King Charles is accepting the keys to the kingdom at the start of an important week in Scotland.

On the morning of July 1, the King, 76, stepped out to attend the Ceremony of the Keys in the Gardens of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Palace of the Holyroodhouse is the monarchy’s official residence in Scotland, and the Ceremony of the Keys marked the start of Royal Week.

Royal Week is also called Holyrood Week, and is the designated week the sovereign spends in Scotland each summer (usually from late June to early July) to celebrate the best Scottish culture, achievement and community.

King Charles arrived by helicopter to the Palace of the Holyroodhouse for the historic royal ceremony on the forecourt, which always inaugurates Royal Week. 

There, he met Service Chiefs before receiving a Royal Salute and inspecting the King’s Bodyguard Scotland (Royal Company of Archers) Guard of Honour to the tune of music by a military band. The Royal Company of Archers operates as the sovereign’s “Bodyguard for Scotland,” a position that originated in 1822 when King Charles’ ancestor, King George IV, visited Scotland, and continues to conduct State and ceremonial occasions across the country today.

In the peak of the pageantry, the Lord Provost Robert Aldridge then presented the King with the keys to the city of Edinburgh, who immediately returned them.

After the monarch is handed the keys, they traditionally say: “I return these keys, being perfectly convinced that they cannot be placed in better hands than those of the Lord Provost and Councillors of my good City of Edinburgh.”

It’s tradition for the monarch to be welcomed to Edinburgh, “your ancient and hereditary kingdom of Scotland,” with this exchange, and the custom continued on Tuesday.

The Ceremony of the Keys is a staple on the sovereign’s schedule during Royal Week, as is an investiture ceremony at the Palace of the Holyroodhouse and a palace garden party. According to the royal family’s website, the sovereign’s other obligations during Royal Week vary year to year.

The King seemed to be in good spirits during his solo appearances at the Ceremony of the Keys and investiture that followed on July 1, while Queen Camilla officially opened Rathro Library around the same time. Literacy is a personal passion for the Queen, 77, and one she has incorporated into her official platform of royal work.

Queen Camilla’s July 1 stop commemorated the Paper Trails campaign launched by the Edinburgh International Book Festival with Edinburgh City Libraries. The initiative endeavors to promote literature in local communities, including a mobile library service that goes to care homes, and is backed by Scottish author Sir Ian Rankin, who joined the Queen at the library.

King Charles and Queen Camilla take on the working week in Scotland as his treatment for cancer continues. In February 2024, Buckingham Palace announced that the King was diagnosed with cancer and commenced treatment, with aides saying in December that the care would continue this year.

“His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year,” palace sources said shortly before Christmas.

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King Charles was briefly hospitalized in March following an adverse reaction to his routine treatment, but sources said his recovery continues to trend in a positive direction.

“The most minor bump in the road that’s very much heading in the right direction,” a source said then.