Charles III was formally declared King of England during a meeting of the Accession Council in London on Saturday morning. This is the first time in history that the ceremony has been broadcast on television.
UK networks including BBC, ITV and Sky broadcast the ceremony live at 10am local time as did US networks including NBC, with Savannah Guthrie doing an early-morning special for “The Today Show”.
Broadcasting the accession council ceremony is important and, according to historian Vernon Bogdenauer, “is a sign of times when the monarchy must adapt to a more open and less respectful society,” he told BBC News.
When Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952, there was no discussion of the ceremony having to be televised while a debate ensued about her coronation being broadcast the following year. The event was broadcast on the BBC, with more than 20 million people following to watch it.
Charles automatically became king the moment his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died on Thursday. Thus, the accession ceremony is a purely formal event dating back to 1603 in which a new king is publicly announced. It’s not a coronation that will come later (maybe next year), Bogdanor said, but rather a “symbolic ceremony that confirms what we already know, which is that we have a new king.”
It occurs immediately after the death of the king, usually the next day. Since the Queen died just after 4pm on Thursday, the ceremony took place about 36 hours later, on Saturday at 10am local time.
The Accession Council is composed mostly of members of the Privy Council, who are senior politicians, judges and Commonwealth leaders, among others. The Privy Council was historically an advisory body to the king, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era, but today it is more formal.
Of the 200 members of the Privy Council attending today, the last five were prime ministers – Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair – as well as current and former opposition leaders Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband and the Mayor. London Sadiq Khan.
The ceremony consisted of two parts, the first consisting solely of the Accession Council, which saw the announcement in the picture gallery at St James’s Palace while they were invited to the podium – which included the new Prince of Wales, Prince William, Camilla signed the Queen Consort, the current Prime Minister Liz Truss, and the Lord Chief , Benny Mordaunt, Archbishop of Canterbury and York, Lord Privy Seal, and Earl Marshall – a document attesting to the Declaration. It took about 10 minutes.
After the first part of the Accession Council, the Mayor of London was immediately sent to the City of London to make a public proclamation of King’s confirmation and similar statements were made in Scotland and other regions of the country, followed by a ceremonial gun fire. It goes back to a time before newspapers, radio or live television where the only way to spread the message of the new king was through a herald in the city or someone making the announcement in person.
The second part was in the throne room, where King Charles gave a speech in which he praised his mother and pledged his service to the country. He also performed the oath on “The Safety and Security of the Church of Scotland” which he read aloud and then signed a hard copy. He also confirmed that the Queen’s funeral day would be declared a public holiday.
The next major royal event will likely now be the Queen’s state repose at Wesminster Abbey followed by her funeral. This is believed to happen at the end of next week but the date has not been confirmed at the time of writing.
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