Alcuin of York
Rabanus Maurus (left), supported by Alcuin (middle), presents his work to Otgar of Mainz
Born	c. 735 York, Northumbria
Died	19 May 804 (aged c. 70)
Occupation	monk, scholar
Religion	Christian

Alcuin of York (Latin: Alcuinus) or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus (730s or 740s – 19 May 804) was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. He wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. He was made Abbot of Saint Martin's at Tours in 796, where he remained until his death. "The most learned man anywhere to be found" according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne,^[1] he is considered among the most important architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

Biography[link]

Alcuin of York had a long career as a teacher and scholar, first at the school at York founded in AD 627 (now known as St Peter's School, York) and later as Charlemagne's leading advisor on ecclesiastical and educational matters. From 796 until his death he was Abbot of the great monastery of St. Martin of Tours.

The majority of details on Alcuin's life come from his letters and poems. There are also autobiographical sections in Alcuin's poem on York and in the Vita Alcuini, a Life written for him at Ferrières in the 820s, possibly based in part on the memories of Sigwulf, one of Alcuin's pupils.

Background[link]

Alcuin was born in Northumbria, presumably sometime in the 740s.^[2] Virtually nothing is known of his parents, family background, or origin.^[2] In common hagiographical fashion, the Vita Alcuini asserts that Alcuin was 'of noble English stock,' and this statement has usually been accepted by scholars. Alcuin's own work only mentions such collateral kinsmen as Wilgils, father of the missionary saint Willibrord; and Beornred, abbot of Echternach and bishop of Sens, who was more distantly related. In his Life of St Willibrord, Alcuin writes that Wilgils, called a paterfamilias, had founded an oratory and church at the mouth of the Humber, which had fallen into Alcuin's possession by inheritance. Because in early Anglo-Latin writing, paterfamilias ("head of a family, householder") usually referred to a ceorl, Donald A. Bullough suggests that Alcuin's family was of cierlisc status: i.e., free but subordinate to a noble lord, and that Alcuin and other members of his family rose to prominence through beneficial connections with the aristocracy.^[3][4] If so, Alcuin's origins may lie in the southern part of what was formerly known as Deira.^[5]

York[link]

The young Alcuin came to the cathedral church of York during the golden age of Archbishop Ecgbert and Northumbrian King Eadberht. Egbert had been a disciple of the Venerable Bede, who urged him to raise York to an archbishopric. King Eadbert and his brother Egbert oversaw the re-energising and re-organisation of the English church, with an emphasis on reforming the clergy and on the tradition of learning that Bede had begun. Egbert was devoted to Alcuin, who thrived under his tutelage. It was in York that Alcuin formed his love of classical poetry, though he was sometimes troubled by the fact that it was written by non-Christians.

The York school was renowned as a centre of learning, in the liberal arts, literature and science as well as in religious matters.^[6] It was from here that Alcuin drew inspiration for the school he would lead at the Frankish court. He revived the school with the trivium and quadrivium disciplines. He wrote a codex on the trivium and his student Hraban wrote one on the quadrivium.^[6]

Alcuin graduated to become a teacher during the 750s. His ascendancy to the headship of the York school, the ancestor of St Peter's School, began after Aelbert became Archbishop of York in 767. Around the same time Alcuin became a deacon in the church. He was never ordained as a priest and there is no real evidence that he became an actual monk, but he lived his life as one.

In 781, King Elfwald sent Alcuin to Rome to petition the Pope for official confirmation of York’s status as an archbishopric and to confirm the election of the new archbishop, Eanbald I. On his way home he again met Charlemagne, this time in the Italian city of Parma.

Charlemagne[link]

Alcuin's love of the church and his intellectual curiosity allowed him to be reluctantly persuaded to join Charlemagne's court. He joined an illustrious group of scholars that Charlemagne had gathered around him, the mainsprings of the Carolingian Renaissance: Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, Rado and Abbot Fulrad. Alcuin would later write that "the Lord was calling me to the service of King Charles."

