King Charles ‘duped by senior aide into appointing colleague to Palace role’

King Charles was cynically duped by a senior courtier into signing a document appointing a colleague to a job at the Palace – while the monarch was recovering after a bout of his cancer treatment, it has been claimed.

The incident has sparked a furious row in Charles’s court – with one of his closest aides said to have ‘gone ballistic’.

Meanwhile the King’s private secretary has been forced to order an embarrassing U-turn on the appointment.

The courtier at the centre of the extraordinary bust-up is Garter King Of Arms David White, who is understood to have been on the receiving end of a severe dressing-down.

Mr White is accused of ignoring long-established court procedure and instead using ‘back channels’ to secure the King’s signature on his preferred choice for a senior appointment at his department, the College of Arms.

This happened when the King was in London for his ongoing cancer treatment, when staff are under instructions not to burden him.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s like a trick from the Middle Ages. There’s been a huge row behind the scenes.

‘Some people believe that David White deliberately tried to get to Charles behind their backs so that he could get his preferred candidate into the role.

‘What David may not have realised was that the King was tired. In other words, he was at his most vulnerable, which is why proper procedure exists.

‘When the King is in London he is here to receive treatment and therefore that can often be a challenging time for him. The aides closest to Charles knew him well enough to know he should have been left in peace at that time.’

Mr White’s role as Garter King of Arms is to advise the monarch on matters of heraldry and on how to conduct royal ceremonies. He stood on the balcony at St James’s Palace to proclaim Charles as King on September 10, 2022.

However, he does not have responsibility for recommending candidates for Royal Household roles to the King.

When the senior post of Secretary of the Order of the Garter came up at the College of Arms – a Royal Household department that creates and maintains coats of arms – Mr White hoped to appoint a colleague, Peter O’Donoghue, already a herald at the college.

More senior Buckingham Palace aides had been formally advised to put forward another candidate, and were planning on recommending him to the King for the job. Normal procedure would see such paperwork go through official channels – being included in the King’s red boxes and vetted by his private secretaries.

But instead Mr White had one of his assistants pass his letter of recommendation directly to her husband, who works at the Palace, to place in front of the King.

Insiders described Mr White’s move as a deliberate ambush to circumnavigate the King’s comptroller and his private secretary, Colonel Michael Vernon and Sir Clive Alderton.

When contacted by The Mail on Sunday by telephone, Mr White declined to comment.

At the end of the conversation it was apparent that he thought he had hung up, but he can be heard telling a colleague: ‘S***. She has got wind. She’s got wind of the fact that I nominated Peter O’Donoghue, that he had been put forward.’

A Royal Household source said: ‘That direct approach to the King should never happen. It should always go to the private secretary. Michael Vernon went ballistic that David decided to circumvent the whole system. I think Clive Alderton is equally irritated by it.’

The Mail on Sunday understands Mr O’Donoghue has now been passed over for Stephen Segrave, the Secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.

Mr White was appointed to his role in 2021 and has become a controversial figure. He was left off the honours list after he forgot to say ‘God Save the King’ during the Queen’s funeral – a mistake said to have irritated King Charles.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.