Prince Charles did go to Trinity College, Cambridge from 1967 to 1970, graduating with a 2.ii in History. So the myth is grounded in fact.

It is also true that he had a bodyguard, who lived in a nearby Trinity room and followed him around discreetly. Although this guard did go to lectures he, sadly, did not take the exam. He therefore had no opportunity to get a better mark than Charles.

What is true about Charles’s undergraduate life in the swinging sixties is that while the other kids were discovering pot, Charles was indulging in a secret pottery class, down the road at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now ARU). Fact.

Did he think he was trying this ‘pot’ thing that all the cool kids were talking about? Did he go around talking about his ‘pot’ class? Was he confused when the other kids just said they simply taught themselves?

“Everyone knew that Prince Charles, when he was an undergraduate, either in his first or second year, did an evening class for one term and it was in pottery. For security reasons it was asked that it should be kept quiet.” recalled Ian Gordon, then an English lecturer at the College of Arts and Technology.

Do the corgis at Buckingham Palace sup happily from a slightly wonky bowl? Or do they drink out of the bodyguard’s bowl, just that bit better made? Does Charles still give rocking mugs and inefficient toast racks – all made with organic clay from his local clay farm – to the family for Christmas? Is there a secret room where all this is stored, known in Balmoral as “the bad place”? So many questions. The Palace declined to comment.

All MythBusters have dug up is that Charles was riding the crest of the 60s zeitgeist, when his youthful vigour hurled him into a riotous affair with the arts and crafts movement. An affair so shocking, it had to be kept secret from all mankind.

Michael Stothard

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