He was welcomed at the Palace School of Charlemagne in Aachen (Urbs Regale) in 782. It had been founded by the king’s ancestors as a place for the education of the royal children (mostly in manners and the ways of the court). However, Charlemagne wanted to include the liberal arts and, most importantly, the study of the religion that he held sacred.He loved the thought of religion and it was so important to him that he decided to share it with his country and others. From 782-790, Alcuin taught Charlemagne himself, his sons Pepin and Louis, the young men sent to be educated at court and the young clerics attached to the palace chapel. Bringing with him from York his assistants Pyttel, Sigewulf and Joseph, Alcuin revolutionized the educational standards of the Palace School, introducing Charlemagne to the liberal arts and creating a personalised atmosphere of scholarship and learning, to the extent that the institution came to be known as the 'school of Master Albinus'.

In this role as adviser, he tackled the emperor over his policy of forcing pagans to be baptised on pain of death, arguing, "Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe." His arguments seem to have prevailed - Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797.^[7]

Charlemagne was a master at gathering the best men of every land in his court. He himself became far more than just the king at the center. It seems that he made many of these men his closest friends and counsellors. They referred to him as 'David', a reference to the Biblical king David. Alcuin soon found himself on intimate terms with Charlemagne and the other men at court, to whom he gave nicknames to be used for work and play.^{[citation needed]} Alcuin himself was known as 'Albinus' or 'Flaccus'.

Alcuin’s friendships also extended to the ladies of the court, especially the queen mother and the king's daughters. His relationships with these women never reached the intense level of those of the men around him. Modern commentators,^[8] have identified the homo-erotic tone of some of Alcuin's poetry, emphasising the spiritual and idealistic aspects of his love for his friends and his pupils.^[9] While at Aachen, his pupils were given pet names, derived from classical allusions (mainly from Virgil's Eclogues).

Return to Northumbria and back to Francia[link]

In 790 Alcuin returned from the court of Charlemagne to his own country, to which he had always been greatly attached. He dwelt there for some time, but Charlemagne then invited him back to help in the fight against the Adoptionist heresy which was at that time making great progress in Toledo, the old capital of the Visigoths and still a major city for the Christians under Islamic rule in Spain. He is believed to have had contacts with Beatus of Liébana, from the Kingdom of Asturias, who fought against Adoptionism. At the Council of Frankfurt in 794, Alcuin upheld the orthodox doctrine and obtained the condemnation of the heresiarch Felix of Urgel. Having failed during his stay in Northumbria to influence King Æthelred in the conduct of his reign, Alcuin never returned home.

He was back at Charlemagne's court by at least mid 792, writing a series of letters to Æthelred, to Hygbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury in the succeeding months, which dealt with the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in July 792. These letters and Alcuin's poem on the subject De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii provide the only significant contemporary account of these events.

In his description of the Viking attack, he wrote:- "Never before has such terror appeared in Britain. Behold the church of St Cuthbert, splattered with the blood of God's priests, robbed of its ornaments."

Tours and death[link]

In 796 Alcuin was in his sixties. He hoped to be free from court duties and was given the chance upon the death of Abbot Itherius of Saint Martin at Tours, when Charlemagne put Marmoutier Abbey into Alcuin's care, with the understanding that he should be available if the king ever needed his counsel.

Alcuin died on 19 May 804, some ten years before the emperor, and was buried at St. Martin’s Church under an epitaph that partly read:

Dust, worms, and ashes now...
Alcuin my name, wisdom I always loved,
Pray, reader, for my soul.

Carolingian Renaissance figure and legacy[link]

Literary influence[link]

Alcuin made the abbey school into a model of excellence and many students flocked to it. He had many manuscripts copied using outstandingly beautiful calligraphy, the Carolingian minuscule based on round and legible uncial letters. He wrote many letters to his English friends, to Arno, bishop of Salzburg and above all to Charlemagne. These letters (of which 311 are extant) are filled mainly with pious meditations, but they form an important source of information as to the literary and social conditions of the time and are the most reliable authority for the history of humanism during the Carolingian age. Alcuin trained the numerous monks of the abbey in piety and it was in the midst of these pursuits that he died.

Alcuin is the most prominent figure of the Carolingian Renaissance, in which three main periods have been distinguished: in the first of these, up to the arrival of Alcuin at the court, the Italians occupy a central place; in the second, Alcuin and the Anglo-Saxons are dominant; in the third (from 804), the influence of Theodulf, the Visigoth is preponderant.

