King marks 400 years of the Queen's Chapel at service with royal fanfare
Horns rang out as His Majesty entered the chapel, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace, on Wednesday evening.
The King meeting choristers after a service celebrating 400 years of The Queen's Chapel (Aaron Chown/PA)
He took his seat beside Princess Alexandra for the 40-minute service – attended by around 200 people.
It featured music by the Gentlemen and Children of His Majesty's Chapel Royal Choir, accompanied by the Duchess of Edinburgh's String Orchestra and the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry Band.
The service reflected the chapel's early role as a place of worship for European courtiers.
After the celebration, the King viewed a newly commissioned piece of altar plate – the His Majesty King Charles III Ciboria – the first addition to the chapel's silverware since 1688.
Made by St Ives silversmith Tim Lukes, the ceremonial cup includes the image of the Green Man, a symbol used during the King's Coronation.
Charles views the new 'His Majesty King Charles III Ciboria', the first new piece of Chapel plate since 1688 (Aaron Chown/PA)
Outside huge crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the King whilst police held up traffic.
Later, inside Friary Court, His Majesty shared a laugh with children from the Chapel Royal Choir.
He could be heard asking the youngsters: 'You've been practicing already, have you?'
Built in 1625, the Queen's Chapel was originally intended for the wedding of the future Charles I to Spanish princess Maria Anna.
It was later restored by Christopher Wren and has been part of the Chapel Royal since 1938.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Zia Yusuf's resignation won't harm Reform for long
The sudden resignation of Reform UK's chairman Zia Yusuf came as a shock in Westminster yesterday – but is unlikely to do the party much lasting damage. Yusuf, 38, a successful businessman and a former Goldman Sachs banker, said in a terse and huffy statement that working for the election of a Reform government was no longer a good use of his time. While Yusuf gave no other specific reason for his departure , the move was almost certainly triggered by his anger at new Reform MP Sarah Pochin's question to Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday. Pochin, who won the Runcorn and Helsby seat from Labour last month, asked the Prime Minister if he would consider banning the burqa – the face cover worn by pious Muslim women – as other European countries have done. Yusuf, an observant Muslim himself, tweeted that the question was 'dumb'.
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
NATO allies agree huge spending boost as US demands they are 'ready' for Russia
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded GDP members of NATO be 'combat-ready' or risk losing US support amid escalating security concerns over Russia's aggression NATO allies will increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. The American also demanded that members of the organisation be 'combat-ready' or risk losing US support amid escalating security concerns over Russia 's aggression. Speaking ahead of a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday, Hegseth emphasised that the alliance must move beyond symbolic gestures. He said: 'The commitment is there. Five per cent on defence spending. When you consider the threats that we face, the urgency in the world, it's critical. We don't need more flags. We need more fighting formations. We don't need more conferences. We need more capabilities. Hard power.' The call for a sharp increase from the current NATO guideline of two per cent has gained support across Europe and Canada, but places pressure on countries like the UK. The government currently spends around two per cent of GDP on defence but faces growing demands to raise that figure to at least three per cent, or even 3.5 per cent, to maintain good relations with Washington. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to raise spending to three per cent when economic conditions allow, though no timeline has been set. Dutch Prime Minister and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte echoed Hegseth's urgency. 'The expectation is that on the European side of NATO and the Canadian side of NATO, if we think that we can keep ourselves safe sticking with the two per cent, forget it,' he said. 'Yes, the next three to five years, but then we are in great difficulty. And the US rightly expects us to spend much more to defend ourselves with their help, but also to equalise, which is only fair with what the US is spending on defence.' Rutte also highlighted the financial challenge. He added: 'All these investments have to be financed.' NATO ministers were set to approve 'capability targets' - detailed goals for each of the 32 member nations to purchase priority weapons and equipment, including air defence systems, long-range missiles, artillery, drones, and strategic enablers like air-to-air refuelling and heavy transport. Each nation's plan remains classified. The targets stem from a 2023 NATO blueprint aimed at countering threats from Russia or other major adversaries. NATO plans to maintain up to 300,000 troops ready to deploy to the alliance's eastern flank within 30 days, though experts doubt the allies can yet muster such forces effectively. The member countries are assigned defensive roles across three zones: the Arctic and North Atlantic, central Europe north of the Alps, and southern Europe. The timeline to meet these capability targets is within five to ten years - a timeframe NATO believes necessary given Russia's ongoing military build-up, which could accelerate if Western sanctions ease or a peace deal ends the war in Ukraine. 