This film is part of Free
Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle
Glimpses of the elaborate ceremony in Gwynedd as the future King Edward VIII is crowned Prince of Wales.
Overview
Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, where the future King Edward VIII is crowned Prince of Wales. Having the investiture ceremony in Wales itself was not traditional: it was essentially the invention of David Lloyd George and later repeated - heavily filmed of course - in 1969 with Prince Charles. These glimpses of the 1911 ceremony come early in the long history of media coverage of royal events.
By 1911 the film industry was already accustomed to giving viewers access to moving images of formal Royal occasions. Both the funeral of Queen Victoria and the coronation of the Prince's father Edward VII were milestones for the British film industry, with the cameras of several different companies present to capture them on celluloid. Similarly, the Prince of Wales' investiture was filmed by at least five different producers, though we don't know which company shot this. (It is probably not by British Pathe, whose coverage survives in its own archive - and is shot from the opposite vantage point). The film is quite interesting technically: the shift from long to medium shot then back again is relatively advanced for 1911. High-angle shooting continued to be a familiar feature of film and TV coverage of Royal ceremonies for decades to come.
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