King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a visit to Jersey today, where they were viewing an exhibition at a square in the capital St Helier, when they were whisked away after a ‘concern’
The King and Queen were rushed out of an open air expo in Jersey today due to a security scare.
Charles and Camilla were told to cut short their third engagement of the day at Weighbridge Place, during their visit to the Channel island and taken into the nearby Pomme D’or hotel.
After a brief hiatus of around 20 minutes the King and Queen were taken back outside to meet local schoolchildren before being welcomed as guests to a tea party. A royal source said: “There was a small issue of concern, an investigation turned out to be a false alarm, every precaution was taken and the programme resumed shortly afterwards.”
It is Charles’ first visit to Jersey since he became King (
Image:Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
Eamon Fenlon, managing director of Jersey Dairy, had just served the Queen an ice cream from a van before she was ushered out of the Expo. Mr Fenlon said: “I had just given the Queen an ice cream and I turned back to get one myself before we had a chat. But when I turned back round she had been whisked off. Some of the other people told me it was a drone but whether that’s official or not I don’t know.”
Matt Taylor, founder of Jersey Sea Salt, was chatting to the King when he was approached by his protection officer and told he had to leave immediately. He said: “He stopped at the stall and said ‘Ooh sea sal’ and I said ‘come and have a chat, Sir.’ Then his security appeared and grabbed me and said ‘he has to go, now.’. He didn’t seem panicked but he was quite stern. They just ushered him out. It’s a shame as he’d stopped to chat to us of his own accord.”
It came after the King said he was ‘delighted’ to return to Jersey, a “beautiful and unique” island that had held such “high regard and affection” for his late mother. He and Camilla arrived in St Helier’s Royal Square on Monday afternoon for a special sitting of the States Assembly, the local parliament, held in their honour.
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Charles and Camilla in Jersey today (
Image:Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
As the heavens opened, they were greeted with huge cheers as they got out of the state Bentley and immediately sheltered under umbrellas. The King and the Queen, who wore a blue silk shirt dress by Anna Valentine, were led into the square by a Royal Mace, gifted to the island by Charles II in 1663 in recognition of the island’s loyalty to the Crown.
They walked down a red carpet lined with some 200 locals from the legal profession, Jurats, who act as judges, elected politicians and assorted guests. The guests stood to sing the national anthem as the King and Queen took their places on a dais. The Bailiff, president of the States Assembly, read out a Loyal Address welcoming the couple before Charles delivered his response.
“Mr Bailiff, I am most grateful to you and to the States for the warm welcome you have extended to both my wife and myself, and for the assurances of devotion, loyalty and allegiance to the Crown you have expressed on behalf of the people of Jersey,” he said. “My wife and I have such happy recollections of the welcome we received when we were last here in 2012, to mark the Diamond Jubilee of my late mother.
The King said he was delighted to be visiting Jersey (
Image:Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
“During that visit we met so many Islanders and learned of the high regard and affection in which she was held, and also a great deal about your beautiful and unique island. We look forward to doing so again today during our time here in St Helier.”
When the sitting transitioned to a Royal Court, the King was gifted locally laid duck eggs as a symbol of sustenance, replacing an 800-year tradition of presenting the monarch with two dead ducks. The ritual formed part of a homage paid by five senior seigneurs, or lords of the manor, each of whom stepped up and clasped hands with the monarch, one by one.
When Elizabeth II visited Jersey in 2001, she was presented with two mallards on a silver tray as part of an ancient tradition dating back to the Middle Ages when six seigneurs, or lords of the manor, would pay homage to the sovereign as the Duke of Normandy. Just as the late Queen did not take the dead ducks home, the King will not be packing the duck eggs in his suitcase.
Instead, he was shown the bowl of white mallard eggs by seigneur Pamela Bell, before they were accepted on his behalf by the Receiver General, the King’s representative on the islands. The Queen watched on with a smile.
The trip to Jersey today and Guernsey on Tuesday is their first visit to the two bailiwicks – which are Crown Dependencies off the north-west coast of France – since the King acceded to the throne. The King is known as the Duke of Normandy on the Channel Islands – dating from when William the Conqueror’s son, Henry I, seized the Duchy of Normandy, including the islands, in 1106.
It comes as Charles returns to some public duties, despite his continued treatment for cancer. He attended the busy D-Day commemorations in Normandy, France, at the beginning of June, followed by Trooping the Colour, the Garter Day ceremony and the Royal Ascot. The trip will end the day before the planned State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday, which is also Camilla’s 77th birthday.