King Charles presented his Canadian personal attendant and messenger with a new ceremonial sword at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, a symbolic gesture that carries added meaning as the country stares down U.S. President Donald Trump and his increasingly forceful annexationist taunts.
It’s the latest move by Charles, the country’s head of state, to show solidarity with Canadians as Trump repeatedly calls for the Commonwealth realm to become the 51st U.S. state, royal watchers say.
In the last two weeks alone, Charles has met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a private audience, wore his Canadian medals during a high-profile military visit, planted a red maple leaf tree on the grounds of Buckingham Palace and now he’s giving his personal Canadian liaison and senior protocol officer in Parliament a sword.
Charles, as the constitutional monarch, does not usually comment in public on political issues of the day, but he can send a message through what he does and who he meets with, like the Queen often did with her outfit choices.
In that vein, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, also wore a red dress with a similar colouring to the RCMP tunic, and a white pearl necklace as she sat in the front row at the Commonwealth Day Service on Monday.
Charles gave Greg Peters, the Usher of the Black Rod in Canada’s Senate, the sword during an audience at his official royal residence in London on Wednesday. Peters was accompanied by Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagné for the diplomatic outreach.
In the royal tradition, a sword like this is seen as a symbol of sovereignty. The Senate originally commissioned the sword to the mark the change of reign from Elizabeth to Charles.
Buckingham Palace does not publicly comment on the King’s private audiences.
But a palace source told CBC News that there was a particularly warm exchange between Peters, a staunch monarchist originally from Prince Edward Island, and the sovereign during the sword presentation and the audience that followed.
The King, Peters and Gagné had a 30-minute discussion about topics of great concern in Canada and internationally, the palace source said.
The King also reaffirmed his Flag Day message, the source said, a reference to Charles’s February statement when he said Canada is “a proud, resilient and compassionate country” and the sight of the Canada’s maple-leaf flag elicits “a sense of pride and admiration.”
A spokesperson for Gagné said the Speaker was in transit and not available for an interview. Peters was also not available to speak.
Peters is perhaps best known to the public for carrying a black rod to pound on the doors of the House of Commons to summon MPs on behalf of the monarch to the Senate chamber for a speech from the throne at the opening of a new session of Parliament. It’s a practice rooted in 600 years of Westminster parliamentary tradition.
In addition to his ceremonial role, Peters is also responsible for security in the Senate and administrative functions like organizing affairs of state and swearing-in ceremonies, among other duties.
Nathan Tidridge is a high school teacher in Waterdown, Ont., an expert on Crown-Indigenous history and the vice-president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.
He said handing over a sword to someone like Peters at this juncture is “deeply meaningful symbolism.
“The sword is being presented at this time when the country is under attack — it’s remarkable,” Tidridge said in an interview with CBC News.
“What you’re seeing is the Crown reinforcing Canadian sovereignty. I worry his government advisers just don’t know what to do with him. He can do so much to highlight Canada, he just needs to be better utilized,” he said.
Tidridge said it’s easy to dismiss the sword ceremony as a meaningless symbol — but symbols and ceremony are “so tied to national identity” and Canada needs to cherish them now more than ever.
“We’re in an existential crisis and Canadians are looking for things to really rally around right now — the Crown should be one of them,” he said.
Wednesday’s sword exchange and audience is the second time in two weeks the King has received a Canadian delegation.
Charles met with Trudeau and Ralph Goodale, Canada’s high commissioner to the U.K. at Sandringham House, northeast of London, after a summit on Ukraine’s future.
Trudeau said the two discussed Canadian sovereignty and the country’s “independent future.”
The day after that Trudeau meeting, Charles toured a Royal Navy ship wearing a naval uniform outfitted with his Canadian medals.
In a social media post, the Canadian high commission thanked the King for what it called a “meaningful gesture.”
King Charles and other members of the Royal Family are showing some subtle but notable signs of support for Canada amid its economic fight with the United States.
And, earlier this week, Charles planted a red maple leaf tree on the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
The tree-planting was described as a tribute to his late mother and to commemorate the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, a pan-Commonwealth network of forest conservation projects — but the symbolism was not lost on royal watchers.
Christopher McCreery is an expert on Canadian honours and the Crown. He said these gestures are like Elizabeth’s “brooch warfare,” where she’d choose a specific brooch to wear for a specific state visit.
For his visit to the naval vessel, Charles “could’ve worn a bunch of different uniforms” that don’t include his Canadian regalia, he said.
“The 51st state talk has already become very tiresome for, I think, every single Canadian. So I’m sure it’s equally tiresome for the King as King of Canada.”
