End of Session, End of Service

Posted on by
Reply

The ceremony of prorogation was carried out this afternoon, ending the first session of the fifty-ninth Parliament of the United Kingdom, which has sat for nearly two years since the general election in July 2024.

Prorogation kills any bills which have not yet reached the point of passing. Notably, the highly-controversial Terminally Ill Adults End of Life) Bill ran out of legislative time and therefore will not become law.

This prorogation was authorised by an Order in Council at the start of this month. As is usual for these instruments, one specific date is named for the opening of the new session but a range of a week is offered for the closing of the old one. In practice governments nearly always go for the earliest day in the range. In this case it was widely speculated that the Starmer ministry wanted to close Parliament as swiftly as possible to halt an investigation over Lord Mandelson, which has been causing them humiliation for some weeks now.

Today is also the last day in Parliament for many of those elected hereditary peers, as the Act removing their right to representation was scheduled to take effect at the session’s end (although a handful are expected to receive life peerages in compensation). The significance of this occasion is likely the reason that the upper chamber was packed to the rafters today, in contrast to most prorogations when attendance is usually quite low.

There were quite a few changes among the principal players here, partly because of the long time this session lasted:

  • The Baroness Smith of Basildon, Leader of the House, was naturally the lead among the Lords Commissioners. She has been performing this role for over a decade now.
  • The Lord Forsyth of Drumlean took part as Lord Speaker for the first time, replacing McFall of Alcluith.
  • The Earl Howe, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House, and a member of the Conservative frontbench for a record-breaking thirty-five years, represented his party in lieu of the True. He is the first hereditary peer to take part in a royal commission since Strathclyde in 2012, and the first Earl since Ferrers in 1992.
  • Another earl, Kinnoull, the Convener of the Crossbench Peers, has still not been made a Privy Counsellor so his place was taken by the Baroness Hayman, the original Lord Speaker.
  • The Lord Purvis of Tweed, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Peers, is not a Privy Counsellor either so was represented by Beith.
  • Sarah Mullally was named in the commission as Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time (replacing Justin Welby) though the Archbishop hasn’t actually taken part in this ceremony for centuries and I didn’t see her in the chamber.
  • David Lammy was named in the commission as Lord Chancellor for the first time (replacing Shabana Mahmood), but Lord Chancellors haven’t taken part in prorogations since 2006.
  • Jo Farrar appeared for the first time as Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, reading the short titles of the Acts receiving royal assent, replacing Antonia Romeo.
  • Chloe Mawson appeared for the first time as Clerk of the Parliaments, pronouncing (perhaps mispronouncing) “Le Roy Le Veult”, replacing Simon Burton.
  • Ed Davis summoned the Commons for the first time as Black Rod, replacing Sarah Clarke.

The purpose of the Lords Commissioners is to carry out these Parliamentary ceremonies in the absence of the monarch himself. Today that need is particularly urgent as Charles III is about 3500 miles away visiting New York City. When Lady Smith read out the pro-forma line “My Lords, it not being convenient for His Majesty personally to be present here this day…” there was an eruption of laughter from the chamber and she had to then say “Settle Down!”. At the end of the ceremony, the gracious speech in “The King’s Own Words” was obviously rather less enchanting than those which Charles had actually given in Washington D.C. recently. It mentioned all the inbound state visits since the general election (Qatari, French, American, German and Nigerian) as well as the current outbound one, but curiously not those to Samoa, Italy, or the Vatican.

This prorogation was the only business conducted in the upper house today, but in the lower house there was time for a final round of Prime Minister’s Questions (meaning Starmer didn’t entirely escape further grilling on the Mandelson scandal) and the first reading of a bill regarding banking services. The latter was for a commendable cause but the effort was clearly purely symbolic given the timing.

The state opening will take place on 13th May. It will be interesting to see what roles the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain can now play.

New Garter Knights for 2026

Posted on by
Reply

There were no new appointments made to the Order of the Garter in 2025, the most recent addition being the off-cycle appointment of the Emperor of Japan as a Stranger Knight on his state visit in 2024.

