UK: Prince Charles Succeeds Queen Elizabeth

By Damilare Adeleye

Prince Charles, the former Prince of Wales has become the new king of United Kingdom following the the passage of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday afternoon.

Charles is expected to be proclaimed King in the first 24 hours or thereabout of his mother’s death at St James’s Palace in London.

The proclamation will take in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council with about 700 people entitled to attend.

However, the King's attendance will not be required as he will not be expected to be present at the occasion.

According to report, the Accession Council is made up of members of the Privy Council – a group of senior MPs, past and present, and peers – as well as some senior civil servants, Commonwealth high commissioners, and the Lord Mayor of London.

The death of Queen Elizabeth will be announced by the Lord President of the Privy Council (currently Penny Mordaunt MP), and a proclamation will be read aloud at the event.

The wording of the proclamation – traditionally a series of prayers and pledges, commending the previous monarch and pledging support for the new one will be read at the event

The proclamation is then signed by a number of senior figures including the prime minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chancellor.

The King’s first declaration
The Accession Council meets again – a day later – and this time, the King will attend, along with the Privy Council.

There is no “swearing in” at the start of a British monarch’s reign, in the style of some other heads of state, such as the President of the US. But there is a declaration made by the new King and – in line with a tradition dating from the early 18th Century – he will make an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland.

After a fanfare of trumpeters, a public proclamation will be made declaring Charles as the new King. This will be made from a balcony above Friary Court in St James’s Palace, by an official known as the Garter King of Arms.

He will call: “God save the King”, and for the first time since 1952, when the national anthem is played the words will be “God Save the King”.

Gun salutes will be fired in Hyde Park, the Tower of London and from naval ships, and the proclamation announcing Charles as the King will be read in in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

The coronation is not likely to happen very soon after Charles’s accession – Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in February 1952, but was not crowned until June 1953.