Card of the Day: The Investiture of the Prince of Wales

When Wills’s Cigarette Company created a series of fifty trading cards in honor of the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary, they did an excellent job in making sure that everyone in the Royal Family was depicting in the group. This card shows the Investiture of the Prince of Wales—the man who would be King—briefly. Of course, now we know how that worked out. The future King Edward VIII abdicated the throne and was succeeded by his brother who was called King George VI.


The reverse of the card says:

THE INVESTITURE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES

When the Prince of Wales assumed his title on July 13, 1911, he was the first Heir to the Throne for 600 years to whose Investiture had taken place within the Principality. The superb ceremony was enacted in Carnarvon Castle, that stronghold where according to tradition, the first Edward showed the first Prince of Wales to the native Chieftains. When the King had invested his son with a mantle and other insignia, and when the Prince had acknowledged himself as the King’s ‘liege man,’ he was presented to the people at the castle gates; and, later drove forth in full regalia through the decorated streets packed with cheering crowds.