The faded photo shows two tiny but unmistakeable figures atop Wales’ imposing Caernarfon Castle, a snapshot taken by a schoolgirl in 1969 that captured a moment in history.
“He came to stand on this balcony here with his mum,” says Maria Sarnacki, holding up the picture in front of the balcony where Queen Elizabeth II and the newly anointed Charles, Prince of Wales, greeted the crowds.
“It was an amazing day. I was convinced she was pointing and waving to me — being a little girl of 11 it was like something you see in films,” adds Sarnacki, now 66.
The investiture of the now King Charles III as Prince of Wales by his mother in an archaic ritual in the magnificent 13th century castle was watched by millions of people around the world live on television.
“But I don’t think there’s a purpose for it any more,” says Sarnacki, who is now mayor of the mountain-fringed town on Wales’ north coast.
Charles’s investiture may be the last at the castle, with growing opposition to any similar ceremony for his son William, whom he named Prince of Wales last week.
The queen’s death has also sparked calls for the centuries-old title to be scrapped altogether, as nationalist sentiment swells in Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom.
Almost 25,000 people have signed a petition to scrap the title as an “insult to Wales and a symbol of historical oppression”.
– ‘Divided’ –
“There is mixed opinion. A lot of people don’t want the title Prince of Wales because they think it should be a Welsh person,” said Sarnacki.
The Welsh dragon flag and the British Union Jack fly together at half mast over the castle following the queen’s death, but Caernarfon’s royal history does not make it royalist.
“Opinion would be very much divided” about proclaiming William Prince of Wales, said Geraint Thomas, 49, who runs a photographic gallery in Caernarfon.
The town boasts the highest percentage in Wales of people who can speak Welsh — which Charles spent a term at university trying to learn before his investiture.
While children play with toy spears in the castle courtyard, which is now a UNESCO world heritage site, the bloody history of England and Wales has never been forgotten here.
The title Prince of Wales was originally used by native princes, but the last, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was killed in 1282 during the conquest of Wales by England’s King Edward I.
His head was then mounted on the Tower of London.
To tame Wales, Edward embarked on a spree of castle-building that produced Caernarfon, where his heir, the future Edward II, was born in 1284.
– ‘Provocative title’ –
He would then give the title of Prince of Wales to his son in 1301, and English monarchs would continue the tradition for their heirs.
“Historically it’s been a provocative title,” said Thomas, whose gallery has two red flags for the Welsh independence movement hanging outside.
The queen’s decision to carry out Charles’s investiture at Caernarfon in 1969 was…