We owe to him, too, manuals used in his educational work - a grammar and works on rhetoric and dialectics. They are written in the form of dialogues and in two of them the interlocutors are Charlemagne and Alcuin. He wrote several theological treatises: a De fide Trinitatis, commentaries on the Bible, etc.

Alcuin transmitted to the Franks the knowledge of Latin culture which had existed in Anglo-Saxon England. A number of his works still exist. His letters and his poetry are equally interesting. Besides some graceful epistles in the style of Venantius Fortunatus, he wrote some long poems and notably he is the author of a history (in verse) of the church at York, Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis Eboracensis ecclesiae.

Mathematician[link]

The textbook Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes^[10] is usually attributed to Alcuin.^[11][12] It contains about 53 mathematical word problems (with solutions), in no particular pedagogical order. Among the most famous of these problems are: four that involve river crossings, including the problem of three jealous husbands, each of whom can't let another man be alone with his wife^[13] (Problem 17); the problem of the wolf, goat, and cabbage (Problem 18); and the problem of "the two adults and two children where the children weigh half as much as the adults" (Problem 19).

Legacy[link]

In several churches of the Anglican Communion, Alcuin is celebrated on 20 May, the first available day after the day of his death (as Dunstan is celebrated on 19 May).

Alcuin College, one of the colleges of the University of York, England, is named after him.

Quotations[link]

• "potius animam curare memento, quam carnem, quoniam haec manet, illa perit."

  'Better to take (good/more) care of the soul rather than the body (flesh), for the former remains, the latter perishes.'

• "Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit."

  'And don't listen to people who keep saying 'the Voice of the people is the voice of God', popular riotousness which is always nearly mad.'

Selected works[link]

The following list is partially based on an overview by Robert Levine and Whitney Bolton

Poetry

• Carmina, ed. Ernst Dümmler. Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini. vol 1. Berlin, 1881.
  • Godman, Peter (tr.). Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. 118-49.
  • Isbell, Harold (tr.). The Last Poets of Imperial Rome. Baltimore: Penguin, 1971.
• Epitaph for Cone
• Poem on York, Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis Eboracensis ecclesiae, ed. and tr. Peter Godman, De pontificibus et sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracensis, The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
• De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii, "On the destruction of the monastery of Lindisfarne

Epistolae (Letters)

Of Alcuin's letters, just over 310 have survived.

• Dümmler, Ernst (ed.). 'Alkuini Epistolae' in MGH Epistolae IV (Berlin 1895) 1-493.
• Jaffe, Philipp, Ernst Dümmler, W. Wattenbach (eds.). Monumenta Alcuiniana, Berlin, Weidmann, 1873, pp. 132–897.
• Chase, Colin (ed.). Two Alcuin Letter-books. Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1975.
• Allott, Stephen (tr.). Alcuin of York, c. AD 732 to 804. His life and letters. York, 1974.
• Sturgeon, Thomas G. (tr.). The Letters of Alcuin: Part One, the Aachen Period (762-796). Harvard University Ph.D. Thesis, 1953.
• Dorothy Whitelock (tr.), English Historical Documents.

Didactic works

• Ars grammatica
• De orthographia, ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini VII, 1880. 295-312.
• De dialectica
• Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico "Dialogue of Pepin, the Most Noble and Royal Youth, with the Teacher Albinus", ed. L.W. Daly and W. Suchier, Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi. Urbana, 1939. 134-46; ed. Wilhelm Wilmanns, "Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico." Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 14 (1869): 530-55, 562.
• Disputatio de rhetorica et de virtutibus sapientissimi regis Carli et Albini magistri, ed. and tr. Wilbur Samuel Howell, The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne. New York: Russell and Russell, 1965 (1941); ed. C. Halm, Rhetorici Latini Minores. 1863. 523-50.
• De virtutibus et vitiis, also De vitiis et virtutum (moral treatise dedicated to Count Wido of Brittany, 799 x 800), ed. J.P. Migne. PL 101. Paris, 1851. 613-639 (transcript available online). A new critical edition is being prepared for the Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis.
• De animae ratione (ad Eulaliam virginem) (written for Gundrada, Charlemagne's cousin)
• De Cursu et Saltu Lunae ac Bissexto, astronomical treatise.