Today three new Knights Companion were announced, leaving just one vacancy among the ordinary category: Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, Lord O’Donnell and Lord Burnett of Maldon. All three are crossbench life peers. Actually, all of the non-royal recipients of the Garter so far this reign have been life peers. By contrast, the fifteen still-living members added by Elizabeth II comprise seven life peers, four hereditary peers and four commoners. It may be too early to determine if this represents a significant trend.

O’Donnell was Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to 2011. From lectures and documentaries I get the sense that he was a particularly-revered holder of that office. It is also notable that he was the last in a long string to be simultaneously Head of the Home Civil Service, Cabinet Secretary and Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office, after which there was an attempt to split these into three separate roles (though the first two were reunited not long afterwards). His first name is formally Augustine, but in practice is nearly always given as Gus, giving him the initials G.O.D. Ironically, while he is now a Knight of the Garter and has since 2005 been a Knight of the Bath as well, he has not been appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George, which denies him the opportunity to live out this classic joke from Yes, Minister.

Burnett was Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales from 2017 to 2023, his six-year tenure making him the longest-serving LCJ since Geoffrey Lane (1980-1992).

He doesn’t seem to be as famous as O’Donnell, though I note he was part of the divisional court of the Queen’s Bench Division for the Miller 2 case in 2019. After retiring from the English judiciary he became Chief Justice of a commercial court based in Kazakhstan.

Both Burnett and O’Donnell are the sort of people one could expect to receive the Garter based on their offices as the existing membership included Lord Butler of Brockwell and Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, though neither office guarantees the award and there are plenty of emeriti from each who have not received it.

Hennessy is the exception here, as although a parliamentarian he does not seem to have held any particular public office, whether governmental, ministerial, diplomatic, judicial or vice-regal. There have been a handful of people like this, like Mary Soames and Edmund Hillary, but they are definitely a rarity. He co-founded the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986 and has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History since 1992 at QMUL since 1992. He has written at least two-dozen books on history and politics, making him the most (first?) prominent academic to receive the nation’s highest order. Norton must be quietly seething.

I illustrated Hennessy’s shield for Wikimedia Commons in 2022. It is about what one would expect for a man who has worked in academia. I suspect that Rs-nouse will be re-illustrating it in his characteristic style fairly shortly. Neither O’Donnell nor Burnett had arms listed in Debrett’s 2019, so the hanging of their banners in St George’s Chapel will be an exciting revelation.

Garter appointments are traditionally announced on 23rd April because it is St George’s Day, St George of Lydda being the patron saint of the Order of the Garter since its inception in 1348 and of England more generally thereafter. In modern times, today is also the eighth birthday of Prince Louis of Wales. I can’t help wondering if the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge quietly kicked themselves for having already given the name George to their July-born first son, thus missing another chance for poetic alignment.

Louis & George in June 2023

On another note, we are approaching the tenth anniversary of the EU Referendum, and with it the tenth anniversary of when Theresa May succeeded David Cameron as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It is also the year that he turns sixty and she seventy. Both have been ennobled relatively recently but neither has received any British order of chivalry. I had thought that this would be a good occasion for one of them to receive the Garter, but evidently that will have to wait for some time yet.

The Tudor Crown in the Indian Ocean

Posted on by
Reply

The British Indian Ocean Territory, the entity governing the group of islands known collectively as the Chagos Archipelago, was formally created on 8th November 1965, but the territory’s flag and heraldic achievement were not granted until 1990. The flag technically was intended only to represent the office of Commissioner rather than be a civil flag in the normal way, as the Territory has no resident civilian population, instead existing mainly to house a joint United Kingdom-United States military facility.

The field of the flag is Argent charged with six bars wavy Azure. In the principal quarter is the Union Flag, and in the right half is a palm tree erect Proper charged on the trunk with the Imperial crown Or. Originally the depiction of the crown was, of course, St Edward’s Crown, but very recently it has joined the trend of changing to the Tudor Crown, in line with the preferences of the present sovereign. Checking the BIOT government website on the Wayback Machine shows the old illustration still on the homepage as late as 25th February, with the new version in its place by 22nd March. The entire flag has been redrawn in a different artistic style, probably created digitally this time instead of drawn on paper then scanned.

