In a recent article by Rebecca English, the Daily Mail's Royal Correspondent, "Currently only 'blood' royals hand out gongs. This is limited to the King, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Anne." One source who spoke to Rebecca said: 'In my opinion, they should be performed by members of the Royal Family in direct line of succession."
Memo to Rebecca: don't use this source again.
Where was the research for this article, apart from speaking to unnamed sources? Why didn't the reporter take time to search the Court Circular? All of the major British newspapers are digitally available through Gale. British public libraries have access to The Times and other newspapers. Surely, the Daily Mail newsroom has subscriptions to several of Gale's publications, which includes the historical Daily Mail. Rebecca's Newspapers is doing a disservice to its reporters if it does not offer these sources as well as Nexis, Factica, and the Proquest databases, which include US newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and the Washington Post.
I understand the Mail closed its news library some years ago (another disservice). But a good reporter should be able to do research (no, not Google, which is a search engine, not a research engine.)
Being in line to the throne and a blood royal are not requirements for doing the Investitures on behalf of the King. Most investitures are carried by the sovereign. The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal have many "I dub thee" in the past few years.
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| The Times February 17, 1954 |
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| The Times February 17, 1954 |
Queen Camilla can also do Investitures! Yes, SHE CAN! There is a precedent. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother carried out at least 50 Investiture ceremonies from February 16, 1954, through the late 1980s. These engagements were carried out on "behalf of the Queen." The Queen Mother was the consort of King George VI. She did not do Investitures during her husband's reign. She was, however, a consort of a sovereign. As is Camilla.
In the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, her uncle, the Duke of Gloucester stepped on occasion. So did the Duke of Edinburgh, but the Queen Mother did more than 50 (probably more but I lost count) investitures. By the late 1980s, it was the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) who filled in for his mother.
On occasion, the late Queen's first cousin, the Duke of Kent, also did Investitures on her behalf.
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| The Times July 16, 1958 |
In February 1960, the Duke of Edinburgh stepped in for the Queen Mother who was to fill in for the Queen, who was in her final days of her third pregnancy.
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| February 15, 1960 |
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| October 12, 1963 |
There is precedence for a consort of the Sovereign (Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the Duke of Edinburgh, to carry out Investitures on behalf of the Sovereign. If the Princess of Wales is allowed to hand out the Orders and Knighthoods, she will be establishing a new precedent for the spouse of an Heir Apparent.
If you appreciated my research, you could buy me a peppermint latte.
3 comments:
Well said. We don't call the Daily Mail "the Daily FAIL" for nothing!!! The standard of their so-called "journalism" is shocking. They frequently get historical facts wrong and I'm sick of correcting them from mis-identifying members of the Royal Family to basically getting titles wrong. Why the DM insist in calling The Princess of Wales "Kate Middleton" or "Princess Kate" beats me, and still calling The Countess Mountbatten of Burma "Penny Romsey" is one of my real gripes. Its sad how many people rely on the Daily Mail as a source of reference, its nothing more than a scandal sheet now of unreliable facts and rather shady biased reporting.
What about the Duke of Edinburgh? I imagine if Princess Anne can he should be able to as well.
Thank you for this post. I very much appreciate the research, the evidence, and the scholarship presented here.
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