Prince Charles is one of the most educated members of the royal family. He was also the first royal to attend boarding school because those that came before him were homeschooled. However, Prince Charles’ experiences at Gordonstoun weren’t all pleasant. In fact, there are reports that he was bullied in school.
Prince Charles Detailed The Bullying He Experienced At Gordonstoun In A Letter
According to previous accounts, Prince Charles wrote a letter back home when he was just 15 years old and said that some of his peers threw their slippers at him.
“I hardly get any sleep in the House because I snore and I get hit on the head all the time. It’s absolute hell. The people in my dormitory are foul. They throw slippers all night long or hit me with pillows ... I wish I could come home,” he wrote (via Geo. TV).
According to Daily Mail, the future king was also punched by his schoolmates while he was asleep. And he was also, reportedly, bullied mercilessly because of his ears.
“Charles was mocked relentlessly about his ears, which were larger than average and somewhat protruding. He had no defenses available to him, save a stubborn refusal to complain either to the perpetrators or to his housemaster,” an insider said.
His former schoolmate, William Boyd described Gordonstoun as a penal servitude and said that he heard from the heir to the throne that he detested going to the boarding school. Unfortunately, Prince Charles didn’t have much say on where he would do because it was Prince Philip that wanted him to enroll at Gordonstoun.
Royal correspondent Ross Benson also claimed that Prince Charles was bullied at Gordonstoun, and this left him feeling increasingly lonely.
“He was crushingly lonely for most of his time there. The wonder is that he survived with his sanity intact,” Benson said.
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Gordonstoun Principal Believes Prince Charles Was Shaped By The Institution
But even if Prince Charles’ time at Gordonstoun had its ups and downs, the boarding school’s principal, Lisa Kerr said that the institution helped shape Prince Charles.
“For everybody at Gordonstoun, it's a huge sense of pride to have been the first school to educate an heir to the British throne. What's more powerful for us is knowing that many of the attributes which Prince Charles takes forward as monarch were developed here at Gordonstoun,” she said.
When asked if she thinks that Prince Charles was happy at Gordonstoun, Kerr said that it’s highly likely for the future king to have experienced the good and the bad. But she also said that she understands why the media is more fascinated with Prince Charles’ possible negative experiences.
“I suppose everyone's school days have their ups and downs, and it's probably no surprise that the downs are more interesting from a media perspective. But interestingly, Prince Charles himself has said that he's always astonished at the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun ... in many speeches, he's talked about the really positive impact that his time here had on his life,” she said.
Prince Charles Starred In Stage Plays At Gordonstoun But Failed To Impress Prince Philip
One of the things that Prince Charles enjoyed doing at Gordonstoun was joining plays. He previously portrayed the role of the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance.
At the age of 17, Prince Charles also starred in the play Macbeth and his parents traveled hours to watch his performance. But in a previous interview, Prince William and Prince Harry’s dad revealed that he heard his dad laughing at him.
“I had to lie on a fur rug and have a nightmare. All I could hear was my father and ‘ha, ha, ha.’ I went up to him at the end and said, ‘Why did you laugh?’ and he said: ‘It sounds like The Goons,’” Prince Charles said (via abc.net.au).
In her biography, Sally Bedell Smith said that it was like a dagger to the heart of a young boy that wanted nothing more than to please his father.
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