The flag as it appeared before.

The new image was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons earlier today. The territory’s heraldic achievement, which features a crown on the escutcheon as well as replicating the flag in the crest, is still using St Edward’s.

While I have blogged many times since 2022 about the transition between crown types, this one is particularly significant because of its political implications: Until recently, the British government had been planning to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to the Republic of Mauritius. This would likely have resulted in the BIOT ceasing to exist as a political entity with the effect that both flag and arms would be defunct.

The treaty is highly controversial and it has been challenged many times, including by the community of displaced Chagossians themselves who have appropriated the territory’s flag as a symbol of their protest movement. Last week it was announced that, due to a loss of support from the President of the United States, the ratification of the treaty had been indefinitely postponed.

The change to the Tudor Crown is therefore indicative of a change in mindset: It wouldn’t have been worth redrawing unless the polity was expected to continue to exist for an appreciable time to come.

Charles III and Artemis II

Posted on by
Reply

At time of writing, the world is eagerly awaiting the launch of the Artemis II mission, a planned flight around the moon and back. As is so often the case in astronomy, the facts of this excursion ruin one’s sense of perspective: Although humans landed on the moon itself all the way back in 1969, all of the great many manned flights, both state and commercial, since 1972 have only been as far as Low Earth Orbit. This mission, if successful, will take its crew further away from this planet than any human has ever previously ventured. Though this is a great achievement for humanity as a whole, and although it makes the Earth (with all the various human-made satellites surrounding it) look pathetically small, there is still a nationalist element to be considered here: While lots of countries have a space programme of some description, only the United States of America has ever achieved manned flights of these distances, and every human thus far to travel beyond LEO has been American.

That will change with Artemis II, as one of the crew is Canadian: Colonel Jeremy Hansen, part of the Canadian Space Agency since 2009 and a veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He appeared as flag-bearer as part of the Canadian delegation at the coronation in 2023 and was subsequently awarded the British version of that year’s coronation medal.

Yesterday His Majesty sent an open letter to Hansen specifically concerning the upcoming launch. I have not seen any photograph of a paper version, but the text has been uploaded to the Royal Family website, as well as the Firm’s Twitter account and that of the Canadian Space Agency. The letter says that “as the first Canadian to venture to the Moon, [Hansen] carr[ies] not only the hopes of [his] fellow Canadians and the Commonwealth, but also the aspirations of humanity itself” and also makes references to the Astra Carta programme. It should be clear that Charles here is writing principally in his capacity as King of Canada (as emphasised by the fact that it’s in French as well as English), and indeed the CSA’s Tweeted version explicitly credits him as such, yet as I have remarked before (posts passim ad nauseam) both images show the new illustrations of the British royal arms with the Tudor crown.

Arms of the Canadian Space Agency, granted in 1991

All the photographs of Hansen in his space suit show St Edward’s crown featured prominently on his name badge, suggesting that the “Trudea crown” has not yet been rolled out to that extent. This flight could therefore represent the furthest that anyone wearing an official representation of said crown has ever travelled, which ought to be a good story for the heraldic record book.

UPDATE (2nd April)

The Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command has unveiled its new heraldic badge, which does indeed use the Trudeau crown.

Notes on the England Coast Path

Posted on by
Reply

The King, fresh off his farewell to President Tinubu, made headlines on the cliffs of Seven Sisters, Sussex, on Thursday by officially opening what may physically be his largest namesake, the King Charles III England Coast Path.

Charles’s coat looks quite like the sort of thing my grandmother would have worn.

As the government’s press release explains, the project actually long predates his reign, his name being appended to it in 2023 as part of his coronation celebrations. It resulted from the Marine and Coastal Access Act passed all the way back in 2009 and, as all the updates on this other government webpage indicate, it was supposed to be completed by 2030, then optimistically brought forward to 2020, then pushed back again during the pandemic.

