William Somerset, The Earl of Durham
The Right Honourable The Earl of Durham KT GBE KCMG KCVO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chancellor of Cambridge University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Archbishop of Canterbury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | William Scott-Chester | 9th October, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | British Royalist Party Liberal Progressive Party British Constitutionalist Party The Independent Slate Heron Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent(s) | Elio Somerset, 1st Viscount Douglas, then Henry, Prince of Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence(s) | Blenheim Palace and Hinderton Hall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Gordonstoun School The University of Oxford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Styled | His Royal Highness Prince William, Earl of Durham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coat of Arms |  As the Earl of Durham  As a child of the Sovereign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service | British Army Royal Air Force | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Private (ret.) Pilot Officer (ret.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
William Elio Scott Chester, The Earl of Durham KT GBE KCMG KCVO (joined 9 October 2022) is the son of Charles III, after the disappearance of Elio Somerset, 1st Viscount Douglas his father, and resides primarily at Blenheim Palace and Hinderton Hall when in England. He has state apartments at Kensington Palace from where he performs official royal business.
He is a twice Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury (ex officio), having two consecutive victories in November 2023 and January 2024, being the first Prime Minister to do so since Kalara Sherwood-Somerset in December 2021. He is one of only three elected Prime Ministers to serve over 100 days consecutively, an achievement he shares with Thomas Carew, The Viscount Sidmouth (his immediate Prime-Ministerial Successor) and James Forsyte, The Duke of Warwick.
William is the longest serving Chancellor in the Empire's history, with a total of 228 days in office.
Early Career
He began his career soon after his arrival to the Empire, joining the British Royalist Party during the First Premiership of the Duke of Somerset as Ambassador to The Black Hawks (prior the consulate's dissolution).
It was at this point that he was hired as Third Clerk of the Green Cloth, and Private Secretary to the Prince Royal (later Second Clerk of the Green Cloth, and Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales). During his time as private secretary, he helped organise the Royal Tour - aiming to visit every country within the Empire of Great Britain. However, due to many unforeseen circumstances including unavailability, the tour did not end up reaching all intended countries. William was awarded the Royal Victorian Order (MVO, later LVO) for his work in the Royal Household.
He remained with the British Royalist Party (later Liberal Progressive Party), serving as Chief of Staff and Shadow Home Secretary during the opposition formed in the 22nd Session of Parliament and as Downing Street Chief of Staff and Deputy Foreign Secretary During the Premiership of the Baron Exeter in which he was the Member for Kensington - his first election to the House of Commons.
The 24th and 25th Sessions of Parliament
The 24th Session and Speakership Election
During the historic 24th Session of Parliament, he was elected Member for Kensington and appointed deputy speaker by the then-speaker Elio Somerset, 1st Viscount Douglas. However, after the immediate dissolution of parliament and writ of general election, he failed to be elected to serve in parliament the following session.
The 25th Session and the Unity Coalition
In the 25th Session of Parliament under the Unity Coalition, he assumed his first cabinet position - as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Throughout his tenure communication and relations attempts were made with 4 separate regions, and administrative effort was put into the formation of a Foreign Affairs Update. However, due to military differences, past reputational damages, and other factors, no communications could be established with 2 regions, relations were denied by 2 others, and no Foreign Affairs Update could be published. Despite the lack of material success seen in his term as Foreign Secretary, William was awarded Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) for his work in the Foreign Office.
It was during this session of parliament that the Liberal Progressive Party merged into the British Constitutionalist Party, according to the BCP-LPP merger agreement. According to this agreement, he was to be appointed a cabinet-level position for the next 2 terms of government. However, this was cut short by his resignation from the British Constitutionalist Party in July 2023.
The 26th Session of Parliament and the June Budget Act
Parliamentary Attendance and Criticism
In the 26th Session of Parliament, he was re-elected to the House of Commons as the Member for Kensington, but was criticised for poor attendance - missing over 40% of debates and votes - which he attributed to personal opinion on the duty of MPs and inconvenient timings of voting sessions, stating "I make a choice not to attend a number of debates as I do not feel I have any contribution to make. Why would I waste other people's and my own time to make a needless contribution, especially when I am busy. My absence from voting is often due to unfortunate voting times. They open late and close whilst I am preoccupied in education or work during the daytime hours." These comments received backlash from other candidates in the general election.
