LONDON (Reuters) – Queen Elizabeth, the longest-lived monarch in British history, died Thursday at the age of 96, succeeded by her son Charles.
Here is a description of the protocol surrounding the rise of a new monarch in England.
Charles takes the throne immediately after the death of the monarch. An Ascension Council meets as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours, at St James’s Palace, the monarch’s official residence, to proclaim a successor.
The Council is made up of Privy Councilors who have been advisors to British monarchs since the Norman times. It currently consists of around 670 top politicians, including British Prime Minister Liz Truss.
There are also Spiritual and Temporal Lords, including the bishops of the Church of England sitting in the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the secular peers of the kingdom.
The Mayor of London, senior officials and high commissioners from 14 other kingdoms with the British monarch as head of state also sit on the Council, currently chaired by MP Penny Mordaunt.
All Special Councilors will be invited, but not all will be able to join in a short time. In 1952, after the death of George VI, 191 members joined Elizabeth’s Council of Ascension.
The Council of Ascension is divided into two parts:
EPISODE 1
The Lord President announces the monarch’s death, and the council’s clerk, Richard Tilbrook, reads the text of the Ascension Proclamation aloud.
The so-called platform party, which includes members of the royal family attending, the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Marshal – Edward Fitzalan-Howard, Duke of Norfolk, the leading member of the nobility responsible for organizing state ceremonies – signs the proclamation.
Once signed, the Lord President calls for silence and the Council considers the remaining issues, such as proclamations and instructions for the firing of artillery at Hyde Park and the Tower of London in London.
After Part 1 of the Council, the proclamation is read from the Proclamation Gallery, a balcony in St James’s Palace, by David White, King of the Garter of Arms, who is now England’s veteran herald and whose ceremonial role is a call to duty. A fixed annual salary of £49 in the 1830s.
He is accompanied by Count Marechal and other officials wearing traditional dress.
The proclamation is accompanied by gun salutes and journeys by messengers to Mansion House in the City of London, where it was read on the Royal Exchange. The proclamation is read publicly in other UK capitals – Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff – and elsewhere.
CHAPTER 2
Part 2 of the Council of Ascension is run by the new sovereign, but does not always immediately follow Part 1.
He then takes an oath regarding the safety of the Church of Scotland, as required by law of 1707, when Scotland joins England and Wales to form the United Kingdom. This has been done by all rising monarchs since 1714.
Assuming that Charles chooses to reign under his own name, the oath reads: “I, Charles III, King of the Faith, Defender of the Faith, by the grace of the God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and my other Realms and Territories, swear and swear that I swear to faithfully uphold and uphold the covenant of the true Protestant religion established by the laws made in Scotland pursuant to the Claim, and in particular a law entitled ‘The Act to Securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government.’ The Church and the Government of the Church of Scotland, Worship, Discipline Laws passed in the Parliaments of both Realms for the unification of the two Realms with their Rights and Privileges. And God help me”.
The new monarch then signs two copies of the oath.
source: Noticias