The ambition was to link up all the existing footpaths, as well as carving out new ones where needed, to create a continuous walking trail which covered the entirety of the English coast line. Of course, the English coast line itself is not continuous, as England has sizeable land borders with Scotland and Wales. A Wales Coast Path, proposed in 2006 and completed in 2012, links up to the English one in two places and there is also a Scottish Coastal Way in the pipeline. As this is a devolved matter, the institutions are not entirely alike and it is not certain if the other two will ever bear the monarch’s name, or if Northern Ireland will attempt something similar. Even now, despite the official opening this week, the English path has 20% still to go and is expected to be completed at the end of 2026. “Coast” is also being used in quite a broad sense, as the path incorporates trails along not only the seas, but also the rivers — including the Humber, which runs quite close to my house and along which I walk fairly regularly.

The situation with the naming and timing has some echoes of the Elizabeth Line, the commuter railway through Greater London from Reading to Shenfield, which likewise was a combination of new paths built from scratch and old ones appropriated. The proposals had been floated as far back as the 1940s and work finally began in 2009. The construction project was called Crossrail, and this by default might have become the name of the completed railway. It was only in 2016, in the run up to Elizabeth II’s ninetieth birthday, that the line was named after her. The name was slightly controversial as it gave the false impression of being part of the London Underground rather than a different railway in its own right. The completion was originally scheduled for 2018 but, inevitably, there were delays and services did not run until 2022. The repeated schedule slips raised concerns over whether Elizabeth herself would live to open her namesake line. In the event she did open the first section in May that year, but had died by the time the rest opened in November.

Hopefully His Present Majesty will not exhibit the same phenomenon.

 

 

The Use of Academic Dress in Heraldry

Posted on by
Reply

This was a virtual lecture put on by The Heraldry Society. It was presented by Duncan Sutherland, with an introduction by David Phillips, the latter being actually present this time. Sutherland said that he was connecting from Albania. When he started researching heraldry he came across academic dress a few times and managed to record about twenty examples.

Academic gowns in corporate arms usually reference the founder of the organisation. Academic robes date to the middle ages when most if not all students were there to train for the holy orders. The medieval university tunic was the forerunner of both the academic robe and the clerical cassock. Hoods were included because at the time they were common across all classes. When they fell out of general usage they were supplanted with skullcaps, which then evolved into a wide variety of specialised hats.

British academic styles reflected the influences of the Reformation, Republican and Restoration periods.

Sutherland then went through his examples, both personal and corporate. I have looked up free-licence images and the textual blazons wherever I can.

The Earls of Aberdeen

Dexter an Earl  and sinister a Doctor of Laws both habited in their robes Proper.

The earliest known grant of supporters to include academic robes was to the 1st Earl in 1683, with both dressed as doctors. The 4th Earl swapped them for the Hamilton antelopes. The 7th Earl was granted the present supporters. He was later elevated to Marquess but the dexter supporter was not changed to match.

William Thompson, 1st Baron Kelvin (g.1892)

On the dexter side a student of the University of Glasgow habited holding in his dexter hand a marine voltmeter all Proper. On the sinister side a sailor habited holding in the dexter hand a coil the rope passing through the sinister, and suspended therefrom a sinker of a sounding machine also all Proper.

Kelvin was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. He served as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow for fifty-three years and was an important contributor to the Transatlantic Telegraph Project. His supporters were granted by the College of Arms in 1892 but the arms themselves had been granted by the Lyon Court.

Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith (g.1906)

On either side a doctor of civil law of the University of Cambridge, vested in his robes, the dexter holding in his right hand an open book, the sinister in the right hand a pen, in the left hand a scroll all Proper.

Courtney was Second Wrangler at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett (g.1928)

Dexter a Doctor of Science of the University of Oxford holding in the exterior hand a chemical measure glass sinister a labourer holding in the exterior hand a pick resting on the shoulder all Proper.

Melchett’s arms were granted in 1910 and revised in 1928. He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and later was Chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries.

Sir Alfred Keogh

Keogh was Director-General of the Army Medical Services. His supporters were a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse and a doctor in gown.

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes (g.1944)

Keynes was a scholar at both Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. (CA Ms Grants 107/253)

Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (g.1944)

Dexter a soldier of the Black Watch in field service uniform supporting with his exterior hand a rifle sinister a Scholar of Winchester College in his gown holding in his exterior hand a closed book all Proper.