Hagiography

• Vita II Vedastis episcopi Atrebatensis. Revision of the earlier Vita Vedastis by Jonas of Bobbio.
• Vita Richarii confessoris Centulensis. Revision of an earlier anonymous life.
• Vita Willibrordi archiepiscopi Traiectensis, ed. W. Levison, Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici. MGH Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 7/2. Hanover, 1920. 81–141.

See also[link]

Saints portal

• Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes
• Carolingian art
• Carolingian Empire
• Category: Carolingian period
• Correctory

Notes[link]

Secondary sources[link]

• Bullough, Donald. Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation. Leiden, 2003.
• Bullough, Donald. "Alcuin." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain from the entry "Alcuin or Ealhwine" in: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.

Further reading[link]

• Frederick Lorenz. The life of Alcuin (Thomas Hurst, 1837).
• Rolph Barlow Page. The Letters of Alcuin (New York: Forest Press, 1909).
• E. M. Wilmot-Buxton. Alcuin (P J Kennedy, 1922).
• Stephen Allot. Alcuin of York, his life and letters ISBN 0-900657-21-9
• Andrew Fleming West. Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools (C. Sscribner's Sons, 1912) ISBN 0-8371-1635-X
• Eleanor Shipley Duckett. Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne, (1951)
• Eleanor Shipley Duckett. Carolingian Portraits, (1962)
• F. L. Ganshof. The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy ISBN 0-582-48227-5
• John Boswell.Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality ISBN 0-226-06710-6
• Brian P. McGuire. Friendship, and Community: The Monastic Experience ISBN 0-87907-895-2
• Thomas Stehling. Medieval Latin Love Poems of Male Love and Friendship,
• Peter Godman. Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance ISBN 0-7156-1768-0
• Throop, Priscilla, trans. Alcuin: His Life; On Virtues and Vices; Dialogue with Pepin (Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2011)

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Alcuin

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alcuin

• Browne, G. F. (1908). Alcuin of York. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. http://books.google.com/?id=ho8QGIF5py8C. Retrieved 2008-08-08. 
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Alcuin", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Alcuin.html .
• Alcuin's book, Problems for the Quickening of the Minds of the Young
• Introduction to Alcuin's writings by Robert Levine and Whitney Bolton
• The Alcuin Society
• Anglo-Saxon York on History of York site
• Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis: new critical editions in preparation
• Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography

Prince Harry
Prince Harry at the Official Press Launch for Walking With The Wounded, 1 March 2010.
Full name
Henry Charles Albert David
House	House of Windsor
Father	Charles, Prince of Wales
Mother	Diana, Princess of Wales
Born	(1984-09-15) 15 September 1984 (age 27) St Mary's Hospital, London
Religion	Church of England

Prince Henry of Wales (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984), commonly known as Prince Harry,^[1] is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. As such, he is third in the line of succession (behind his father and elder brother) to the thrones of sixteen independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms. Consequently, as heir to the British throne, specifically, he is also third in line, again behind his father and elder brother, to the position Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

After an education at various schools around the United Kingdom and spending parts of his gap year in Australia and Lesotho, Harry, unlike his elder brother, Prince William, eschewed a university education in favour of following in the footsteps of various royal men by enrolling in the military. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry Regiment—serving temporarily with his brother—and completed his training as a tank commander. He served for 77 days on the front line in the Afghan War,^[2] although he was pulled out following publication of the story in an Australian magazine.^[3]

Early life[link]

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms
HM The Queen HRH The Duke of Edinburgh HRH The Prince of Wales HRH The Duchess of Cornwall HRH The Duke of Cambridge HRH The Duchess of Cambridge HRH Prince Harry of Wales HRH The Duke of York HRH Princess Beatrice of York HRH Princess Eugenie of York HRH The Earl of Wessex HRH The Countess of Wessex Viscount Severn Lady Louise Windsor HRH The Princess Royal HRH The Duke of Gloucester HRH The Duchess of Gloucester HRH The Duke of Kent HRH The Duchess of Kent HRH Prince Michael of Kent HRH Princess Michael of Kent HRH Princess Alexandra Sarah, Duchess of York
v t e

