An irregular visit from a monarch to a pub in Lancashire has left its regular customers in pleasant shock. The monarch of Lesotho, His Majesty King Letsie III was meeting an old school friend but chose the most unusual location of a pub to do so.
The 55-year-old monarch and Anthony Forsythe, his ex-classmate at Ampleforth School, North Yorkshire, met in the Barrow Pub in Lancashire.
The Lancashire pub was, however, not making its first link with the King, who has a signed official football jersey from his country hanged in the pub.
“The king sent it to Anthony and he gave it to us so we had it framed,” Sue Driver, the owner of the pub said. “We never expected anything like this. It was quite a shock,” she added
According to a spokesman for the Lesotho High Commission in the UK, the king was on a private visit to the UK when he called up his old friend to meet him at the pub.
The king arrived in a black limo and mixed with locals as well as his friend.
King Letsie III succeeded his father, King Moshoeshoe II, who was dethroned in 1990.
Five years later after the return to civilian government and amid political instability, he abdicated and his father was reinstated as monarch.
Letsie III was restored as king in 1996 after his father died in a car accident. The monarch has no legislative or executive powers.