Wavell was himself a scholar of Winchester College. He had his first army commission in the Black Watch in 1901. He was Colonel of the Regiment from 1946 to 1950.

He had protracted correspondence with Garter over the correct illustration of the academic dress. They are displayed at Winchester Cathedral.

Alfred Webb-Johnson, 1st Baron Webb-Johnson (g.1948)

I cannot find a blazon for them, but Sutherland said they were displayed in the King’s Chapel of the Savoy as well as the Fitzrovia Chapel.

Jack Simon, Baron Simon of Glaisdale (g.1977)

Dexter a man habited in the robes of a Doctor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge Proper and holding in his dexter hand a book Or sinister a man habited in the robes of the President of the Probate Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court Proper. (Debrett’s 2003, P1476)

Simon was President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division from 1962 to 1971. He studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before his call to the bar.

Stewart Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood (g.2004)

Dexter a male figure in the attire of the Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh University sinister a male figure in the attire of an honorary graduate of Aberdeen University and wearing the hat appropriate to an honorary doctor of the University of Uppsala.

Sutherland was himself Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. He also had a Master of Arts degree from Aberdeen and an honorary doctorate from Uppsala, both in theology.

Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau (g.2015)

In this case the academic references are in the crest rather than the supporters.

Two blue jays each holding in its beak a sprig of balsam fir and standing on a bed of daylilies and purple violets Proper.

The Public Register explains the symbolism: The mortar and diploma symbolize Ms. Roy Vienneau’s career in post-secondary education, particularly as assistant deputy minister with New Brunswick’s Department of Education and as dean, department head, professor, manager and director general of the community college in Bathurst. They also symbolize her husband’s career as a teacher in public schools.

Worshipful Company of Framwork Knitters (g. 1933)

On the dexter side a student of the University of Cambridge in academical costume of the seventeenth century Proper and on the sinister side a female figure also in seventeenth century costume habited Azure cuffs cap neckerchief and apron Argent holding in the dexter hand a knitting needle Proper and in the sinister hand a piece of worsted knit Gules.

Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers (g.1956)

On the dexter side a figure representing Michael Faraday habited in a festal gown of a Doctor of Civil Law of the University of Oxford and holding in the exterior hand a representation of his coil Proper and on the sinister side a figure representing Sir Isaac Newton habited in a gown of a Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge and holding in the exterior hand his telescope also Proper.

Royal College of Anaesthetists (g.1991)

The supporters are representations of John Snow and Joseph Thomas Clover.

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (g.1999)

Blazon missing.

University of Ballarat (g.1997)

I can’t find the blazon for this one.

New College, University of Edinburgh (g.2021)

Two human figures representing diversity one dressed in the academic gown and hood of a Master of Divinity and one dressed in the academic gown and hood of a Master of Arts (Religious Studies) both from the University of Edinburgh all Proper.

Liverpool John Mores University (g.1989)

Dexter a peregrine falcon and sinister a raven each statant on a doctoral hat upon a compartment comprising a grassy mount all Proper.

Worshipful Company of Educators (g.2014)

On the dexter a dragon wings elevated and addorsed Argent holding in the dexter foreclaws an abacus Azure the beads Gules and on the sinister a barn owl wings elevated and addorsed proper the wings charged with an escallop Azure charged with two swords in saltire proper hilts and pommels Or and holding in the beak by the tail a mouse Sable each statant upon a book Or bound Gules.

University College of Cape Breton (g.1995)

Here again the reference is in the crest.

Rising from a wreath of mayflowers Proper a Canterbury cap Gules.

A Place In the Country:- The Castle as Holiday Home

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s virtual presentation as at the Cleveland & Teeside Local History Society. The speaker was Erik Matthews.

The main purpose of the lecture was to present an alternative perspective on the fundamental nature and purpose of medieval castles. While they are popularly believed to be first and foremost military strongholds, with luxury and decoration being a later development, research since the 1980s has found that even in their Medieval heyday a lot of these buildings were primarily status symbols and luxury homes with actual defensive capability being a distant afterthought.