Economic Reforms
However, during this session, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, drafting the June Budget Act 2023, which enabled the introduction of the largest economic reform in the Empire's history. His term as chancellor was characterised by mass reform and policy introduction, and large-scale invigoration of the corporate sector - yet the policies implemented did cause significant inflation due to the increased salary figures and new valuation techniques. In a bid to combat this, he introduced higher tax rates (albeit in a new marginal system) and the widely unpopular Goods and Services Tax at 20%. This saw many companies that only operated on government contract profit being taxed at 45%, which was criticised on mass by business owners, and was colloquially known as "Willnomics" or "Josinomics" (after the Chancellor and the then-Prime Minister, Elizabeth Howard-Campbell, 1st Duchess of Edinburgh respectively).
Despite the unpopular nature of the taxation reforms, he received the honour of Knight Commander of the British Empire in the following Empire Day Honours for his work in the Treasury - creating him Sir William Somerset.
The July 2023 General Election
British Constitutionalist Party Leadership Election and Resignation
Before the July 2023 General Election, he ran as a candidate in the British Constitutionalist Party leadership race after the announcement that the former party leader, The Duchess of Edinburgh would be stepping down, but lost to Cameron Romefeller, 1st Viscountess Balloch. After this, he remained in the party until the 20th of July 2023 when - after a number of contentions between him and the party membership / leadership - he left in tandem with August Lleyton, 1st Earl of Stirling. This sparked the formation of the July 2023 General Election Independent Slate.
The Independent Slate
The Independent Slate was unsuccessful in contesting the leadership, with only one candidate being elected into the House of Commons - Sir Tobias Somerset, 1st Baron Stafford. William was eliminated from the election with the second lowest number of first preference votes. However, William was elected in the 27th Session midterm elections after the departure of Elizabeth Howard-Campbell, 1st Duchess of Edinburgh, and subsequently served as Foreign Secretary until the end of the term.
Subsequent Career
Following his initial failure to be elected to the 27th session of parliament, William served in the Royal Air Force as Pilot Officer W. Somerset, and in the Royal Household as Keeper of the Royal Archives and Lieutenant Lord High Chancellor. He maintained the position of Keeper of the Royal Archives until it was given to Owain Carew-Grey after the accession of HM King Charles III. He sits on the Bar Council.
He currently owns Willio Holdings Ltd, managing the five subsidiary companies, and was given Everest Accountancy, Elio financial, and Bob the Builder Inc. after his father's presumed passing on the 15th of September 2023.
Career in the Heron Party
William was the Party Chair of the Heron Party for its first rendition, a title later held by Llywellyn Evans-Jones, The Baron St Brides during its second appearance.
The 28th Session of Parliament
The Heron Party was formed by William before the 28th Session, and secured a majority in the house of commons in a historic election-by-proclamation. This allowed August Lleyton, 1st Earl of Stirling to assume the office of Prime Minister as then-party designate.
Three Herons sat in the 28th Session; William, August, and Thomas H. Wright.
The 29th Session of Parliament
After securing a confidence and supply with Llywellyn Lleyton, the Heron Party formed a minority government in the 29th Session with William as Prime Minister. The legislative agenda had two matters of major contention, the abolition of the Address-in-Reply via the Executive Act 2024, and the economic freeze via the Suspension of Economic Function Act 2023. Both caused prolonged periods of debate between HM Government and HM Most Loyal Opposition, the Liberal Democrats. Ultimately, both bills passed, with the economic freeze receiving vocal support from members of the House of Lords.
Two Herons sat in the 29th Session; William and Thomas.
The 30th Session of Parliament
After the dissolution of the Liberal Democrats, William advised the King to call a general election early, and ran for a second term. He once again secured the support of the Rt. Hon. Llywellyn Lleyton as well as forming the Heron Coalition with the British Renewal turned British Liberal Party. This allowed him to succeed as Prime Minister for a second term, creating the third consecutive Heron Government. He was the first Prime Minister in this term to not undergo the Address-in-Reply test since its creation.
Initially 4 Herons sat in the 30th Session; William, Thomas, August, and Owain Carew-Grey. August resigned, Llywellyn E.J. Lleyton joined the party but later resigned from the House of Commons, and finally Owain resigned from the House too. All cited personal reasons external to the Empire. The term concluded with just William and Thomas as the only Herons in Parliament.