Harry was born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, England, on 15 September 1984. He was baptised at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, by then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. Harry's godparents were Prince Andrew (his paternal uncle); Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (his paternal cousin once removed); Lady Vestey; Mrs. William Bartholomew; Bryan Organ; and Gerald Ward.^[4]

Persistent suggestions, based on a similarity of hair colour, have been made that Harry's father is not Charles but James Hewitt, with whom Diana had an affair. However, red hair is known to be a Spencer family trait, and Hewitt stated to the press in 2002 that Harry had already been born by the time his affair with Diana began, a statement corroborated by Diana's police bodyguard.^[5][6]

There really is no possibility whatsoever that I am Harry's father. I can absolutely assure you that I am not…I can understand the interest but Harry was already walking by the time my relationship with Diana began. Admittedly the red hair is similar to mine and people say we look alike. I have never encouraged these comparisons and although I was with Diana for a long time I must state once and for all that I'm not Harry's father.

—James Hewitt^[7]

Diana wanted William and Harry to have a broader range of experiences than previous royal children and took both to venues that ranged from Disney World and McDonald's to AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless.^[8] Diana, Princess of Wales, who was by then divorced from the Prince of Wales, died in a car collision in 1997. Harry, his brother and their father were staying at Balmoral Castle at the time, and the Prince of Wales waited until early the following morning to tell his sons about their mother's death.^[9] At his mother's funeral, Harry accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather, and maternal uncle in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.^[10]

Education[link]

Like his father and elder brother, Harry was educated at public schools, starting at Jane Mynors' nursery school^[11] and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London. Following this, he attended Ludgrove School, and, after passing the entrance exams, was admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, art history, and art at A-Level. The decision to place Harry in Eton went against the family tradition of sending royal children to Gordonstoun (Harry's grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins all attended); it did, however, make the Prince follow in the Spencer family footsteps, as both Diana's father and brother had attended Eton.^[8] In June 2003, he completed his education at Eton with two A-Levels^[12] having decided to drop history of art after AS level.^[13] He excelled in sports, particularly polo and rugby union.^{[citation needed]}.

After graduation, Harry took a gap year, during which he spent time in Australia, working (as his father had done in his youth) on a cattle station and participating in the Young England vs Young Australia Polo Test Match.^[14] He also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom.^[8]

Royal duties and career[link]

Prince Harry began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age; his first overseas royal tour was with his parents to Italy in 1985.^[15] The earlier decision made by the Princess of Wales to take an infant William to Australia set the precedent for young royal children going on official visits.^[8] Harry then accompanied either both parents or his father on subsequent tours, though he did not begin solo official engagements until after his military training and active service. In August 1995, at the age of 10, Prince Harry attended the 50th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day at the Cenotaph in London. There he saluted the officers in the military parade, one of the most important ceremonies in the royal family agenda. In 2008, he began to undertake royal visits to schools and organisations in Wales.^[16]

Military career[link]

Prince Harry entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 8 May 2005, where he was known as Officer Cadet Wales, and joined the Alamein Company.^[17] Within a year, in April 2006, Harry completed his officer's training and was commissioned as a Cornet in the Blues and Royals, a regiment of the Household Cavalry in the British Army.^[18] By April 2008, whereupon he reached two years' seniority, Harry was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

Officer Cadet Wales (standing to attention next to the horse) on parade at Sandhurst, 21 June 2005

The British Ministry of Defence and Clarence House made a joint announcement on 22 February 2007 that Prince Harry would be deployed with his regiment to the front line in Iraq, to serve as part of the 1st Mechanised Brigade of the 3rd Mechanised Division – a move supported by Harry, who had stated that he would leave the army if he was told to remain in safety while his regiment went to war;^[19] he said: "There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country."^[20] Then head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, first said on 30 April 2007 that he had personally decided that the Prince would serve with his unit in Iraq,^[21] and Harry was scheduled for deployment in May or June 2007, to patrol the Maysan province.^[22] By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq;^[23] concerns included Harry being a high-value target (as several threats by various groups have already been made against him) and the dangers the soldiers around him would face should any attempt be made on the Prince's life or capture. Clarence House made public the Prince's disappointment with the decision, though he said he would abide by it.^[24] In May 2007, British soldiers in Iraq were reported to be wearing t-shirts bearing the statement "I'm Harry!"; a reference to the scene in the movie Spartacus in which the survivors of Spartacus's army, defeated by Roman legions, are offered leniency by Crassus if they will identify their leader. Every survivor declares: "I'm Spartacus!"^[25]

