We are delighted to announce that as of today, 1 January 2020, HRH The Princess Royal has become Patron of the Royal Celtic Society, a position she will hold for the duration of this, the Society’s 200th birthday year.
The Celtic Society was founded in Edinburgh on 7 January 1820 by a group of professional and landowning Highlanders who were based in the city. Its initial objective was to encourage the wearing of Highland Dress, which had fallen out of use during the four decades of its proscription following the Battle of Culloden. However, the Society quickly added other strings to its bow.
The Celtic Society almost immediately engaged in promoting education in the Highlands, offering a series of prizes which were highly valued and eagerly competed for. Later, it would emerge as the principal sponsor and defender of the Gaelic language. This was in the era before the foundation of specifically Gaelic organisations such as An Comunn Gaidhealach and the Gaelic Society of Inverness; the Celtic Society pre-empted all of these organisations in protecting Gaelic language and culture through the Clearance period and following the 1872 Education Act, when it was at its most threatened.
The Society received its ‘Royal’ designation from Queen Victoria in 1873. Today, it continues in its core purpose to promote the history, languages, traditions, arts and music of Scotland.
The Princess Royal is our first Royal Patron in 12 decades. In 1840, shortly after his marriage to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert became Patron of the Celtic Society, a position he held until his premature death in 1861. It is noteworthy that this appointment pre-dates, by several years, the royal couple’s love affair with Highland Scotland. Prince Albert was a polymath with the most enquiring of minds; he was genuinely interested in the Celtic languages, which he seems to have studied in considerable depth. In 1864, he was succeeded as patron by his second son, Prince Alfred (pictured right), later Duke of Edinburgh and ultimately reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; there is no record of Prince Alfred relinquishing the position, so the assumption is he remained patron, at least in name, until his death in 1900.
We are most grateful to The Princess Royal for her support in this 200th anniversary year.