Prince Edward was appointed to the Order of the Thistle, a new role the royal calls a ‘huge privilege’, at a private ceremony attended by King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William
King Charles has awarded his brother Prince Edward Scotland’s highest royal honour.
The youngest of the royal siblings was appointed to the Order of the Thistle at a special ceremony in Edinburgh on Wednesday. The accolade can only be bestowed by King Charles himself, with the Order made up of Knights and Ladies and royals.
Edward, who is a patron of Scottish charitable organisations including the Edinburgh International Festival, was joined by his wife Sophie at the private ceremony at St Giles Cathedral. The King, Prince William and knights took part in a procession to the chapel which saw members of the Order dressed in velvet robes and white plumed hats.
The award was announced to mark Edward’s 60th birthday earlier this year, coming two years after the death of his father Prince Philip, who had previously held the title. Princess Anne and Prince William are in the Order too, with the latest additions anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy and Scotland’s first black professor Sir Geoff Palmer.
It comes after Prince Edward and his wife Prince Edward have increased their royal workload due to the number of senior royals decreasing.
With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping back from their roles and Prince Andrew was stripped of his, there were less senior royals to attend big events. The gap has been even bigger this year due the King and Kate’s medical issues.
While Charles’ youngest brother was honoured by the King, his other brother Andrew was once again left out. The Duke of York was famously stripped of his military titles and patronages in 2022 amid accusations of sexual abuse, previously stepping down as a working member of the Royal Family in 2019 after a disastrous interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
William attended the ceremony while Anne was still recovering from her recent minor head injury and concussion thought to have been caused by a horse. Charles’s wife Camilla was installed as a Royal Lady of the Thistle too, with the King beginning the ceremony by saying: “It is our pleasure Her Majesty the Queen be installed a Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.”
The Queen is patron of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres, founded in Edinburgh in 1996 and now with centres across Scotland, England and Wales, as well as many other charities in Scotland.
Thrilled Edward told gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh on ITV’s Love Your Weekend that his new role was a ‘huge privilege’. “It’s just the weirdest and strangest feeling,” he said. “You walk into a room and, particularly still today, there are name places on a card and I still look around going: ‘Yes, but where am I sitting?'”
The Prince added that there was ‘quite a lot of weight of expectation as well… there’s an awful lot of legacy that came with that title’. It has been suggested The Order was established by King James VII of Scotland (James II) in 1687, with the royal website saying the honour is second only in precedence in England to the Order of the Garter.
Baroness Kennedy had advanced human rights and social justice around the world through her esteemed legal career, while Baroness Black’s pioneering career has seen her help conflict-torn countries, working in Kosovo in 1999 to investigate the site of a mass shooting and in Iraq where she was part of the team helping to identify victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Sir Geoff is a distinguished brewing scientist and human rights activist too, working tirelessly to tackle discrimination and equality.
