In just a few weeks, Prince George will see his life turn upside down, catapulted into the rarefied world of Britain’s most internationally famous boarding school, responsible for producing 20 British prime ministers, three Nobel laureates and a few Oscar winners to boot. The future king will no longer have “teachers,” they will instead be known as “beaks.” Drama classes will be in a professional-grade theater and uniforms will consist of a tailcoat and waistcoat, unless you’re one of the smartest scholars, who wear their credentials in the form of an academic gown. George is walking in his father Prince William’s footsteps and at age 13 will begin boarding at Eton College, the boys-only school near Windsor, in September—or Michaelmas, as the fall semester is called there.
A semester is called a half, yet there are three halves in a whole school year, such is the peculiar tradition at Eton. It all sounds a bit like Hogwarts, the fictional boarding school Harry Potter attended in the J.K. The move, announced in June, was expected among royal commentators but is striking for its departure from William’s carefully crafted image as the British royal family’s resident normal guy.
School fees are $85,000 a year, more than double what an average American first-time buyer puts down as a deposit on a home. It does slightly dent William’s image as being the sort of everyman prince because it is elitist,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother and I, told Newsweek. Eton admits around 250 boys aged 13-plus from around the world each year.
It is truly for the elite. This, coupled with his estranged brother Harry returning to live in the U.K. with his wife, Meghan, and their children, Archie and Lilibet, presents a challenge for Prince William, who is preparing to lead a monarchy with a popularity problem. Other polls are more favorable, but according to a June Ipsos survey, just 33 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds want to keep the crown, compared with 45 percent who would abolish it, though older generations are more positive.
While an April YouGov poll found William and Catherine to be the most-liked living royals, Harry and Meghan were the second and third least liked of the choices, just above disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Having his brother and sister-in-law in closer proximity risks taking the shine off William’s popularity. The Prince of Wales has long operated a novel solution to counter any negative perceptions in the form of aggressive relatability.
He enjoys a drink in the pub—cider is his tipple—and he loves soccer. He supports Aston Villa, not a team for glory hunters, though they did recently win the Europa League, Europe’s second-tier club competition. He does the school run and enjoys a visit to the English seaside, often with the media in tow.
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