Prince William gets promotion as Queen bestows him with new role in Church of Scotland days after Megxit
Just weeks after Prince Harry announced his decision to "step back" from his royal duties, his grandmother, the Queen, has given a promotion of sorts to his older brother Prince William.
On January 25, the official Twitter account of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced with a tweet that Prince William has been appointed as the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland by the Queen.
This means that the Prince will be representing the sovereign during the annual meeting of the church, presenting the opening and closing addresses and carrying out official visits across Scotland.
According to the royal website, the Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian church and only recognizes Jesus Christ as "King and Head of the Church". This means that when the Queen attends services at the church she attends as an ordinary member.
The role of Lord High Commissioner was established following the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland. The Queen pledged to continue this tradition when she attended the first privy meeting under her reign in 1952.
Every year the Queen picks a person to be the Lord High Commissioner, and the role is generally held by a Scottish person, but a few royal family members have held this role in the past.
The previous royal family members who held this key role include Princess Royal, the Duke of Rothesay, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex. Richard Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry, held the role till now.
The Lord High Commissioner will be addressing the General Assembly, which comprises of 850 commissioners. This Assembly is generally held each year in the month of May in Edinburgh.
The Lord High Commissioner gets to enjoy a stay at the Palace of Holyroodhouse during the period of Assembly. Apart from this, the person holding this title also traditionally receives a Guard of Honour, a 21-Gun Salute and the keys to the City of Edinburgh.
The Daily Mail reported that Prince William's appointment at the Church of Scotland came as a move to "strengthen the Union" in light of SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon's renewed attempt to break up Britain post-Brexit.