On July 1, 1969, Caernarvon Castle, the historic jewel of Wales, was the scene of an exceptional ceremony: the investiture of Prince Charles as the 19th Prince of Wales, crowned by his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
On July 1, 1969, between 1 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., the Kingdom of Great Britain experienced the longest seventy-five minutes of its existence. Seventy-five minutes during which the small, peaceful town of Caernarvon — 10,000 inhabitants — became the center of a universe which, whether royalist, socialist or republican, still loves spectacular shows. 4,000 guests inside the castle (compared to 11,000 in 1911), benefiting from the three exceptional initials “VIP”. 500 BBC technicians (while in 1953, during the Queen’s coronation, the question of the appropriateness of such anachronistic cameras in a medieval-inspired ceremony was seriously questioned), 60 musicians, 200 choristers. Outside, some 200,000 tourists from all corners of the island, and a swarm of police officers, as good-natured as the London “bobbies”, under the direction of a Scotland Yard superintendent, Joke Wilson, and under the amused eye of Prince Charles’ ex-detective, Michael…
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