No formal investiture for Prince of Wales, William confirms on first visit to Welsh Parliament

  • The Prince of Wales met the leaders of the four parties in the Senedd and members of the Welsh Youth Parliament

The Prince of Wales has said there are no plans or any formal investiture ceremony during a visit to the Senedd.

The Prince met the leaders of the four parties in the Senedd – Welsh Labour, the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Kensington Palace said the visit was “in order to deepen his understanding of the issues and opportunities of greatest importance to the Welsh people”.

ITV Wales' political editor, Adrian Masters said on Twitter the Prince is "acutely aware of the political controversy which still surrounds his father’s investiture in 1969."

Prince William will finish his visit by meeting with the Welsh Youth Parliament, where he will hear about issues affecting the younger generation.

King Charles III would not want the new Prince of Wales to go through what he did during his 1969 investiture, a former Senedd Presiding Officer said in September.

Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas shared details of conversations he had with then-Prince Charles during his time as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport.

King Charles was officially invested with the title Prince of Wales by the Queen during an event staged at Caernarfon Castle in July 1969.

But ahead of it, a protest movement grew in Aberwystwyth - and there was even a bomb plot.

Credit: Adrian Masters, ITV News Wales

Charles announced that William and wife Kate would become Prince and Princess of Wales on September 9, the day after the death of the Queen.

A few days later, William spoke on the telephone to Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales, in a conversation in which the prince spoke of his “deep affection for Wales”.

The prince, who served as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot when living on Anglesey with wife Kate, “expressed his and the Princess of Wales’s honour in being asked by the King to serve the Welsh people” during that call.

William and Kate travelled to Anglesey and Swansea on September 27 – when royal mourning ended – to meet people and communities in Wales.