Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth countries, Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall, immediately assumed the position of King.
It was not immediately known whether the new King would keep his name. In British royal tradition, Monarchs may change their name upon ascending to the throne. Like his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, however, Charles soon confirmed that he intended to keep his name after becoming King. Sources close to the Royal Family previously suggested that Charles may change his name to George to avoid the historical bad luck of the previous Kings by the same name. King Charles I was overthrown during the English Civil War, and Charles II had no legitimate heir to the throne.
A Statement from His Majesty the King was released following Buckingham Palace’s confirmation of the Queen’s death.
“The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” the statement reads.
“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.”
Accession Council
On the day after the Queen’s passing, King Charles will meet with the Accession Council at St James’s Palace at 10 am. Here, the principal proclamation of the new King will be read out in public from the palace’s balcony. The same proclamation will then be read at the Royal Exchange in the City of London, and that same afternoon, King Charles will hold an audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss and her cabinet. He will also meet with the leader of the opposition, Labour leader Keir Starmer, as well as the dean of Westminster and the archbishop of Canterbury.
King Charles Begins Tour of the United Kingdom
On the fourth day after the passing of the Queen, King Charles will begin a tour of the United Kingdom. On the same day, a rehearsal for the procession of the Queen’s coffin will also take place. The rehearsal procession will take place between Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster, and on the fifth day after the Queen’s death, her coffin will make the journey between the two historic British palaces.
On the sixth day after the Queen’s passing, the state funeral procession rehearsal will take place. The funeral is expected to take place ten days after the Queen’s passing at Westminster Abbey. It will be accompanied by a national two-minute silence across the country at midday, and the service will then be held at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle before the Queen’s burial at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
The new King will, of course, be in attendance.
Coronation
The plans for the official coronation of King Charles have not yet been announced, and it could well be some time before it takes place.
When Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, it took more than a year before her official coronation ceremony. The ceremony is steeped in history and tradition and has remained largely the same for more than one thousand years.
For the last 900 years, the ceremony has taken place at Westminster Abbey in London, and the service has been conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The religious ceremony will be a time of celebration for the country. It is the moment that King Charles will be formally invested with regalia, meaning not just the formal dress of the Monarch but also the powers and privileges that come with being the Monarch.
If history is anything to go by, the official coronation of King Charles could take place in a year or more. The coronation may, therefore, take place in 2023.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
