Fifty years ago, the Prince of Wales was invested with his title on July 1 in 1969.
The ceremony, watched by a television audience of 19 million people in the UK, and millions more worldwide, was two years in the planning.
The interior of Caernarfon Castle, as a dais and stands were being set up for the Prince of Wales’s investiture (PA)
Ministry of Works officials in the Lower Ward of Caernarfon Castle, planning the ceremony (PA)
The Earl of Snowdon with his children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones arriving at Caernarfon Castle for the investiture (PA)
From April of that year, he spent nine weeks at the University of Aberystwyth learning Welsh.
The prince arriving at the Aberystwyth University to begin a nine week course in the Welsh language (PA)
Charles at Aberystwyth University in the Language Laboratory in April 1969 (PA)
It showed day-to-day family life, from the Duke of Edinburgh frying sausages on a barbecue to the Queen sitting at the breakfast table, as well as preparations for the investiture.
Charles gives his five-year-old brother Prince Edward a ride on a go-kart in the grounds of Windsor Castle in 1969 (PA)
Images were also taken in 1969 of Charles go-karting with his five-year-old brother Prince Edward, and slicing a loaf of bread in his student kitchen at Trinity College, Cambridge University.
There were various visits to Wales for the prince including a walk and a picnic in Snowdonia after chairing a countryside committee meeting at Bangor University – a month before his big day.
The prince having a picnic in Snowdonia in 1969 (PA)
The central feature was a low, simple, circular dais made of Welsh slate, below a modern perspex canopy, with three contemporary backless thrones for the Queen, Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh, and distinctive vermilion red investiture chairs for guests.
The view inside Caernarfon Castle (PA)
The Prince of Wales arriving for his investiture (PA)
Princess Anne, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret arriving (PA)
The procession during the ceremony (PA)
The sword was a symbol of justice, the coronet a token of rank, the ring a token of duty and the rod a symbol of government.
The rod, ring and sword regalia were the same used by the future King Edward VIII at his Prince of Wales investiture in 1911, while the gold coronet was newly created.
The Queen places the coronet on her son’s head (PA)
Charles swearing the oath of allegiance to his mother, the Queen (PA)
A kiss for the Queen (PA)
The newly-invested prince reading a speech (PA)
The Queen presents the prince at the castle’s King’s Gate after the ceremony (PA)
The Prince of Wales walking through Queen’s Square in Blaenau Festiniog the first day of his meet-the-people tour of Wales (PA)
Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall taking tea at Cwm Berem Farm in Dyfed in 2005 – the year they married (Ian Jones/PA)
Charles and Camilla in the village of Aberdaron in 2016 (Chris Jackson/PA)
