The Duke of Sussex will wear his uniform during a final vigil during which he and the queen’s seven other grandchildren will stand by her coffin. Royal reporter Omid Scobie says that King Charles III’s reversal came about following thousands of complaints that Harry was not permitted to wear a uniform during the queen’s coffin procession. His uncle Prince Andrew got special approval to wear his military uniform during the Vigil of the Princes, which saw him and his three siblings standing guard by their mother’s coffin. Andrew was stripped of his military titles in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused a 17-year-old victim of sex trafficking. Scobie said that it is understood that the palace “caved to public sentiment” with regards to Harry’s attire. The Guardian reports that it was the king’s request that both his sons be in uniform. At the special 15-minute vigil on Sunday, Prince William will stand at the head of his grandmother’s coffin and Prince Harry will stand at the foot beside his cousins Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Princess Anne’s children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips will stand on either side of William, while Prince Edward’s children Lady Louise and James Viscount Severn will stand on either side of the coffin. During the procession of the queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster—where the queen will lie in state until her funeral on Monday—Harry was conspicuously wearing his morning suit while his other relatives wore traditional military regalia. Before the coffin procession, the controversy over whether Harry would be permitted to wear a uniform (the duke served in the British army for 10 years, much longer than his brother the new Prince of Wales) reached such a pitch that he was compelled to release a statement via his spokesperson. They said that Harry will wear a morning suit at the funeral for his grandmother and went on, “His decade of military service is not determined by the uniform he wears and we respectfully ask that focus remain on the life and legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” Next up, Here’s How the Royal Beekeeper Informed the Queen’s Bees that Her Majesty Had Died
