Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to meet with the Queen during this week’s royal tour. The monarch kicked off the week carrying out engagements with the second-in-line to the throne, Prince William, and is set to meet up with her daughter Princess Anne, on Wednesday and Thursday in honour of Holyrood Week. This is an annual tour where the Queen pays tribute to “Scottish culture, achievement and community”, according to the official royal website.

       In a tweet, the Palace explained: “Her Majesty is connected to Scotland by ancestry and deeply held affection.

       “The Queen has visited almost every area of Scotland from Outer Hebrides to Dumfries, meeting Scots from all walks of life.”

       However, this year’s tour will be especially tense as Ms Sturgeon has renewed her calls for a second independence referendum in the wake of the Holyrood election in May.

       A majority of pro-independence MSPs were elected to the Scottish Parliament, which Ms Sturgeon took as a mandate from the electorate to pursue Indyref2, despite Downing Street’s refusal to hand her the constitutional powers to hold a legitimate public vote.

       The Royal Family are often used for their powers of soft diplomacy by the Government, even though they are expected to remain apolitical, and so some have dubbed the Queen’s Scotland trip a “charm offensive” on Downing Street's behalf.

       However, if Scotland does become independent, there are some republican corners of the Scottish National Party (SNP) who would also push for a referendum on the monarchy.

       Ms Sturgeon’s meetings with the Queen have not always gone to plan either.

       She was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council, a group of advisers who work with the Queen, during her first audience with the monarch back in 2014.

       However, the Palace made a crucial mistake when introducing her.

       The BBC noted at the time that Ms Sturgeon was introduced as the First Minister of the Scottish ‘executive’ rather than ‘government’.

       However, Scottish government sources did “play down the error”, as Holyrood was known as the Scottish executive formally before the 2012 Scotland Act.

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       A Palace spokesperson also acknowledged that this mistake was made by the Queen’s equerry because of incorrect information on the court circular.

       The spokesman explained: “It was a mistake on our part and it reflected what was set out in tomorrow’s court circular.

       "We are currently trying to correct that.”

       Scottish government sources said it was “not an issue”, and Ms Sturgeon went on to say relations with the Palace were “very good, very strong, very positive”.

       However, the error added to underlying tensions at the time.

       There was a flurry of speculation that the Queen had intervened with the first Scottish independence referendum seven years ago, especially as voters had hit the ballot box just months before their first audience.

       The Queen came under fire for advising well-wishers to “think very carefully about the future” when she was in Scotland shortly before the referendum — an act which was perceived as a gesture of support for the No Campaign.

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       Yet, Ms Sturgeon publicly said: “I have no issue with anything the Queen did or didn’t say during the referendum.

       “The Queen and the Palace made clear she was not taking a position during the referendum campaign.”

       Then-Prime Minister David Cameron also claimed the Queen “purred down the line” when he told her the No Campaign had been victorious, a confession which infuriated the Palace.

       Prince William, too, has been accused of meddling with Scottish politics after he met with former Prime Minister and now Unionist campaigner Gordon Brown during his last visit north of the border.

       However, the Palace maintained that the Duke of Cambridge was meeting with representatives across the political spectrum in Scotland.

       Still, Ms Sturgeon also discouraged William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, from visiting Scotland when they undertook a tour of the UK in early December.

       Although the trip was only intended to thank NHS workers, Ms Sturgeon said that the Palace had been informed that Scotland was under strict coronavirus rules at the time which prevented all but essential travel — and the royal tour was not considered particularly essential.

       Speaking on Pod Save The Queen, royal commentator Russell Myers even said Ms Sturgeon “couldn’t hide her disdain” when asked about the tour in a press conference, after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had ignored her warnings.

       It’s also been speculated that Ms Sturgeon might be anti-monarchy herself, after she did not curtsy when she met the Queen in 2019 — but she did bow.

       But, the First Minister has described the monarchy as a “model that has many merits”.

       However, the SNP's health minister Humza Yousaf said in 2016: "Most people in the SNP -- it would hardly be a surprise to you -- would at some point like to see our head of state elected.

       "But for the purpose of independence we said we could keep the Queen as head of state."