King Charles and Prince William Team Up for Rare Royal Ceremony at Westminster Abbey

King Charles and Prince William are becoming a member of forces for an uncommon royal responsibility.

On May 16, the King, 76, and the Prince of Wales, 42, stepped out collectively to attend the Service for the Order of the Bath at Westminster Abbey in London. The commemoration was additional particular as it’s the Order’s three hundredth anniversary yr and the Service for the Order of the Bath occurs solely each 4 years.

The newest iteration is King Charles’ first Service as sovereign and one with a particular highlight for Prince William. The inheritor to the throne might be put in as Great Master of the Order through the ceremony, which incorporates taking an oath and putting in 5 Knights.

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath was created by the Letters Patent of George I in May 1725 and acknowledges the work of navy officers and senior civil servants. The Order revives an older custom tracing again to medieval occasions. According to that lore, troopers would put together to obtain their knighthood with a ritualistic bathtub symbolic of non secular purification and partake in a vigil the night time earlier than receiving their honor. 

The Order of the Bath options three lessons of members: Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross, Knight Commander or Dame Commander and Companion. Women have been admitted to the Order of the Bath in 1971 with Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (and the mom of contemporary working royal Prince Richard) named as the primary Dame Grand Cross. 

King Charles final attended the Service of the Order of the Bath in May 2022 because the Prince of Wales, the standard title for the male inheritor to the throne and one he bequeathed to Prince William upon his accession to the throne in September 2022. 

It’s conventional for the Prince of Wales, as Great Master of the Order of the Bath, to attend its signature service each 4 years, whereas the sovereign solely goes to each different service, or each eight years. King Charles was put in as Great Master by Queen Elizabeth in 1975 when he was 26 and William follows in his footsteps right now.

The father and son each stepped up into elevated royal roles following the Queen’s dying in September 2022 at age 96, with a supply telling PEOPLE that the transition introduced them nearer than ever.

“Talking about the way forward for the nation and their future roles has strengthened their bond,” a supply who is aware of each King Charles and Prince William advised PEOPLE then.

The royal household was rocked by two most cancers diagnoses introduced only a few weeks aside in 2024. Buckingham Palace mentioned that February that King Charles was recognized with most cancers and Kate Middleton shared that March that she was additionally present process remedy for most cancers.

In a remarkably private interview on the bottom in Cape Town, South Africa in November for his 2024 Earthshot Prize, Prince William spoke in regards to the emotional toll of the “brutal” yr.

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“It’s been dreadful. It’s in all probability been the toughest yr in my life,” the Prince of Wales mentioned. “So, making an attempt to get by every thing else and preserve every thing on observe has been actually troublesome. But I’m so happy with my spouse, I’m happy with my father, for dealing with the issues that they’ve executed. But from a private household viewpoint, it has been, yeah, it has been brutal.”

Princess Kates shared in September that she accomplished chemotherapy and mentioned in January that she is in remission, whereas the King’s remedy for most cancers continues into this yr.