Queen Elizabeth, the monarch of the United Kingdom for more than seven decades, passed away on Thursday at the age of 96.
Following is an explanation of the British court’s laws involving the accession of a new sovereign, as well as a summary of the monarch’s duties and obligations.
According to the British constitution, a monarch succeeds to the throne immediately upon the death of his or her predecessor, and there is no interregnum.
The new monarch is officially declared king or queen by the Accession Council, to which members of the Privy Council are summoned. The Privy Council is a group of several hundred handpicked royal counselors, including cabinet members.
Given the hereditary nature of the monarchy, a full Privy Council session is only convened upon the accession of a new sovereign or when the king declares his or her desire to marry.
Lords Spiritual and Temporal (bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords, as well as secular peers of the realm) and high commissioners from Commonwealth nations are also invited to attend the Accession Council which declares the new sovereign.
After a period of mourning, the coronation, which is essentially a formal ratification procedure, follows the accession. Elizabeth II was crowned in June 1953, sixteen months after the death of George VI.
The coronation takes held at Westminster Abbey in London in the presence of politicians, eminent public personalities, and international delegates.
Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain
Only Protestant descendants of a granddaughter of James I of England (Princess Sophia the Electress of Hanover) are permitted to ascend to the throne, as stipulated by the 1701 Act of Settlement.
Prior to the passage of a new rule in 2013, being married to a Roman Catholic also disqualified a prince from succession.
Nonetheless, a Catholic cannot become monarch.
The 2013 legislation also eliminated the priority given to the male line, meaning that no royal born after October 28, 2011 would be disadvantaged in succession to the throne on the basis of gender.
The spouse of the deposed monarch plays no role in the succession, as the consort’s official function in perpetuating the dynasty ends at procreation.
Except in the unique case of William III and Mary, who ruled jointly, the monarch reigns alone. The spouses of male royals are awarded the rank and status of their husbands, although the male consorts of female royals do not automatically receive a title.
If the new sovereign is a minor, the old king or queen appoints a regent to perform the formal duties of the monarch until the new monarch attains maturity.
Traditionally, the sovereign is believed to represent the state he or she presides over and to serve as a link between the countries comprising the United Kingdom. In law, the sovereign is head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and supreme governor of the Church of England.
In actuality, he or she rubber stamps government choices and rules by the will of the legislature. The king convenes and adjourns parliament, and invites the leader of the winning political party to become prime minister and establish a government.
In the past, when there was a “hung parliament” and no party had an outright majority, the king may use some discretion in appointing a leader, but this is no longer expected.
The British sovereign is also the head of the Commonwealth of nations, which came out of the British empire, as well as the head of state of fourteen other states.
Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu are included.
Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain
The monarchy is the oldest secular institution in Britain, with the royal line tracing its ancestry back to William the Conqueror in 1066 and even to Egbert of Wessex, widely regarded as the first English king in 829.
The monarch is referred to as “Your Majesty.”
Her formal title was “Her Most Excellent as Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”
Reuters