It was reported, in early June 2007, that Prince Harry had arrived in Canada to train, alongside soldiers of the Canadian Forces and British Army, at Canadian Forces base Suffield, near Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was said that this was in preparation for a tour of duty in Afghanistan, where Canadian and British forces were participating in the NATO led Afghan War;^[26] rumours that were confirmed in February the following year, when the British Ministry of Defence revealed that Harry had secretly been deployed as a Forward Air Controller to Helmand Province in the Asian country.^[27] The revelation came after the media – notably, the German newspaper Bild and Australian magazine New Idea^[28][29] – breached the blackout placed over the information by the Canadian and British authorities.^[30] It was later reported that, while in Afghanistan, Harry had called in United States Air Force air strikes,^[31] helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents,^[32] and performed patrol duty in hostile areas.^[33] His tour came 735 years after his ancestor, Edward I of England (then Prince Edward), had also been on military duty in the Middle East during the Ninth crusade,^[34] and also made Harry the first member of the Royal Family to have served in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, flew helicopters during the Falklands War. For his service, Prince Harry was decorated with the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan by his aunt, the Princess Royal, at the Combermere Barracks in May 2008.^[35]

In October 2008, the news was revealed that Prince Harry was to follow his brother, father, and uncle with the wish to fly military helicopters. After passing the initial aptitude test, he was to undertake a month-long course; depending on whether or not he passed that course he would proceed onto full flight training in early 2009.^[36] Harry had to pass his flying assessment at the Army Air Corps Base (AAC), Middle Wallop, the result of which determined if he would pass on to train as a pilot of either the Apache, Lynx, or Gazelle helicopter.^[37]

Prince Harry was presented with his flying brevet (wings) by his father, on 7 May 2010 at a ceremony at the Army Air Corps Base (AAC), Middle Wallop. Prince Harry had also let it be known that he intended to fly Apache attack helicopters if he was successful in passing the rigorous Apache training course; after which time it could be possible for him to see active military service once again on the frontline in one of the warzones.^[38] During the ceremony, he switched his Blues and Royals' Officer's Service Dress cap for that of the Army Air Corps' sky blue beret with a Blues and Royals badge.

Prince Harry greeting people, 28 April 2011

On 10 March 2011, it was revealed that Prince Harry had passed his Apache flying test and he was awarded his Apache Flying Badge on 14 April 2011. There is speculation that he shall return to Afghanistan once again before the withdrawal in 2015. On 16 April 2011 it was announced that Prince Harry had been promoted to the Army rank of Captain after having held the rank of Lieutenant since 2008.^[39]

In June 2011, Clarence House announced that Prince Harry on completion of his training conversion course to use Apache helicopters in the war arena would be available for deployment, including in current operations in Afghanistan in his role as an Apache helicopter pilot. The final decision will ultimately rest with the Ministry of Defence's senior commanders including principally the Chief of the Defence Staff in consultation with the wishes of Harry, his father the Prince of Wales and The Queen.^[40] In October, Prince Harry was transferred to a US military base in California to complete his helicopter gunship training. This final phase will include live-fire training as well as "environmental and judgment training" at naval and air force facilities in California and Arizona. The majority of those completing the two-month Apache training are deployed to the front lines in Afghanistan.^[41] In the same month it was reported that Prince Harry was said to be a natural pilot who was reportedly top of his class in the extensive training he had undertaken at the Naval Air Facility, El Centro, California.^[42] On November 2011, Prince Harry returned to England from military training in the United States. Next, he will head to Wattisham Flying Station in Suffolk, southeast England, to complete his training to fly Apache helicopters.^[43]

Royal duties[link]