UK Edition
The Duke of York could have been heir to the throne today had it not been for a lucky escape by the Prince of Wales when he was "run over" by a bus.
The Prince revealed for the first time that he was hit by the vehicle while cycling in Cambridge city centre when he was a student there in the 1960s.
The accident happened outside the Fitzwilliam Museum, to which he returned today to mark its bicentenary.
He said in a speech to invited dignitaries: "Quite how I survived being run over by a bus when I was on a bicycle just outside here I don't know."
The Prince did not expand on the anecdote, and his staff said it was the first time he had ever mentioned it, to the best of their knowledge.
The Prince studied archaeology and anthropology at Trinity College from 1967 to 1970, changing his course to history part way through and leaving with a 2:2 degree.
He said: "For me it's always the greatest pleasure to come back to Cambridge. I've always felt so lucky to be able to study at this university. It all went by in a flash and I'm horrified to realise that very shortly, next year in fact, it will be fifty years since I arrived!
"All I can say is time goes past unbelievably quickly... but I enjoyed it enormously
"Quite how I survived being run over by a bus when I was on a bicycle just outside here I don't know. But it was a very special experience, as most of you probably know. "
The Prince, who was the first heir to the throne ever to take a degree, joined Trinity's drama group, the Dryden Society, during his student days and spoke at a Cambridge Union debate, about the "threat" of technology.
He and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, returned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Fitzwilliam and the 600th anniversary of the Cambridge University Library.
Crammed full of artwork from Degas to Reynolds, the building is known as a 'mini Louvre' and one of the greatest small museums in Europe.
The couple viewed a first edition once owned by Charles Darwin of his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
The Duchess would love to have stayed longer, as she made clear when popping behind a display to examine some Monets close up.
She said: "I know we are meant to hurry but I just can't leave without looking at some of the art work. The range is just incredible."
She was also delighted when she got to hold a rare wax maquette of a Degas ballerina, Arabesque Over the Right Leg.