Matthews’s main case study was Whorlton Castle in North Yorkshire. Whorlton was developed in three stages, the first beginning shortly after the Norman Conquest. The town of Whorlton developed at the foot of the castle in the thirteenth century, but decline in the seventeenth due to the growth of nearby Stokesley, which had better access to the Tees.

With few exceptions, Whorlton was not generally employed as a defensive building, and Matthews identified several features which gave this away, most notably the gatehouse with its wooden portcullis which would not have stopped an army, or the false gun ports through which a proper sight would have been impossible. He also noticed other features of the estate’s former grandeur, such as the elaborate water gardens supplied by an artificial leat and dam, or the compartmented gardens where high-status guests could socialise. There were also signs of earthwork boundaries which would have been dug to divide the estate into smaller burghages. He highlighted an outer enclosure, which could have been the site of the town’s fair.

He spoke more briefly about other locations, such as Sigston Castle, set in the kind of watery landscape which was often crafted to create optical illusions which would make the estate look bigger than it really was. He also said that the moat around a castle was not necessarily to keep out human invaders but rather to deter pest animals and form a liminal space which marked the boundaries between places of different social status. Also included was Harewood Castle, constructed in 1340 by Sir William Aldeburgh, then split in abeyance between his daughters with a timeshare arrangement, then Barnard Castle, then Dunstaburgh, then finally Pendragon Castle in Mallerstang, which he noted was surrounded by hills from which an attacking army could claim the advantage of high ground.

I was reminded of the BBC Radio 4 series “Short History Of…”, whose episode on British Castles also made the point that most of them were mainly used as comfortable residences for the wealthy and thus the conversion of so many of them into hotels in the modern age should be no surprise.

Paull Holme Tower, my own family’s castle (or at least part thereof) has yet to reach a habitable state, but hotel conversion is one of the options regularly suggested as an endpoint for its restoration.

Commonwealth Day 2026

Posted on by
Reply

The Commonwealth of Nations traditionally has its annual day of celebration on the second Monday in March. This is marked in many ceremonies around the world, but most prominent is a special service at Westminster Abbey, put on by the Royal Commonwealth Society, attended by the Head of the Commonwealth and several members of his family, along with diplomatic and cultural representatives from the various member countries. The service includes some speeches, some religious readings, a parade of member states’ flags and a series of musical performances from groups representing different global regions.

For all of this century so far the Abbey service has been broadcast live by the BBC (specifically “BBC Studio Events”), and the last few have been archived on iPlayer, as well as the Corporation’s YouTube channel. This year, however, the highly controversial announcement was made that the service would not be aired, the time-slot being given instead to a rerun of Escape to the Country. Allegedly this was made on cost grounds. Although the headlines initially only referred to live broadcasts, it later became apparent that the service had not been properly filmed at all. This is a rather baffling decision on the embattled BBC’s part. Given how much experience they have shooting in the Abbey — not just for these services, but also for weddings, coronations, funerals and military commemorations — it really should be second nature by now. Also, given that they have recently lost the rights to broadcast this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, as well as some other high-profile sporting events, one might have expected them to defend their remaining prerogatives with all their might.

The service did not go totally unrecorded: There are stills available on Getty Images, the order of service can be read from the Abbey’s website and the ITN Royal Family Channel has a 25-minute montage. Unfortunately the latter does not compare to the BBC productions of previous years, being rather crudely shot from a handheld camera and focusing more on the arrivals and departures at the doorway than on the event itself.

While those interested in the content of the speeches can obviously read them from the handout, and those wishing to inspect the outfits of the royals and dignities in attendance can do so from the stills, the elaborate music and dance routines cannot really be enjoyed in this manner. The whole experience is akin to watching a Telesnap reconstruction of a missing Doctor Who episode.

If the BBC does not reverse this decision next year, perhaps the Society (or whichever body is actually in charge of this decision) will offer it to another broadcaster, or even setting up their own in-house film unit to either sell to the networks or publish online. The knock-on effects for the airing of other royal events could be severe.

UPDATE (16th March)

Happily it turns out at least some of the event was professionally recorded, as the RCS’s website has released a handful of clips. Even more happily, my comparison to missing Doctor Who turned out to be apt as it was revealed on Friday that two more episodes have been found.

