In the strange monarchical world, appearances are everything. Decisions made and statements given are scrutinized with laser precision, and if a choice could harm the institution of the Crown? Nope. Doesn’t happen. Or if it does, it happens only in a strictly controlled manner subject to the proper messaging and framing.
But the institution of the monarchy is made of people, and people are famously contrarian and messy. People want to make decisions at odds with stuffy ideas about messaging; people want to explore their options; and people want to do what makes them happy. When Prince William, now heir to the throne of the United Kingdom and many others, wanted to attend university, he did.
William wasn’t the first Royal to attend university — that accolade goes to his father, the now-King Charles III who attended Trinity College, Cambridge and the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, Wales — but the decision came only after intense negotiation within the family and with the press. But in the end, William was allowed to attend the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
William’s decision would go on to change the course of his entire life, although he didn’t know it at the time, but very nearly ended in a “personal disaster” — and would have done, but for the intervention of then-Prince Charles.
In his book, Battle of Brothers, historian of British history and biographer Robert Lacey writes that William struggled to adapt to life at St. Andrews. Reportedly, William spent only two weekends in his entire first term at the university, and by Christmas, was ready to pack it in entirely. The problem for William was that his personal decisions were not entirely personal: they would reflect on the monarchy, and could even cause a relations incident with Scotland.
Lacey writes that, of Charles’ consultation with his aides on the possibility of William switching universities, one of them said: “It would have been a personal disaster for William, he would have been seen as a quitter.” Prince Phillip, never one to shy away from plain language, is reported to have said William should “knuckle down and not wimp out.”
But his father, Prince Charles, took a different approach, as reported widely in publications such as the Daily Mail and The Mirror. According to Lacey, Charles’ aides suggested he grow a “fatherly backbone” and tackle the issue head on. Charles, along with his aides and PR team, figured out a more flexible arrangement that would serve both William’s needs and that of monarchy — William would shift his focus and study something else, while remaining at St. Andrews.
Thanks to St. Andrews’ more flexible study options William was able to swap out his History of Art studies for Geography instead, a topic he was much more interested in. Disaster averted, for both William and the Crown.
But for William, this decision is one that changed his entire life, as it was at St. Andrews William met his wife and the mother of his children, Princess Katherine, then known as Katherine Middleton. William and Kate’s university romance stood the test of time, as the two married in a lavish and opulent ceremony broadcast all over the world. Princess Katherine will go on to become a commoner queen, the first consort to be drawn not from the ranks of foreign monarchs or the domestic aristocracy since the 17th century.
It’s hard to imagine a world where it isn’t “William and Kate,” but that’s what was on the cards if William hadn’t stayed the course with St. Andrews. It’s not often that a young person’s personal woes play out entirely in the media realm, but for William, they did and often do. But it gives a striking insight into the human side of the monarchy. After all, millions of young people go through what William did every year, where a single choice about what to do there and then can go on to change the course of an entire lifetime.