Royals attend Thistle service as Queen joins order of chivalry

Members of the Royal Family have attended the Thistle service in Edinburgh, with Queen Camilla and the Duke of Edinburgh formally appointed to Scotland’s highest order of chivalry.

The Order of the Thistle recognises 16 knights, drawn from men and women who have held public office or given a “particular contribution” to national life, alongside additional Royal knights.

Only the monarch can bestow the honour on someone, with the most recent recipients being anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy and Scotland’s first black professor Sir Geoff Palmer.

Knights took part in a procession to the chapel from the city’s Signet library, while dressed in distinctive green velvet robes and white plumed hats, with a badge suspended from the collar depicting St Andrew with a halo.

The Duke of Rothesay and the Duchess of Edinburgh also attended the service at St Giles’ Cathedral, which formed part of the royals Holyrood Week stay in Scotland.

King James VII of Scotland (James II) is believed to be mostly responsible for the order’s present day incarnation, although its roots may stretch as far back as the Middle Ages.

The Thistle Chapel at St Giles’ has hosted the order since 1911, with the architect Robert Lorimer choosing to include uniquely Scottish detail in the building – including angels playing bagpipes.

Each member of the order has a stall in the chapel, with a display of their heraldic devices displayed above it. Lord Bruce, the 11th Earl of Elgin and 15th Earl of Kincardine, is the order’s longest-standing knight, having been appointed in 1981.

The motto for the order is nemo me impune lacessit – Latin for “no one harms me with impunity.”

Prince William and Princess Anne are among the Royal knights and ladies in the order, alongside the 16 selected for their public office duties.

Among those knights and ladies are former Liberal leader Sir David Steel, the former Lord Advocate Lady Elish Angiolini and businessman Sir Ian Wood.

This year’s Holyrood Week has been shortened due to the general election, with any Royal engagements that may have distracted from the election postponed.

Both the King and Queen are due to attend an event celebrating the 900th anniversary of the City of Edinburgh later on Wednesday.