Newsletters and New Lectures

Posted on by
Reply

Long-time readers may recall that in late 2024 I submitted some Freedom of Information requests to various state bodies concerning the award of certain British orders of chivalry. One of the questions I asked was how many people currently hold each grade of each order, if such statistics even existed. I was advised that the Central Chancery of the Order of Knighthood might hold such information, but cautioned that they were not subject to FOI requests.

The website of the Chancery was, for its first few years, ridiculously amateur in appearance. Thankfully sometime between May and September 2023 it underwent a revamp and now looks far more respectable. Between 15th February and 26th March last year the site finally got around to using the new Noad illustration of the royal arms instead of the old Sodacan one (although I’d rather not start talking about that topic again). It was only recently that I noticed (although in retrospect I see it was there for sometime) the presence of Annual Reports for both the Royal Victorian Order and the Order of St Michael & St George (sadly not the Bath or the British Empire though). These PDFs include recitations of the histories of the orders, a list of events related to them that had happened over the past year and a rundown of the order’s financial accounts, mostly relating to the upkeep of their respective chapels. Most importantly for my purposes, they also answer the question of membership totals by including an annual register: That for St Michael & St George says that as of 11th July 2025 there were 71 Knights & Dames Grand Cross, 224 Knights & Dames Commander and 935 Companions. The limits for those grades are, respectively, 125, 375 and 1750. That means the ranks are a long way from being saturated. The Royal Victorian Order does not have formal quotas on appointments at any grade, and its much glossier newsletters do not contain that information.

The seal of the Order of St Michael & St George, as seen on the cover of its annual reports.

In addition to this, the latest edition of The Dragon, the newsletter for St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle where the Order of the Garter is headquartered, mentioned the Lent Lecture for 2026, and included a link to the Vimeo page. That got me wondering how many other heraldry lectures might have become available online since the last time I looked. Restricting the YouTube search results to the past twelve months got me a surprising bounty. I have put here a list of the videos I found:

  • “Between Two Turks:” Racialization and the Heraldry of Esclabor Le Méconnu (Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, 3rd March)
  • Scottish Heraldry: A (Surprisingly?) Egalitarian Tradition by Prof. Gillian Black (St Mungo Festival, 22nd January)
  • Tolkien Tuesday: Heraldic Overtones (Prancing Pony Podcast, 6th January)
  • Preble Lecture: Flags of Canada (North American Vexillological Association, 10th December)
  • The Simchat Torah Flag: From Biblical Roots to Modern Israeli Icon with Prof. Shalom Sabar (Community Scholar Program, 16th October)
  • Folklore in Heraldry with Samantha Cook (Augustan Society, 9th October)
  • Stitching a Lineage: Embroidered Coats of Arms in Eighteenth-Century Boston (American Ancestors, 22nd August)
  • Heraldic Collections from Medieval Times to the Digital Age by Ralf Hartemink (Genealogical Society of Ireland, 26th May)
  • Aspects of Heraldry in Drogheda and its Vicinity (clahs Louth, 28th March)
  • Webinar – Origin + Meaning of O’Molloy Coat of Arms and Crest (O’Molloy Clan, 21st March)

That’s probably not even a complete list, but it’s more than enough to keep me entertained for a while and I’m glad to see more activity in this field as just a few years ago the offerings were very sparse.

Fanciful February Flotsam

Posted on by
Reply

Some notes on three recent topics which I did not deem worthy of full-length articles in their own right:

Andrew’s Arrest

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was yesterday arrested at his home on the Sandringham estate and taken for police questioning, being released later the same day. He is suspected of misconduct in public office.

The King put out a statement acknowledging the situation and essentially declaring that he would not interfere with the process of law. Of course, even if Charles is going to personally recuse himself, his position as incumbent sovereign means that his name will be frequently invoked during any legal proceedings, as any prosecution would formally be “The King against…” (written as “R -v-…”), the barristers arguing for both for and against Andrew would likely be King’s Counsel and if the former prince is incarcerated it would be in one of His Majesty’s Prisons, “at His Majesty’s Pleasure”. Also, of course, the royal arms will be used on a great many letterheads in the process.

