Yesterday in Edinburgh, the King made solemn promises to the people of Scotland – to uphold the laws of Scotland, to ensure the prosperity of Scotland, and to reign in the interests of the Scottish people.
The King made these promises as the Crown of Scotland was presented to him, the actual crown of every Scottish Monarch since Mary, Queen of Scots, 500 years ago.
This crown may not have been placed on his head, but the service in St Giles’ Cathedral was King Charles’ coronation as the King of Scotland just as much as the service in Westminster Abbey was his coronation as the King of the United Kingdom.
The awesome ceremony did not change his constitutional position. He was already King of Scotland. But its symbolism and the effect of those symbols has an enduring importance.
On the King. He will feel personally the importance of the promises he has made, and the responsibilities he owes to Scotland. Watching the King as he made his promises to Scotland there could be no doubt he understood their importance.
He will act on them. He has the most profound commitment to Scotland. He always has.
Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey are the two personal homes he feels most connected to.
On the people of Scotland. If there was any sense the King didn’t care, or England was his overriding concern, support for the King and probably for the Union in Scotland would plummet. Of course there are republicans in Scotland, maybe more than in other parts of the UK.
But polls over a long time suggest support for the monarchy in Scotland substantially outweighs opposition. It was strong under the late Queen and has grown stronger.
Where the national leadership of the UK appears to disdain Scotland in the way that Margaret Thatcher or Boris Johnson did, the ties that bind Scotland and England are severely strained. As they would be if there was any doubt about the head of state’s understanding of and commitment to the special place of Scotland.
The promises made and meant in St Giles’ graphically demonstrate that commitment.
I found the service hugely expressive of what it means to be Scottish in the UK.
It emphasised Scotland’s separateness and cohesion – Scotland is palpably a nation and it came together, from the SNP First Minister to the ex-Tory Lord Chancellor Knight of the Thistle, to present its crown to a King, who understood how much Scotland matters within the union.
The widespread acceptance of the King as the head of state in Scotland demonstrated by the service will not solve the constitutional or any other political divisions in Scotland.
But it is a necessary building block of the union, and a profound unifier of what sometimes seems a divided nation.
