CRather sad birthday for Kate Middleton. Today the Princess of Wales turns 42but indiscretions at court they want her at loggerheads with William. The reason would have to do with the fact of having been completely ignored about the choice of school for George (10 years old)fall on Eton men’s collegethe most prestigious – and traditional – school in the whole of the United Kingdom.
Prince George studiesto to Eton, even if Kate doesn’t want to
The Princess of Wales doesn’t like single-sex schools and has always said she was against them. She herself, in the years in which she had attended the Downe House – one boarding school for girls only, located a short distance from the Middleton residence in Berkshire – had had less than pleasant experiences, even finding himself victim of bullying.
William won: his son George will not change Royal traditions
But Kate failed to win against the rules and traditions of the Windsors. Once you reach 13 years of age, direct heirs to the throne are transferred to private high schools, just like Eton College, which William and Harry also attended. George, who will only return home for holiday periods, he will therefore wear the traditional uniform of the famous institute, with dark tailcoat, waistcoat and top hat.
A new life for Prince George
To go to Eton, George will leave Adelaide Cottage, the official Wales residence near Windsor Castle, and Lambrook School, the current primary school. According to sources in the courts, Kate would now be worried about the situations George might find himself in at an all-boys school. She she would have preferred to send her son to a more modern institution, such as Marlborough College, in the south of England, which she herself attended in her youth. But the husband was not convinced.
Prince William at Eton College, June 2000 (Getty Images)
An elite school for Prince George, symbol (instead) of a modern monarchy
The thought of her firstborn permanently away from home saddens Kate, who would also have raised doubts about the choice of college from an institutional point of view. Sending a very young heir to the throne to a school considered very elitist, and also rather antiquated, goes against the Crown’s current modernization efforts – a project in which both she and her husband William believe very much.
George and mother Kate at a rugby match, London, February 2022 (Getty Images)
No expense is spared for Prince George’s studies
At a cost of over 15 thousand pounds per quarter (around 18 thousand euros), Eton has produced writers, artists, celebrities and Nobel Prize winners, as well as several prime ministers, such as Boris Johnson and David Cameron. But his is a relatively new tradition at Buckingham Palace: before William and Harry, senior Royals were sent to Scotland, in the very rigorous Gordonstoun. An experience that Carlo lived with great difficulty: «Here it’s like being in a prison», wrote the future king in a letter from 1963. «They beat me all the time because I snore at night. A real hell.”
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