The education of the British royal family has changed over time, reflecting shifting ideas about education of the aristocracy and the role of the monarchy in the United Kingdom. Traditionally, heirs to the throne and other royal children were educated privately by tutors. In the Tudor era, ideas of Renaissance humanism—emphasising the liberal arts and sciences and the classics—influenced royal education. Elizabeth I, for example, was multi-lingual and wrote a number of translations.
Later, in the Georgian and Victorian eras, royal education followed the French model, with governors overseeing the child's discipline and moral development, and preceptors conducting academic instruction. In the modern era, members of the House of Windsor have had varying degrees of education. The first heir to the British throne (and later monarch) to receive a university degree was Charles III. Since the later 20th century, members of the royal family have been educated in public schools, universities and military institutes.
Tudor and Elizabethan eras
The scholar Erasmus and his fellow humanists, who promoted the liberal arts and sciences over military training for princes, had an influence on the curriculum studied by Henry VIII's children, and later the Stuart princes.Pollnitz, pp. 9–10.
Henry VIII established an elite palace school for his son Prince Edward, selecting fourteen sons of prominent aristocrats to be educated alongside him.Weir, p. 466. Biographer Alison Weir writes: "The men who were given responsibility for the Prince's education were among the most brilliant scholars of their day". Edward was taught by Dr. Richard Cox, a clergyman who later become provost of Eton College and bishop of Ely, as well as John Cheke, the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University. Elizabeth I was well-educated, receiving lessons alongside her brother Edward and later being tutored by William Grindal and Roger Ascham.Hulse, p. 14.Mueller; Scodel, pp. 1–2. Elizabeth was proficient in French, Italian and Latin, using these foreign-language skills to interact with foreign diplomats and to create a "sizeable body of translations" over the course of her life. Battista Castiglione served as Elizabeth's formal tutor in Italian.Mueller; Scodel, p. 2.
Historian Aysha Pollnitz writes: "While Erasmus never managed to deter English or Scottish royal boys from military training, he did succeed in tipping the scales in letters' favour: between 1534 in England, 1566 in Scotland and the outbreak of the Bishops' Wars in 1639, princes male and female spent more time learning to wield pens than swords or guns".Pollnitz, p. 10. During this period, "British princes were notably bookish" in comparison to the Spanish Habsburgs (who emphasized "bureaucratic skills, handling weapons, and orthodox piety"). While royal females in early modern Britain were not raised in preparation to rule and received liberal educations that were constrained in comparison to their male relatives, Mary I, Elizabeth I, Lady Jane Grey, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia all wrote letters generally praised by scholars.Pollnitz, pp. 199–202. Lady Jane Grey was tutored by clergyman John Aylmer, her family's chaplain, and "distinguished herself in her studies beyond her parents' wishes, since they were more interested in preparing her for the stylish life of court" than for serious academic learning.
Stuart era The education of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, was overseen by Sir Thomas Murray, who taught Charles "the usual subjects: the Classics, French, Italian, arithmetic and theology" and supervised other tutors to the future king—Charles Guerolt, who taught fencing; John Beauchesne (who taught fine penmanship), and John Norton (who oversaw the library). Charles's education "has been praised and blamed for forming his personality and political conduct" in the lead-up to the English Civil War.Pollnitz, p. 315. Samuel Rawson Gardiner and Conrad Russell believed that Charles's education had not taught him empathy or the ability "to identify both sides of a political or religious question, a skill that could have taught him to appreciate both his opponents' perspectives or at least to anticipate their arguments and negotiate with them effectively".
In 1635, Brian Duppa—dean of Christ Church and a chaplain to Charles I—was appointed tutor to the future Charles II.Keay, p. 20. Duppa was well-suited to the position and had a close relationship with Charles for the rest of his life. Other tutors were brought in as well - including Peter Massonnet, who taught the prince Latin, Spanish, Italian, and most importantly French; Henry Gregory, who taught the prince to write; and Guilaume le Pierrie, a Frenchman hired when Charles was six years old to teach him dancing.Keay, p. 21. In 1638, William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle was placed in overall charge of the prince (then seven years old) as his governor. In 1647, Hobbes took up a position as mathematical instructor to the young Charles, Prince of Wales, who had come to Paris from Jersey around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles went to Holland.
Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian eras In the 18th century, George III had his two eldest sons - the future George IV and Frederick - educated in emulation of French royal custom.Clarke, p. 73. A governor and sub-governor were appointed for the child's discipline and morals, and the preceptor and sub-preceptor for lessons concerning academic subjects.
