Off to school: how do the royal family educate their children?
How should a young prince or princess be best prepared for their unique role? From private palace tutors to the school of hard knocks, each generation of royals has chosen new and different ways to educate their children
Beyond the ABCs and time tables, educating a young royal comes with unique challenges as they are prepared for a life of constant media scrutiny. They need to be prepared for their responsibilities as national ambassadors and, in the case of the heirs themselves, the burden of wearing the crown.
Yet each generation of post-war Windsors has made bold moves away from centuries of traditional royal schooling. In fact, far from the private tutoring of the future Queen Elizabeth, there have been calls by newspaper columnists for the newest arrival to date, Louis, to be sent to a public school.
Much like many royal children before them, Elizabeth and her sister Margaret received their education at home. Tutors were brought in to cover specialist subjects, but the core of their teaching was entrusted to their governess Marion Crawford, nicknamed “Crawfie”, under the supervision of their mother.
Mornings covered history, language, literature and music before afternoons were spent on games, dancing and singing. While the dutiful Elizabeth showed a propensity for learning, home-schooling did not stretch her academically, although she now speaks fluent French and some German thanks to native speakers working at the palace.
The young princess had not been expected to ascend to the throne, so it was only after the abdication of her uncle in 1936 that Elizabeth’s education gained pace, with private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, vice-provost of Eton, and religious instruction by the archbishop of Canterbury.
Margaret, however, was not privy to such lessons, and later in life she resented her lack of serious education. Still, Elizabeth never sat an exam or earned a formal qualification.
Breaking with tradition
Perhaps frustrated by her own limited education, the Queen wished for her children to go to school, marking a significant change for the royal family.
- Read more | What was Queen Elizabeth II like as a mother?
Charles had brief spells at Hill House School and Cheam — where the headmaster suggested he play football as the other boys would certainly show him no preferential treatment when going for the ball.
Later, Prince Philip sent Charles to his own former school, which was notoriously tough. Gordonstoun, in the north of Scotland, championed physical and mental fortitude with unorthodox teaching. Its students took cold showers, slept on hard beds and went on morning runs whatever the weather.
Prince Philip hoped it would have the same effect it had done on him, and turn the sensitive and timid Charles into a man. From arriving at age 13 as a boarder, though, Charles hated Gordonstoun and called it a “prison sentence” and “Colditz in kilts”.
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Charles struggled with bullying and loneliness. This only worsened when the detective guarding him, Donald Green, was sacked for letting the young Charles drink a cherry brandy, not knowing a tabloid reporter was watching.
Yet Charles, as his father had hoped, would end up praising Gordonstoun, saying: “I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative.” From there, he went to Cambridge where, in 1970, he became the first heir to the throne to be awarded a university degree.
The life of a royal nanny
What does it take to look after the heir to the throne?
Changing cloth diapers, keeping the nursery spotless, and being trained in martial arts, anti-terrorism tactics and defensive driving—it’s all in a day’s work for a royal nanny. Considering they care for future monarchs, duties go far beyond childcare and come with a host of regulations and protocols.
Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, nanny to William and Kate’s children, was trained at the prestigious Norland College in Bath. She is always on call, accompanies the family on visits and has a role in their education, notably teaching them Spanish.
Their constant presence means a nanny becomes close to their charges, but sometimes too close.
Hands-on mother Diana clashed with a string of nannies, including Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who referred to the children as “my babies”.
It is a well-paid, illustrious job, but can be ended on the whim of the royal parent. Charles’s favourite nanny was Mabel Anderson, but another, Helen Lightbody, was dismissed after a disagreement with the Queen over a pudding.
The Queen’s own nannies were Clara Knight, affectionately called “Allah” (a child’s pronunciation of her first name), and Marion Crawford, who incurred the palace’s wrath by publishing a book about her experiences caring for the princesses.
If there is one quality the nanny must embody above all, it is discretion.
Diana’s influence
The education of Charles’s own sons, William and Harry, was heavily influenced by their mother, Diana. Not only did they join her on official visits from an early age, where seeing homeless shelters and clinics for AIDs-related conditions instilled in them a philanthropic spirit, but instead of Gordonstoun they went to Eton, the school Diana’s father and brother had attended.
William fully immersed himself into his time at school, which began in 1995, becoming a member of the Eton Society, the elite group of prefects who had the unique privilege of wearing whatever design of waistcoat they wanted.
On Sunday afternoons, he would walk the short distance to Windsor Castle to have tea with his grandmother, as well as lessons on his royal duties. The Queen would take him through the documents in the state boxes.
Harry enjoyed his time at Eton less than his brother and, always prone to mischief, admitted he wanted to be the “bad boy” at school. While he may not have been the strongest student academically, Harry certainly thrived in sports, playing rugby and polo, and being made House Captain of Games. He also became a member of the Combined Cadet Forces.
After leaving Eton, both boys kept up the tradition for male royals to go into the military, with Harry completing officer commissioning training at Sandhurst after first spending some time abroad. William joined him there after graduating from the University of St Andrews, where he met Kate.
As is fitting for the “new royals”, William and Kate have chosen new schools for their children. In 2018, Charlotte started at the exclusive Willcocks Nursery, near Kensington Palace, from which she may join her older brother George at Thomas’s Battersea. The young prince had previously gone to a Montessori nursery school, favoured for its emphasis on independence and social development.
Thomas’s Battersea, an £18,000-a-year preparatory school, will promote above all else its primary ethos of “be kind”, and offer George an extensive curriculum unlike anything his great-grandmother would have had.
We’ll have to wait and see where William and Kate will choose for Louis, or what Harry and Meghan intend for their first child, but the days of traditional home-schooling are long gone as the new royals seek to give their children as normal a start in life as possible.
Authors
Jonny Wilkes is a former staff writer for BBC History Revealed, and he continues to write for both the magazine and HistoryExtra. He has BA in History from the University of York.
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