CHARITY shop workers were surprised to discover a royal invitation in a box of donated bric-a-brac.

The 186-year-old invite for the coronation of King William IV and Queen Adelaide at Westminster Abbey was found by warehouse staff at the Julia’s House shop in Creekmoor, Poole.

The historic document was listed on the charity’s eBay page, and it quickly sold for £180 to a royal memorabilia collector in Nottinghamshire.

The invitation is addressed to Edward Harry Trelawny and bears the royal monograms of Adelaide and William, the oldest English king ever to be crowned.

“When I first saw it I thought ‘this looks interesting’,” said the warehouse worker who found the invitation.

“It was exciting to find as it’s special due to its age and royal connections.”

William IV was the third son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was made Duke of Clarence in 1789. At the age of 64, he became King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover following the death of his brother George IV on June 26, 1830. His reign saw several reforms including the abolition of slavery in nearly all of the British Empire and the restriction of child labour.

He married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen at Kew Palace on July 11, 1818.

Although the couple had a happy marriage, Queen Adelaide was unable to provide William with an heir; she had two daughters who died as infants.

William remained king until his death in 1837 and was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria, and in Hanover by his brother, Ernest Augustus.