Duchy of Cornwall

The Duchy of Cornwall (Cornish: Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits possession of the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at birth or when his/her parent succeeds to the throne, but may not sell assets for personal benefit and has limited rights and income as a minor. If the monarch has no male children, the rights and responsibilities of the duchy belong to The Crown and there is no Duke. The current duke is Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

The principal activity of the duchy is the management of its land totalling 135,000 acres or 550 km². Nearly half of the holdings are in Devon, with other large holdings in Cornwall, Herefordshire, Somerset and almost all of the Isle of Scilly. The duchy also has a financial investments portfolio. For the fiscal year ending 31 March 2013, the duchy was valued at £763 million, and annual profit was £19 million, a revenue surplus gain of 4.1% from the previous year.

Cornwall

Cornwall (/ˈkɔːrnwɔːl/ or /ˈkɔːrnwəl/;Cornish: Kernow, [ˈkɛɹnɔʊ]) is a county in England.

Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of 536,000 and covers an area of 3,563 km² (1,376 sq mi). The administrative centre, and only city in Cornwall, is Truro, although the town of Falmouth has the largest population for a civil parish and the conurbation of Camborne, Pool and Redruth has the highest total population.

Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and a large part of the Cornubian batholith is within Cornwall. This area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, and later (in the Iron Age) by Brythons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Wales and Brittany. There is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. Cornwall was the home of a division of the Dumnonii tribe – whose tribal centre was in the modern county of Devon – known as the Cornovii, separated from the Brythons of Wales after the Battle of Deorham, often coming into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of Wessex before King Athelstan in AD 936 set the boundary between English and Cornish at the high water mark of the eastern bank of the River Tamar. From the early Middle Ages, British language and culture was apparently shared by Brythons trading across both sides of the Channel, evidenced by the corresponding high medieval Breton kingdoms of Domnonée and Cornouaille and the Celtic Christianity common to both territories.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, KG, KT, ADC(P) (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He is second in line to succeed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, after his father.

William was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize, and Africa. In December 2006, he completed 44 weeks of training as an officer cadet, being commissioned in the Blues and Royals Regiment. In April 2008, he qualified as a pilot (earning his wings) by completing pilot training at Royal Air Force College Cranwell. He then underwent helicopter flying training in order to become a full-time pilot with the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. His more than seven-and-a-half years of full-time service with the British Armed Forces ended in September 2013.

William married Catherine Middleton, on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Hours prior to the event, he was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus. Their first child, Prince George of Cambridge, was born on 22 July 2013, and their second, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, was born on 2 May 2015.

Charles, Prince of Wales

Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948), is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. Known alternatively in Scotland as Duke of Rothesay and in South West England as Duke of Cornwall, he is the longest-serving heir apparent in British history, having held the position since 1952. He is also the oldest person to be next-in-line to the throne since Sophia of Hanover (the heir presumptive to Queen Anne), who died in 1714 at the age of 83.

Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun Schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child, as well as the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976.

In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer and they had two sons: Prince William (born 1982) later to become Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry (born 1984). In 1996, the couple divorced, following well-publicised extra-marital affairs. Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, who uses the title Duchess of Cornwall.

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales (Welsh: Tywysog Cymru) was a title granted to princes born in Wales from the 12th century onwards; the term replaced the use of the word king. One of the last Welsh princes, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was killed in battle in 1282 by Edward I, king of England, whose son Edward, born in Caernarfon Castle, was invested as Prince of Wales: the first English person to claim the title.

Since the 13th century, the title is granted to the heir apparent to the English or British monarch, but the failure to be granted the title does not affect the rights to royal succession. The title is granted to the royal heir apparent as a personal honour or dignity, and the title is not heritable, merging with the Crown on accession to the throne. The title Earl of Chester is always given in conjunction with that of Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales usually has other titles and honours.

The current Prince of Wales is Prince Charles, the eldest son of Elizabeth II, who is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other independent Commonwealth realms as well as Head of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations. The wife of the Prince of Wales is entitled to the title Princess of Wales. Prince Charles' first wife, Diana, used that title but his second wife, Camilla, uses only the title Duchess of Cornwall because the other title has become so popularly associated with Diana.