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King Charles has quietly issued his first Knighthood since becoming King.
The monarch gave an accolade to the 18th Duke of Norfolk, the most senior peer in Britain, just 10 days after inheriting the throne from his mother.
The Knighthood was decided by the Queen while she was alive and announced in her Birthday honours list in June. But no ceremony had yet taken place, meaning that the Duke was not entitled to wear his Royal Victorian Order, GCVO, medal at her funeral on September 19.
So, on the night of September 18, the King found a moment to issue the insignia and carry out the accolade – also known as ‘dubbing’ – in which he placed a sword on each shoulder of the Duke as recognition of his work as Earl Marshal of the Royal Household.
A source said: ‘The dubbing is what actually makes you a knight. The King had to have given it to him along with a sash for him to be dressed properly at the funeral the following day.’
Another source described the Knighthood as a ‘quickie’ organised to thank the Duke for his hard work in the wake of the Queen’s passing. It is thought to have taken place in a back room of Buckingham Palace. The ceremony is yet to appear in the court circular.
The Queen was said to be personally fond of The Duke of Norfolk and encouraged him in his seven-year quest to save his marriage to Georgina Fitzalan-Howard, duchess of Norfolk, which eventually ended in divorce earlier this year.
The late monarch died before she had a chance to complete the process of knighting her friend, and shortly before he announced his engagement to his girlfriend Francesca ‘Chica’ Herbert.
The Duke, now styled Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, GCVO, DL, is now busily planning a November wedding as well as carrying out his duties as the man responsible for the King’s coronation.
Eagle eyes spotted that the Duke, known simply as Eddie to friends, was not wearing his GCVO cross at any of the events during the ten day mourning period leading up to the funeral, but did wear it at the funeral itself. It appeared he also found a chance to polish his other medals which were looking tarnished in previous mourning events but were gleaming like new as he took his place on the Mall wearing his new blue sash at the funeral.
The Duke resides at his ancestral seat, Arundel Castle in West Sussex, but will not live there with his new wife Chica when she becomes Duchess of Norfolk. They have chosen to live in a cosier farmhouse nearby instead.
His ex-wife Georgina, Duchess of Norfolk, 60, will live at the nearby Angmering Park House and has 100 acres of the estate, which forms a small part of 16,000 acres owned by the Duke on the South Downs.
The Duke was banned from driving last week, after using his mobile phone while driving in Battersea, south-west London, on April 7, and while he admitted the offence, his legal team attempted to avoid a ban due to ‘exceptional hardship’ – claiming he needed his licence to arrange the King’s upcoming coronation, known as Golden Orb.
A friend of the staunchly Catholic Duke, the highest-ranking duke in England and a cross-bench peer, said last week that he believed the magistrates made the right decision not to accept his defence and is ‘thankful’ that they didn’t.
The source said, ‘Eddie acknowledges that his attempt to avoid a driving ban went haywire and feels very sorry to have displeased the King. He plans to lay low and for the next month or two and just get on with making the nation proud by planning Golden Orb.’