Kate and William seek new royal assistant who speaks Welsh

The Prince and Princess of Wales have advertised for a new assistant private secretary who must speak Welsh.

Whoever gets the job also needs “specific expertise” of Welsh communities, affairs and government, according to the job description.

The new assistant will be responsible for organising many of the Prince and Princess’s public engagements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Based at Kensington Palace, they need to know “conversational Welsh” with fluency described as desirable.

The advertisement, which is now closed to new applicants, did not specify a salary.

The Royal family’s long and complex relationship with Wales might go some way to explain the specific focus of the new role.

King Charles – who has been described as a “Welshophile” – had a home in Carmarthenshire, spent time at university in Aberystwyth and tries to speak Welsh whenever possible, most recently in an address to Senedd members.

Royal relationship with Wales

But the King’s relationship with Wales has not always been positive.

His former title, the Prince of Wales, was used by Welsh princes before Wales was conquered by England in the 13th Century.

Many in Wales have since argued that the title should be given back or scrapped entirely.

In 1969, the former Prince of Wales’ investiture ceremony in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, was the target of protests and even a failed bomb plot.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, King Charles made Prince William and Catherine the new Prince and Princess of Wales.

Many in Wales welcomed the news that the couple, who had lived together as newlyweds on Anglesey, would take on the roles.

But the move reignited calls for the titles to be shelved, with a petition attracting tens of thousands of signatures.