Monarchy in Prince Edward Island

What is today Prince Edward Island was discovered and claimed by John Cabot for King Henry VII; though, it was in 1523 also claimed by Giovanni da Verrazzano for King Francis I, putting Île Saint-Jean, as Verrazzno called it, under the sovereignty of the French Crown. As a consequence of the Acadians' refusal to swear allegiance to King George III and their subsequent expulsion from British-controlled Nova Scotia, between 1755 and 1764, Île Saint-Jean's population rose to approximately 5,000.[16]

(Clocwise from top) Prince Edward in 1799; the coat of arms of Prince Edward; the King's Arms in Right of Prince Edward Island with the gold lion passant drawn from the Prince's arms

However, these new arrivals found themselves once again under the British Crown following the signing of the 1762 Treaty of Fontainbleau, which transferred sovereignty over the island from King Louis XV to King George III,[17] who merged it with Nova Scotia. The following year, the Earl of Egmont presented an elaborate memorial to the King, asking that the Island of Saint John be granted to him and divided into baronies. After initially denying Egmont's request,[18] George, swayed by Egmont's second petition in 1767, approved. On 19 July 1769, Saint John Island was separated from the jurisdiction of Nova Scotia and became its own colony of the British Crown.[19]

During the American Revolutionary War, which took place between 1775 and 1783, Charlottetown was raided by a pair of US-employed privateers[20] who imprisoned the colonial administrator, Phillips Callbeck,[21] standing-in during the absence of Lieutenant Governor Walter Patterson. Both as the conflict proceeded and after it ended, some 46,000 American settlers loyal to the Crown, known as the United Empire Loyalists, fled north to the Maritimes and other colonies in the Canadas. The King-in-Council granted each family 0.81 square kilometres (200 acres) of land.[22] Though the majority settled on the mainland, the government of St. John's Island had some success with its effort to attract the exiles,[23] about 2,000 of them immigrating to the colony.[24]

One of George III's sons, Prince Edward, arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1794. Though Edward never visited the island (a planned royal tour in 1800 was cancelled after the Prince was injured in a riding accident[25]), he, as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, ordered that new barracks be built in Charlottetown and defences constructed to protect the harbour;[26] completed in 1805, this was named the Prince Edward Battery.[25] (The cannons there today bear the royal cyphers of both Edward's father, King George III, and Edward's daughter, Queen Victoria.[25]) Recognising the Prince's interest in the island, its legislature passed a bill that received royal assent on 2 February 1799, with effect on 6 June of the same year,[25] changing the colony's name in honour of Edward.[27] The gold lion passant on the modern arms of the King in right of the province refers to Prince Edward's coat of arms.[25] Kent College, named for Prince Edward's Dukedom of Kent, was established in 1804 by Lieutenant Governor Edmund Fanning and his Legislative Council. The college would eventually become the University of Prince Edward Island.[25]

Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1864, four years after he visited Prince Edward Island, making him the first member of the royal family to do so

By 1843, construction of Province House was begun and the laying of the cornerstone was followed by a royal salute and three cheers for Queen Victoria.[28] Not four years after, the Legislative Assembly adopted an address to the Queen, asking for the establishment of responsible government in the colony, as had been done in a number of other jurisdictions in the Canadas, and the request was soon thereafter granted.[29]

The Liberal Reform Party won the plurality of seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1850 and made responsible government a key goal. They faced opposition from Lieutenant Governor Ambrose Lane, but, would not relent and the legislature "virtually went 'on strike'" the following year, voting non-confidence in the Executive Council and refusing to pass supply bills. The impasse was finally overcome when the Lieutenant Governor invited George Coles to form a PEI's first responsible government.[30]

Prince Albert Edward (the future King Edward VII), the eldest son of, and heir to, Queen Victoria, landed at Charlottetown, on 10 August 1860, where he was welcomed by George Dundas, the colony's Lieutenant Governor, and proceeded to Government House. There, the Prince held audience with the Executive Council and, later, attended a formal ball and levee. Albert Edward toured the countryside and visited Province House, where he received an addresses from the Executive Council. Upon his departure, the Prince left £150 with the Governor for charitable use.[31]

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, in Charlottetown, 2011

Queen Elizabeth II attended the 100th anniversary of Prince Edward Island's entry into Confederation. Her son, Prince Charles (now King Charles III), toured the island in 2014, following his son, Prince William, and William's wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who travelled through PEI in 2011. While he was in Charlottetown, William gave a speech at Province House, standing where his ancestor, Prince Edward, had stood 151 years before, and said, "it is quite a moment for Catherine and me to be standing here in the Atlantic Canada, in front of Province House, where Canadian federation was forged [...] Here, in the crucible of Canadian nationhood, we look forward to meeting many of you."[32]

Prince Charles at Holland College, 2014

In 2022, Prince Edward Island instituted a provincial Platinum Jubilee medal to mark the Queen's seventy years on the Canadian throne; the first time in Canada's history that a royal occasion was commemorated on provincial medals.[33]