To what extent did Charles III, when Prince of Wales, influence public policy? And what were the implications of his advocacy work for himself and the Crown?

The thesis highlights Prince Charles’s attempts to influence policy making on a wide variety of issues between 1967, when he was still studying for his A Levels, and 2022, when he became King. Although it touches upon the Prince’s interventions in a wide variety of policy areas, the case studies employed in the thesis focus in particular on his attempts to influence environmental policy and decision-making in architecture and urban planning. These mattered a great deal to Charles, and the case studies show the Prince was a highly effective lobbyist and campaigner who shaped public opinion and influenced the thinking of successive governments. This is not to say every one of the Prince’s initiatives was a success, and the thesis highlights those occasions when the Prince’s activism failed to achieve its aims. It will, however, demonstrate that the Prince repeatedly sought to influence policy making in key areas of national life. The Prince’s activism often attracted controversy, not least because he sometimes went out of his way to challenge government policy in public. And it was frequently claimed that the Prince’s actions challenged Queen Elizabeth II’s approach to the role of Sovereign and the supposed neutrality of the Crown in all things. This thesis argues, however, that such criticism was unfair and misleading and was based on a fundamental misreading of the roles of the Prince of Wales and the Sovereign. The thesis argues that the Prince’s actions were not only in keeping with constitutional propriety, but they also actually helped him usefully redefine the role of Prince of Wales for his successors.