The letter written by the 70-year-old was shared on the Clarence House Instagram account prompting fans to complain about Prince Charles’ ‘American’ spelling of words such as ‘agonizing’ and ‘realize’. Some even thought daughter-in-law Meghan Markle or her new communications director Sara Latham could have penned the words, as both are from the US.

My wife and I were utterly heartbroken to learn of the terrible fire at Notre-Dame cathedral this evening

Prince Charles

However, it is believed the future King enjoys using Old English from the 15th century, which was when words would be spelled with ‘ice’ rather than ‘ise’.

One Instagram user, tinkerbellionx, said: “Is this really from Clarence House? Lots of American spellings rather than ’agonising’ ‘civilisation’ etc!”

Another Clarence House fan, Ruth Cecilia, said: “He definitely used the default US Microsoft word spell check.”

However a linguistic expert has explained this type of spelling is still used by the Oxford University Press and comes from the Ancient Greek suffix.

David Adger, Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London, said to the Daily Mail: “The -ize spelling is a pretty accurate representation of the Ancient Greek suffix from which it derives, which was roughly pronounced -idzo.

“It’s still used by, for example, Oxford University Press, instead of the more standard -ise.

“However, for words that don’t come from that Ancient Greek affix, like analyse, for example, Oxford University Press sticks with the -se spelling, while American English has generalised even those words.”

In the wake of the Notre Dame fire, Prince Charles’ letter said: “My wife and I were utterly heartbroken to learn of the terrible fire at Notre-Dame cathedral this evening and wanted to let you know immediately how much we were thinking of yourself and the French people at this most agonizing of times, and of the emergency services who are so bravely tackling the blaze.

“I realize only too well what a truly special significance the Cathedral holds at the heart of your nation; but also for us all outside France it represents one of the greatest architectural achievements of Western Civilization.”

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