In the ninth episode of The Crown, Prince Philip talks of thriving at the boarding school Gordonstoun in Scotland. The same cannot be said for his son Charles when he attends 30 years later, after his father refuses to let send him to Eton College in London. Charles once said the boarding school was "Colditz in kilts," and that's the angle The Crown runs with.
Charles, never as athletic as his father, was forced to go for daily runs at the school, no matter the weather. "It's absolute hell," the future king supposedly said.
But that horrible time might be an exaggeration. Gordonstoun has unearthed a 1975 speech in which the prince praised the school. "I am always astonished by the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés used to describe it. It was only tough in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools did—mentally or physical," the Prince said to the House of Lords when he started his charity, the Prince's Trust. "I am lucky in that I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities," he continued. "It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative—why else do you think I am brave enough to stand up before your Lordships now?"
The year before that speech, Prince Charles told The Observer that he was "glad" he went to Gordonstoun. "It wasn't the toughness of the place–that's all much exaggerated. It was the general character of the education there," he said. "An education which tried to balance the physical and mental with the emphasis on self-reliance to develop a rounded human being. I didn't enjoy school as much as I might have, but that was only because I'm happier at home than anywhere else."
He went on to say that Gordonstoun "developed my willpower and self-control, helped me to discipline myself, and I think that discipline, not in the sense of making you bathe in cold water, but in the Latin sense–giving shape and form and tidiness to your life–is the most important thing you education can do."
This affection for the school is omitted from The Crown, and perhaps it came later, with hindsight. In the Netflix series, for now, Queen Elizabeth tries her best to convince Philip to send Charles to Eton.
The future king of England wasn't Gordonstoun's only Windsor alumni. Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, his brothers, attended the boarding school. Princess Anne, however, went elsewhere; girls were not allowed at the school when she was young.
Whatever his true feelings regarding Gordonstoun, Charles did not send his sons, William and Harry, there. They went to Eton College.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Maria Vultaggio is a Brooklynite originally hailing from Long Island. She studied English at Stony Brook University and interned at the ... Read more
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