I myself cannot believe that I have really had an effect on people, particularly young ones... the immediate problem is to remain sane and sensible and try hard to do that. As long as I do not take myself too seriously, I should not be too badly off.... I relise the fickleness of the public. The trouble is they may expect too much of me, but I shall sertainly do my best even if they do.”

When Prince Charles wrote those words to Earl Mountbatten after his 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales, he could not have foreseen that almost three decades later, the same words could have been written by his son, Prince William.

But after events in Canada on what started out as a family skiing holiday, the same thoughts must be going through Wiliam’s 15 year-old mind. The trip was the frist occasion on which the future King had been exposed to the expectations of his future subjects and glimpses of the life that lies ahead of him. The adulation that was hurled at him by teenage girls confirmed that, for them at least, he has taken over from his late mother as the Royal superstar.

It certainly wasn’t a role he has sought, as since his mother’s funeral when the dignity shown by world warm towards them, hehas been spared running the gauntly of public appearances. The odd handshake with well-wishers outside Sandringham Church hardly comes into the category of what he walked into when he arrived at Vancouver’s Waterfront Centre Hotel half-an-hour after his father and brother.

Prince Charles and Harry had chatted with the noisy mainly teenage crowd that had gathered to greet the Royals, but when William appear thescreams that greeted him must have been something of a shock. His father had never had to confront that reception, even if those heady days three decades ago when he was installed as Prince of Wales. The world was different in 1969- and if we had forgotten, the welcome that rang in William’s ears in Vancouver was something of a salutary reminder.

No one could have predicted that William was to be suddenly elevated in the teenage pin-up statu- certainly not his father- but it will have emphasised to Prince Charles some serious rumination is on his agenda as he plans the future of both his sons after their mother’s tragic death and the scars that it must have inflicted on two boys of such tender years.

But the manner in which both boys handled a situation that no amount of formal training and advice could have prepared them for must have heartened their father. His mood throughout the short holiday was cheerful and outgoing- as it has been noticeably in his public apperances since Diana’s death- and perhaps it displayed a sense of relief that both William and Harry came across as confident, normal youngsters who were displaying a devotion in their relationship with their father.

Charles must have been relieved that even in the era of the Global Village, paparazzi and ever intrusive media, William and Harry were to be spared the ordeal he had suffered when he was a schoolboy at the bleak Gordonstoun school in north-east Scotland. His progress there was relentlessly monitored, desite a press that was much more deferential than in the Nineties, and climaxed in the famous “cherry brandy” incident.

On at 1936 sailing trip to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, Charles sneaked away from the attention of the media and well-wishers by slipping into a local hostelry. He felt he had to blend in, so he ordered a drink- and cherry brand was the first thing that came into his head. No sooner was the glass in his hand than in walked a journalist... and that was that, and the next day’s headlines around the world were determined. Charles, it should be noted, was the same age as William now.

The fuss and furore taht has surrounded that question of press intrution has meant that William’s schooldays, especially his time since he went to Eton, has been much easier that his father’s days in the bleak landscape of Gordonstoun.

The press promised to bheave themselves while the young Prince is there, and have done so. In the wake of Diana’s death, they would certainy bring down on their heads the wrath of the public and almost certain Government legislation on privacy if they hadm’t.

The long, drawn-out trauma of his arents’ seperation and eventual divorce may have split the word into two warring camps, but the behavious of the children- particularly William, as the elder and son-and-heir- did nothing to fan the flames of a debate that raged in bars and around dinnner tables the length and breadth of the land. Their dignity in a situation notorious for the total destruction of even the possibility of a normal family life won hearts and minds everywhere. Well might Diana have said to friends shortly before her death that “all my hopes are on William now...”

When William went to Eton in September 1995, he was breaking with Royal tadition on education. There were those who thought Eton was still “too establishment” to create a real precedent, but no on feels that it was a mistake- Charles must have been determined that his children’s schooldays, especially William’s, would not leave the scat tissue that Gordonstoun left on him.

The Eton house system seems to have provided the blend of community, privacy and pastoral care and, on the evidence so far, has been something of a sanctuary for William. He is winning swimming prizes, doing well academically and probably turning up at discreet private “discos”.

Cambridge would seem the next step for him, possibly with a year abroad at a Commonweath university- and judging by the events in Vancouner, there would be plenty of competition to offer William a place.

“Harry is the mischievous imp of the family,” their uncle Earl Spencer remarked as he watched the Princes grow up. “William is a very self-possessed, intelligent and mature by, and quite shy. He is quite formal and stiff, sounding older than his years when he answers the telephone.”

As all boys do, William adored his mother and in his character, for better or for wrose, there are very stong indications of Diana genes. No one try to suppress that for, like Diana, he has a charisma that attracts people, he deeply cares about people and enjoys meeting and reaching out at all levels.

Like his mother, whom he watches being slowly demoralised, he is a “free spirit” show ill flutter happily in any container but he could be stifled in a small, restrictive prison that many thing the Royal Family can be.

William needs ot be allowed to stretch and grow; if Lord Whatsit invites him to his stately pile, he sound go; if a schoolfriend from Eton says come hiking in the Rockies, he must be allowed to go- with one strong escort, not half Buckingham Palace.

Soon it will be the first anniversay of this tragic event; on the surface, he was coped will, but those close to him have noted some classic signs of grieving, which we all know from our own experience. William will remember that his other thought the world of him and his brother, Harry- every conversation started was peppered with references to “My boys....”; she knew they decreded the future in a goldfish bowl but urged them to remember that one day is would all be theirs and one of the great challenges of life must be to continue the important changes that will benefit everyone, Royals and subject.

In the next two years until he comes of age, he must watch, listen and clarify in his mind his own future which, as he and his father are wellaware, is also the future of the monarchy; his mother would be flattered to know that his father, the Prince of Wales, has shown since her death much more definite feelings and assurance over these matters.

William must support his father in these matters- or tell him why he doesn’t. After all, he could be that last hope for the House of Windsor.

Royalty Magazine 1998