'We are going to gather here again and say 'okay, we failed a bit,' and then maybe we start learning Russian?' Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė warned, highlighting fears of a premature Russian strike on NATO territory. Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson stressed the importance of the current moment: 'We also know that after an armistice or a peace agreement, of course, Russia is going to allocate more forces closer to our vicinity. Therefore, it's extremely important that the alliance use these couple of years now when Russia is still limited by its force posture in and around Ukraine.' The Netherlands, for example, is planning to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP. Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said the country expects to purchase more tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and long-range missile systems such as the US-made Patriot missiles capable of targeting aircraft, cruise missiles, and short-range ballistic missiles. The UK currently spends 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence and has committed to raising this to 2.5 per cent by 2027. The government has set an ambition to then increase it to three per cent by 2034. The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that reaching three per cent of GDP by 2030 would cost the UK government an additional £17.3 billion. In the 2024/25 financial year, the UK spent £56.9 billion on defence, increasing to £59.8 billion in 2025/26 According to 2024 figures, Poland was the top military spender as a share of its economy for the second year running. It's forecast to spend 4.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) - the total value of goods and services produced. Estonia was in second place at 3.4 per cent with the US in third place at 3.4 per cent, which is about the same level as it has been spending for the last decade. The UK came ninth on the list with 2.3 per cent. The average for NATO members in Europe and Canada is estimated at 2.0 per cent. If the UK were to pay five per cent of its GDP to NATO, taxpayers would be hit with a £128 billion bill.
The Herald Scotland
9 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Why are teachers considering striking over teaching time?
What is class contact time? This refers to the time that teachers actually spend in class with students. Leaving aside the fact that almost all teachers work well beyond the hours they are paid for, the teaching working week is supposed to last for 35 hours – but that doesn't mean that teachers are delivering lessons for the whole of that time. Instead, the expectation is that teachers are timetabled for 22.5 hours of class contact time per week. Is contact time particularly high in Scotland? Yes. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), contact time in Scottish schools is very high in comparison to comparable countries. The 'net teaching time' for Scotland is given as 855 hours per year. The only OECD countries with higher figures for high school teachers are Chile, Costa Rica, and the United States. Mexico has a slightly higher contact time figure for teachers in lower-secondary, but a lower figure than Scotland for those in upper-secondary. Read More The picture is a little more complex at primary level. In Scotland, contact time is the same across both sectors but that isn't true for most countries. Countries including the Netherlands and Ireland have higher primary class contact levels than Scotland. However, contact time in Scotland is far higher than in countries like Estonia (the current top-performing European nation in PISA international league tables), Austria, Finland, Germany, Korea, Norway, Poland, Portugal and more. Why is high contact time a problem? As the impending EIS strike ballot makes clear, Scotland's very high level of class contact time is a workload issue for teachers, who have a weekly allocation of 12.5 hours in which to carry out all of the work that underpins good teaching and makes effective education possible. This includes, but is not limited to, marking, feedback, planning, professional development, safeguarding and more. Where sufficient non-teaching time isn't available, lots of that essential work ends up happening in the evening and weekends, and some of it doesn't happen at all – and this has a negative, knock-on effect on young people. Teachers in Scotland have just 12.5 hours per week in order to complete all of those planning, marking, and other non-teaching tasks. Is contact time supposed to be coming down? It is. In their most recent manifesto the SNP promised to reduce class contact time by ninety minutes per week for all teachers. This would not, as some thought at the time, mean that pupils received less teaching time, but it would free up more space for teachers to carry out their professional tasks. The promise was seen as a major commitment by Scotland's teaching profession, and a key pledge from a party that was, and remains, under huge pressure over its handling of Scottish education. The lack of meaningful progress towards this goal led to teachers declaring a dispute several months ago, and has now prompted the EIS to ask members if they are willing to take industrial action in response. The ballot will open today on a consultative basis. If members vote to support strike action, the union will then seek to move towards a formal, binding ballot that would deliver a mandate for strike action. In the end, this could result in disruption for primary and secondary schools across Scotland.
