According to this video, Prince William trains with the Royal Air Force , Prince William will some day head the British armed forces. What actual power does the British monarch have over the military nowadays? I always thought it was just a symbolic role, but this video suggests otherwise.
Does this help at all:
Interesting. So, according to the cite, the Army and Air Force are creations of Parliament and are annually reauthorized by it, but the Navy exists at the monarch’s prerogative. Does this mean that the Queen could wake up in a foul mood tomorrow and disband the Royal Navy?
Stems from the sovereign’s prerogative, hundreds of years ago.
It has never been tested, but I suspect that if the monarch decided one day that she actually was going to tell the Royal Navy what to do, the Ministry of Defence and the PM would step in and respectfully request that Her Majesty fuck off out of their business. If she pursued the matter… well, they are influential people. They can get people to abdicate.
The Queen must follow the advice of her ministers in all cases.
Interesting link but does’nt mention that the D.of E. served as a junior naval officer in the Pacific during WW2 and actually saved the ship he was serving on during an air attack by a ruse which I believe was putting a raft over the side with smoke flares or some such.
I would love to give more details but its something that I read in the Daily Mail or the Guardian about three years ago.
Also the Duke of York is no longer the last member of Royalty to serve in action,a prince(cant remember which one)served in Afghan recently.
This assumes that the ministers exist. If someone successfully did a Guy Fawkes - or London got nuked - during a vote of No Confidence or other time when all the members of the cabinet are there, killing all the MPs, then the monarch would be it until things were sorted out.
Prince Harry, but the MoD pulled him out when the media revealed where he was. Prince William is also in the service, but he isn’t on a normal career path. He’ll probally do a brief stint in each service (I think he’s training with the RAF). The Queen herself served in the military during WWII. No other female royalty has done so.