First Minister joins UK leaders at Accession of King Charles III
NICOLA Sturgeon bowed to the new King yesterday as she was among hundreds of privy counsellors in attendance at the Accession of King Charles III.
Scotland’s First Minister was an eyewitness to the historic Accession Council at St James’s Palace in London yesterday morning, which was divided into two parts and televised for the first time.
The first part saw the Privy Council proclaim the Sovereign as King and the second part saw King Charles III hold his first Privy Council.
As one of his first acts, the new King affirmed the independence of the Church of Scotland from Government.
After the formal ceremony, King Charles III made an oath “relating to the security of the Church of Scotland”.
This oath is taken at the point of Accession to the Crown, with Charles saying he was “ready to do so at this first opportunity”.
Buckingham Palace confirmed he had declared: “I, Charles III, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of my other Realms and Territories, King, Defender of the Faith, do faithfully promise and swear that I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the settlement of the true protestant religion as established by the laws made in Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right, and particularly by an Act intituled ‘An Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government’ and by the Acts passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms for Union of the two Kingdoms, together with the Government, Worship, Discipline, Rights and Privileges of the Church of Scotland.”
Alister Jack, Secretary of State for Scotland, signed the proclamation, followed by Ms Sturgeon, who bowed as is tradition, signed her name and then bowed again.
It came after Ms Sturgeon led political tributes to the Queen on Thursday evening following her death at Balmoral, describing her as “special to Scotland”.
The signing at St James’s Palace was historic in more ways than one as it marked the first moment in history a First Minister has signed a proclamation document.
The moment was widely followed on social media, with screenshots of her signing remarked upon heavily.
One Twitter user wrote: “Nationalist Sturgeon as part of the Privy Council (pictured) leaving the State Apartments of St James’s Palace, London after Charles has been proclaimed The King at the Accession Council. There will be a few unhappy nationalists, but the rest of us welcome our new king.”
Another wrote: “Well done Nicola.”
Later, the First Minister, Ian Blackford, leader of the SNP in the House of Commons and former First Minister Alex Salmond, all signed separately as witnesses to the proclamation as well.
Also in attendance at the formal declaration of Charles as head of state were six former Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Gordon Brown, Sir Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May and Sir John Major.