Prince Charles, the former Prince of Wales has become the new King of United Kingdom. This followed the passage of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday afternoon. According to BBC, 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, in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council with about 700 people entitled to attend. However, the King is not expected to be present at the occasion. At the meeting, 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.
The wording of the proclamation can change, but it has traditionally been a series of prayers and pledges, commending the previous monarch and pledging support for the new one.
This proclamation is then signed by a number of senior figures including the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chancellor.
As with all these ceremonies, there will be attention paid to what might have been altered, added or updated, as a sign of a new era.
The Accession Council meets again – usually 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.
