Prince Charles' extremely rare royal privilege the Queen's other kids missed out on

Prince Charles once received an extremely rare royal privilege during his childhood that the Queen's other children sadly missed out on. 

• The Prince of Wales got to witness his mother’s coronation when he was just four years old after receiving his own children’s invitation.
• This was a royal first and sadly his siblings never got to enjoy this huge moment. 
• This royal news (opens in new tab) comes as the Queen delighted royal fans with her ‘frugal’ habits as they spotted the ‘ugliest’ item in her living room (opens in new tab).

With the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday (opens in new tab) weekend now just days away the excitement is building over the celebrations where Her Majesty and other members of The Firm (opens in new tab) will mark this milestone. Already this year the Queen sparked nostalgia (opens in new tab) several times over as the Royal Family are currently sharing 70 throwback photos over the 70 days in the lead-up to the weekend. As many people reminisce about some of the biggest royal moments over the past seven decades, it’s hard not to think about the Queen’s coronation (opens in new tab). 

Taking place on June 2nd 1953 at Westminster Abbey, the Queen’s coronation is understood to have been watched by 27 million on TV in the UK. And Prince Charles got to enjoy a rare royal privilege that day that his siblings didn’t… 

At the time of Her Majesty’s coronation, Charles, who is first in the line of succession (opens in new tab), was just 4 years old. But that didn’t stop the future Prince of Wales from taking a historic part in the celebrations in what was a major moment for the Royal Family.

According to their official website (opens in new tab), Charles became the first child to witness their mother’s coronation as Sovereign that day. The young Prince even received his own hand-painted invitation and was seated between the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret for the ceremony. 

This special royal privilege was granted only to Charles, whilst 2-year-old Princess Anne was considered too young, but appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace afterwards.

At the time of the Queen’s coronation she hadn’t yet welcomed her youngest children, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, meaning they also missed out on seeing their mother’s big moment. 

Though Charles’ presence wasn’t necessarily quite so calming as the royals might’ve hoped on the day as he reportedly almost caused a terrible mishap.

Getting candid about this on Annoushka Ducas’ podcast My Life in Seven Charms, Princess Margaret’s former right hand woman Lady Anne Glenconner revealed the curious 4-year-old got hold of the Imperial State Crown. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AA58-djqPM

“Prince Charles got his paws on it, however old he was, when we got back to Buckingham Palace,” she claimed. “Because [the Queen] took it off, put it on a table, and Prince Charles made a beeline for it.”

Lady Glenconner added, “We thought he was going to drop it. We thought, ‘Oh my goodness, that would be a bad omen’. But luckily, I think my mother, as a lady-in-waiting, seized it from him and took it away.”

Thankfully there was no harm done and this historic day remains one of the biggest moments in the Queen's 70 year reign and a moment Prince Charles likely remembers very fondly to this day.