternal woman presiding over embryonic democracies.” The investiture ceremony in July 1969 did stir up nationalist feeling in Wales, with one fatal consequence. Two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, or Movement for the Defence of Wales, George Taylor and Alwyn Jones, blew themselves up accidentally in Abergele the night before the investiture. It was never discovered if the pair had intended to bomb the the rail line that the royal train was due to travel along, or government offices in Abergele. The BBC reported in 1999 how an aborted KGB plan to disrupt the investiture had also been uncovered. The claims were made by Russian dissident Vasili Mitrokhin who handed over the details to MI5 in 1992, and detailed plans to target a bridge on the route along a road from Porthmadog to Caernarfon Castle. The royal celebration today will be hosted at Buckingham Palace by the Queen and will see Prince Charles and Camilla joined by Princess Anne, alongside the “Fab Four”, Prince William, Harry, Kate and Meghan. It will be the first time royal-watchers will be able able to see Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle in public together since the duchesses were last together at Christmas. It is thought to be one of the last times the royal family will be seen together en masse before the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal baby, which is due in late April or early May.
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