United States, the character's name was altered to "Charles Gurney Hampton". As he is the younger of twins (by a mere nine minutes), he does not inherit his father's peerage, shares in a merchant bank, a castle in Scotland or the 20,000-acre (80 km2) family estate. Missing out on such opulence, wealth and power to his harmless brother Rupert whom he despises (a feeling which his brother does not appear to share) leaves him bitter. Education Charles went to Eton College. After leaving school he progressed to Christ Church at the University of Oxford to read history. One night he heard a speech given by then-Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. He was so inspired by the speech that he decided to do everything he could to become Prime Minister. Early political career An implacably ambitious and scheming man, Charles was elected the Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Sussex Downs with a majority in excess of 20,000 votes in the 1964 United Kingdom general election. He set about making himself stand out amongst the new intake of Conservative MPs. He ruthlessly backed Edward Heath for the leadership of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Sir Alec Douglas-Home simply because Heath was most likely to lead the party. His tactics paid off; Heath was elected leader and Charles was rewarded by being elevated to the front bench. His early posts included a stint in the Shadow Chief Whip's Office and the Shadow Local Government and Housing Department. Political rival Charles Seymour always predicted Simon Kerslake was "the only one of his contemporaries who could prevent him from leading the party." He therefore set about to wreck Kerslake's career. He tried to bankrupt him, leaked any scandals he could find about Kerslake, abused his powers as Junior Whip to ensure that Kerslake was absent on crucial votes in the House of Commons, thus causing him to lose favour with the leader, and unsuccessfully attempted to block Kerslake's bid to return to the Commons after his seat was abolished by boundary changes. Cabinet career Although he did not support her in the leadership election following the forced resignation of Edward Heath, Charles later served under Margaret Thatcher as Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary. Leadership contest Charles attempted to succeed Thatcher as Conservative Leader following her resignation. He stood against Kerslake and the foppish MP Alec Pimkin for the leadership. He topped