Something similar happened with the Duke of Sussex’s lawsuits regarding his security provision: As a judicial review case it was formally “The King on the application of…” and the defendant was one His Majesty’s Principal Secretary’s of State. The case was, furthermore, heard in The King’s Bench Division. As reported in The Telegraph, this was

the infelicitous situation where the King’s son is suing the King’s ministers in the King’s courts. That is pulling the King in three directions.

The government is also apparently considering legislation to remove Andrew from the line of succession to the throne. Given that he is now eighth in line with the first seven all being at least twenty-three years younger than him, the effect of this will be more symbolic than practical. The need to coordinate any legal changes with the governments of the other Commonwealth Realms add further political friction. There have also been calls to formally remove his eligibility to serve as a Counsellor of State. His removal from the line of succession would do this automatically, but otherwise it could be done by a relatively simple Act of Parliament. This status only applies to Britain so the other Realms would not need to be consulted.

A principle that has been invoked many times during these events is that “No-one is above the law.” while it doesn’t help his brother, the phrase is not strictly true: The King himself is immune to arrest in all cases due to the principle of sovereign immunity which applies to varying degrees to lots of heads of state both monarchical and republican.

Bishopric Gets Bishop Rick

Yes, I am including this one solely for the pun. Richard “Rick” Simpson has been announced as the next Bishop of Durham. The diocesan office, one of the five ost senior bishops in the Church of England, has been vacant for nearly two years since the retirement of Paul Butler. In the interim the role has been delegated to Sarah Clark, Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow, who herself was recently chosen to become the next Diocesan Bishop of Ely. It should also be noted that Sarah Mullally, having had her election confirmed on 28th January, took her seat in the House of Lords two weeks ago, but will still not be installed at Canterbury Cathedral for another month.

Chagos Chaos

Donald Trump has flip-flopped yet again on the British agreement with Mauritius to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. Recently a group of four Chagossians, led by Misley Mandarin, staged a landing on the islands themselves in protest at the attempted handover. The British government ordered their eviction but that has been temporarily blocked by a court order. There has been yet another “pause” of the passage of the relevant legislation through the House of Lords where scrutiny has been very strenuous and embarrassing for the executive.

More Publications, More Podcasts

Dominic Sandbrook, whom I count among the notable people with whom I’ve communicated, is mostly famous now as the co-host of The Rest is History, an enormously successful podcast. He has recently launched another podcast, The Book Club, which he co-hosts with Tabitha Syrett. Their first episode is on Wuthering Heights. Having not read it yet, I must try very hard to avoid repeating lines from the climax of Peep Show episode 39, clips of which I now very frustratingly cannot find. Twenty-five minutes in there is a discussion of the poems and songs in The Lord of the Rings, with Syrett saying she skips over them and Sandbrook saying they’re the best bit. When I read the trilogy aloud to my mother in 2020-21 I included all of them, turning to amateur channels such as Clamavi de Profundis for musical guidance. I have learned a great many of them by heart and practice them while walking the dog along the river bank.

Sandbrook’s idea for a podcast based on books is, of course, far from original. I have already blogged about two different book-related podcasts in the last few years and searching BBC Sounds for “book club” reveals quite a long list. The idea that literacy is essential to civilisation, and that the widely-recorded decline in reading over recent years represents a serious threat thereto, is gaining traction in intellectual circles. Times columnist James Marriott, whom I’ve had on my directory page since last summer, is fast emerging as the the leader of the movement. His own book, The New Dark Ages, is already gaining critical acclaim despite the fact that it isn’t due to be published for another few months.

Secretarial Succession

Dame Antonia Romeo has indeed been appointed Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, a few days after the resignation of Sir Mark Wormald. Allegations against her have apparently failed to amount to anything.

Westminster Woes

Political power-couple Richard Marc Johnson and Lee David Evans, speaking on their own podcast (yes, yet another one), discuss the state of the Palace of Westminster (as I brought up last week). They also concur with the idea of putting Charles III in charge on the grounds that the royal family clearly has a much stronger track record with this than MPs, peers and civil servants do.