The role and public perceptions of the monarchy have changed over time,Gordon; Lawton, pp. 12–13. raising "interesting questions about the ideal upbringing and preparation of future constitutional monarchs, including their formal education".Gordon; Lawton, p. 15. Walter Bagehot, in his book The British Constitution, concluded that a prince's education "can be but a poor education and that a royal family will generally have less ability than other families".Gordon; Lawton, p. 174.
Historians have "assessed how well royal education has prepared monarchs for their political and ceremonial role" in British society. Peter Gordon and Dennis Lawton, writing in 1999, rated the education of Queen Victoria as good, "yet in contrast no subsequent monarch (or current heir) has been anywhere near adequately educated". Ross McKibbin argues that the educations of George V, Edward VIII, and George VI were "aimless" and "narrow," leaving them with the equivalent to the educations of "landed gentry with military connections".
Although phrenology was largely discredited by the mid-19th century, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had their children evaluated by a phrenologist. He described her eldest son Edward VII as having a skull that was "feeble and abnormal". Throughout her life, Victoria believed Edward to have a "small, empty brain".
Edward briefly attended the universities at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge, but did not graduate from any of them. Dennis Judd, professor of British history at London Metropolitan University has opined that "there is no evidence" Edward's brief time at these universities "did much good" and William Ewart Gladstone said of the king that he "knew everything except what is in books". John Neale Dalton, one of Edward's tutors, said that the future king had a "weakness of brain, this feebleness and lack of power to grasp almost anything put before him"; another tutor, J. K. Stephen, determined there was no use for Edward to attend university at all since he was unable to understand the words he was reading. As a "tribute to his birth, rather than his intellect" he was granted an honorary LL.D. Even as a child, however, Edward VII's governess had noted he would learn more from people than books, and he had great social gifts; his popularity is believed to have helped the United Kingdom create alliances in Europe in the early 20th century.
Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, enrolled at Christ Church, Oxford, in November 1872. He had been diagnosed about 1859 with haemophilia,Zeepvat, pp. 13–16. having shown symptoms from a young age. The family tried to take measures through Leopold's youth to protect his health; the disease was not well understood at the time. He studied science, art and the modern languages at Oxford but did not receive a university degree; he was granted an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1876.Zeepvat, p. 118. He also was believed to have epilepsy,Zeepvat, pp. 47–48. and died young in 1884.
George VI attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, which was then a junior officer training facility for students of secondary-school age; he finished at the bottom of his class. George studied for one year at the University of Cambridge, but did not complete an undergraduate degree.
Modern era
Elizabeth II's generation Elizabeth II, and her sister Margaret were the last members of the royal family to be educated at home by tutors in the traditional manner.Clarke, pp. 85–87. Elizabeth and Margaret were home-schooled by their governess Marion Crawford. Private tutors of Elizabeth included the provost of Eton College, Henry Marten, who instructed her in constitutional history. Elizabeth spoke French fluently, learning from a succession of governesses who were native speakers. During World War II, the then Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and participated in a Vehicle Maintenance Course at Aldershot; the length of the course is variously reported as three weeks or six weeks.
Historian David Starkey described Elizabeth II in his 2007 television documentary series Monarchy as poorly learned, comparing her to a "housewife" in terms of cultural refinement and intellectual curiosity. According to The Telegraph, his comments prompted rebuttals from several sources. Royal biographer Penny Junor said: "The Queen is certainly cultured even if not that moved by the arts. The Prince of Wales has a great sense of history and a lot of that comes from his mother". Marco Houston, editor of Royalty Monthly, said Elizabeth "may not have had the best formal education, but she has had the best education at the university of life".
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Elizabeth's cousin, studied architecture at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Richard graduated in 1966 after completing three years of a five-year architectural course; after a practical year at an office in the Ministry of Public Building and Works, Richard returned to Cambridge and in June 1969 passed both parts of a diploma in architecture. Richard went on to work as an architect.
Elizabeth and Philip's children and their spouses After being tutored as a child, Prince Charles briefly attended Hill House School before entering Cheam School at age eight. Charles spent five years at Cheam, from ages eight to thirteen. Charles was then sent—over the objections of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother—to Gordonstoun, a Scottish public school, becoming the first heir to the throne to sit for public examinations when he took his O-levels at age sixteen, passing six. Charles strongly disliked Gordonstoun, describing the school as "Colditz in kilts" and his time there as a "disastrous" one. In 1966 he also spent two terms at Geelong Grammar's Timbertop campus in Victoria, Australia. Prince Charles entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1967, where he read history, archaeology and anthropology and graduated with a 2:2 degree in 1970. This was the first time in history that a British monarch or heir to the throne had completed a university degree.