On 13 June 1974, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords, the first time an heir to the throne had addressed the upper house in 90 years.

The 25-year-old prince chose to speak in a debate on sport and leisure, highlighting the need for better recreational facilities and opportunities for young people. Specifically, the debate concerned the recent publications of the House of Lords select committee on sport and leisure.

Charles was first introduced to the House on 11 February 1970.

In delivering his maiden speech, Charles was breaking an extended period of princely silence.

The last Prince of Wales to have delivered a speech in the Lords was the future King Edward VII on 22 February 1884. In his contribution, Prince Albert gave his full support to the establishment of a Royal Commission to conduct a “searching inquiry” into the housing of the poor and working classes.

He expressed his “keenest and liveliest interest” in the subject, telling the House that upon acquiring his Norfolk estate 21 years previously, he had found some of dwellings to be in a “most deplorable condition”.

Albert added: “Only a few days ago I visited two of the poorest courts and districts in St Pancras and in Holborn, where I can assure your Lordships that the condition of the poor, or rather of their dwellings, was perfectly disgraceful.”

Albert also spoke in favour of legislation that would allow a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister on at least three occasions. There is no indication that the future king had any personal stake in the measure, and his efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful.

On 6 May 1879, Albert presented a petition “signed by 3,258 farmers of Norfolk, praying for the legalisation of marriage with a deceased wife’s sister.”

He stated: “I present it, my Lords, on local as well as on general grounds. It is my firm conviction that if [the Marriage With A Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill] passed it would be of advantage to the community at large; and I shall, therefore, give my hearty support to the noble Lord who moves the second reading of the bill tonight.”

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Some 90 years later, Prince Charles spoke from the crossbenches for 16 minutes. It came during a debate on a report produced by the House of Lords select committee on sport and leisure.

Charles began with a historical reference, noting that the last time multiple royals had participated in a debate was in 1829.

The Prince of Wales told his fellow peers: “Each got up one after the other and attacked each other so vehemently and used such bad language that the House was shocked into silence”.

Gesturing to his cousin the Duke of Kent, who was sitting on his right, he promised not to “use the same tactics”.

He added: “I also discovered that the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV, appeared one day to take his seat – although he did not actually speak – and he arrived exquisitely dressed in black velvet, lined with pink satin and embroidered in gold and wearing shoes with pink heels.”

In his speech, the Prince of Wales focused on the need for better co-ordination of leisure facilities to meet the challenge of “removing the dead hand of boredom and frustration from mankind”.

He criticised the current “haphazard” approach of “relying on people’s innate good will and common sense.”

However, the prince clarified that his call for coordination was not an appeal for state control. He told the House that the committee report did not suggest the installation of a “gauleiter in plimsolls” but rather a “Warden in Wellingtons”.

He added: “My Lords, there is inevitably a danger here of finding ourselves trying to tell people how their leisure time should be spent. This is not the object at all. But I do believe that if leisure time is employed anti-socially by some people it is therefore well worth while trying to channel that anti-social recreation into more healthy pastimes.”

He argued that with more people chasing fewer recreational facilities, a coordinated strategy was now essential to prevent “a state of complete chaos developing in a very short time.”

Charles also referred to concerns “about the lack of overall planning and the shortage of funds for the provision of adequate facilities”.

Moreover, the future king recommended that the current minister for sport “could quite easily become the minister for recreation or the minister for leisure” which, he said, “would be a far more apt title.”

Charles expressed a particular interest in “dual use”, arguing that it was a waste of resources for school sports facilities to stand idle during the holidays. He told the peers that such buildings “ for a substantial part of the year” were “basically wasted”.

His contribution prefigured concerns that would inform the work of The Prince’s Trust, founded two years later.

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After the speech, Lord Shepherd, the leader of the House, said that in all his experience he could not recall a speech of such character.

He said: “My Lords, the Prince of Wales sought the sympathy of your Lordships’ House in making his maiden speech.

“I would suggest, with all respect, that your Lordships should forget that plea and transfer it to me, called upon to follow him; because in all my experience in your Lordships’ House I do not recall a speech of such character and so beautifully delivered.

“I suspect that one will have to wait very many years before hearing another of its kind.”

Shepherd announced that the government would produce a white paper on the subject – the first time a government had ever committed to a white paper in response to a lords select committee report.

Charles spoke again on 25 June 1975, arguing for the importance of voluntary service in the community and, incidentally, against the reintroduction of national service.

He said: “One of the arguments I have often heard in favour of national service – and, incidentally, of its re-introduction – was that it gave young people a taste of discipline when they most needed it, and also a taste of adventure, if they were lucky.

“The point I am getting at is not that national service should be re-introduced – there is no reasonable or logical justification for a start – but that somehow we ought to be thinking in terms of re-creating some of the challenges of war within a peacetime situation, so that adolescents in particular can discover themselves and their individual capabilities through the challenge of adventure and hardship.”

He added: “It seems to me that the problems we suffer from in society, as a result of violence, mugging and general anti-social behaviour on the part of younger people, are partly due to a lack of outlets into which pent-up energy and frustration and a desire for adventure can be properly channelled.”

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Members of the royal family lost their automatic right to sit in the House of Lords under the House of Lords Act 1999. This reform, enacted by Tony Blair’s government, removed the right of most hereditary peers to sit and vote in the upper chamber.

Under the 1999 act, the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip), the Duke of York (Prince Andrew), the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and the Earl of Wessex lost their seats in the upper chamber.

Lord Snowdon, the husband of Princess Margaret (sister of Queen Elizabeth II), accepted the offer of a life peerage. Since Lord Snowdon’s retirement from the Lords, there have been no members of the royal family in the upper House.

Charles’ 1974 contribution therefore marked the last maiden speech delivered by an heir to the throne in the House of Lords.