Prince Charles assumes British throne, Coronation may take a year
By Solange Reyner From Newsmax
Prince Charles immediately assumed the British throne with the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Thursday, but won’t be crowned anytime soon because a formal coronation ceremony won’t happen for months, or maybe longer.
“He will be crowned probably in a year,” Kate Williams, history professor at England’s Reading University and author of “Young Elizabeth: The Making of the Queen,” told PEOPLE. “The coronation ceremony usually takes a year because it’s seen as unseemly, really, to have a coronation ceremony straight after someone’s death. It’s a long period of mourning.”
Elizabeth, 96, died peacefully Thursday afternoon at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. All four of her children and her grandson Prince William traveled to Balmoral to be at her side.
She was Britain’s longest reigning monarch, marking 70 years on the throne this year.
The British monarchy’s rules state that “a new sovereign succeeds to the throne as soon as his or her predecessor dies.”
That means Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son, became king immediately upon her death.
However, several formalities must take place after Charles ascends the throne.
- Within 24 hours of a monarch’s death, a new sovereign is proclaimed formally as soon as possible at St. James’s Palace in London by the “Accession Council.” This is made up of officials from the Privy Council, which includes senior Cabinet ministers, judges, and leaders of the Church of England, who are summoned to the palace for the meeting.
- Parliament is then recalled for lawmakers to take their oaths of allegiance to the new monarch.
- The new monarch will swear an oath before the Privy Council in St. James’s Palace to maintain the Church of Scotland, according to the Act of Union of 1707.
- The proclamation of the new sovereign is then publicly read out at St. James’s Palace, as well as in Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast – the capital cities of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.
- Charles must declare to Parliament on the first day of its session following the accession, or at the coronation, whichever is first, that he is a faithful Protestant. The oath is mandated by the Accession Declaration Act of 1910.
- He must also take a coronation oath as prescribed by the Coronation Oath Act of 1689, the Act of Settlement of 1701 and the Accession Declaration Act.
- He must be in communion with the Church of England, a flexible rule which allowed King George I and King George II to reign even though they were Lutherans.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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NOTE: — Britain’s new monarch will be known as King Charles III.