The 31st Session of Parliament and Dissolution of the Heron Party
After announcing his intention to step down from the position of Heron Party Designate during his second term as Prime Minister, internal process appointed Thomas Carew, Baron Knightstone as the new designate. William remained as party chair and supported Lord Knightstone's successful contest of the premiership following the formation of the Concorde Coalition with the British Liberal Party. Through this term, he served as Leader of the House of Lords and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister, having frequent meetings to guide him through his first term.
During the party conference of the 31st Session, the Heron Party re-entered talks with the British Liberal Party regarding the terms of the Concorde Coalition. Although receptive to the prospect of Lord Knightstone continuing a second term, the Liberal Party administration was not satisfied with William's suggestions regarding a term-by-term analysis of support, and after discussions became heated William terminated the agreement altogether after accusations of ableism due to his expression of doubt over the Liberal Party's readiness to lead the region following large absences from their prospective PM candidate.
Following the collapse of party agreement talks, Lord Knightstone abruptly left the Heron Party citing his preference to not oppose his wife, Josephine Carew-Grey, The Baroness Wilton, in an election after she refused to support a Heron Party government whilst William remained as party chair. Both left their respective parties to form the Unionist Party. William refused to resign as chair, and instead gave the opportunity for any party member who wished to follow Lord Knightstone on his journey an "amnesty-of-sorts" (by his own calling) to resign their membership to the Heron Party. After evaluating those that chose to leave, William dissolved the Heron Party on the 1st of May 2024, ending a run of four consecutive Heron Governments.
The mass exodus of Heron Membership to independence forced a general election to be called. All members who left the Heron Party joined the Unionist Party immediately after.
The reformation of the Heron Party and the 34th Session of Parliament
Prior to the 34th session of Parliament, William began work to reform the Heron Party. Unrest within the Unionist Party had lead to multiple members deciding to splinter off at various points over the prior few sessions, many of whom decided to join the Heron Party. For the first time in his career in the House of Commons, Llywellyn Evans-Jones sat in the House of Commons with a party banner - the Herons - although he had previously supported both terms of William's premiership.
The Heron Party quickly grew in numbers, and with a confidence agreement arranged with James R. Kennedy, 1st Baron Scarborough, the Heron Party had an equal number of candidates as the James Forsyte, The Duke of Warwick led three way Unionist-BWP-OWL coalition opposing them. In the election, the Heron Party won the vast majority of votes, with every single MP candidate earning more votes in the election than the Unionist's PM candidate. However, by a single vote James Stephenson secured election to the House of Commons meaning the Herons and Unionists had an equal number of MPs.
Despite the metric of popular vote, the Unionist Party refused to concede the election to the Herons, causing multiple days of stagnated talks as the Unionist leader refused to compromise on allowing a Heron Prime Minister. Ultimately, William conceded to the Unionist's demands and allowed Thomas Carew, The Viscount Sidmouth to be named Prime Minister, with Llywellyn Evans-Jones as Deputy Prime Minister. It was the first election in the Empire's history in which the party with the majority of the popular vote was not a governing party.
Career as Prime Minister
William served two consecutive terms as Prime Minister, being the first to do so since Kalara Sherwood-Somerset. His terms were distinct for their small governments and radical economic policy - being the decision to freeze the economic system in the region entirely. He began Foreign Affairs talks with Europeia and Talonia, hosting events with both regions, although growing unrest regarding the relationship with Europeia towards the end of his second term saw him leave the advice to the subsequent Prime Minister Lord Knightstone to halt talks with the region.
He was the first Prime Minister to serve a term in which the Address-in-Reply was not administered, being his second, after he abolished it through the Executive Act (2024). Lord Knightstone was the first Prime Minister to never undergo the Address-in-Reply since its conception.
His first term as Prime Minister was ended early due to the dissolution of the Liberal Democrats.
Titles, Honours, Degrees, and Patronages
Noble Titles
Earl of Durham, 2nd Viscount Douglas, 2nd Baron Exeter.
Although an Earl, William's displayed coronet is currently that of a child of the sovereign.
Honours Awarded
Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO)
Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE)
Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG)
Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (KT)
Royal Order of Edward IX
Royal Order of Charles III
Degrees Attained
- Bachelor of Laws (LLB) - University of Oxford
Patronages
- Civil Service Club
- Royal Economic Society
- Action for Children
- HALO Trust
- Royal Academy of Music