What happens at the Accession Council? The meeting where Charles will be proclaimed King

King Charles III will be proclaimed the nation’s new monarch at an Accession Council to be convened as soon as possible at St James’s Palace.

The special meeting of the Privy Council is usually held within 24 hours of the death of a sovereign, before Parliament meets, and is the first official event the King will attend.

While its solemn duties have historically been undertaken behind closed doors, this time it will be televised for the first time.

The council will be presided over by Penny Mordaunt MP, Lord President of the Council, and divided into two parts.

The first, held in the banqueting hall or the picture gallery, involves Privy Counsellors who can attend at such short notice, as well as other great officers of state, high commissioners and certain civil servants.

Traditionally, all members of the Privy Council are summoned. But council numbers have swelled from 175 to more than 700 during the Queen’s reign.

As such, following a review, a letter was sent to all members in early 2022 informing them that attendance had been significantly scaled back and that their presence was far from guaranteed.

Only 200 will be invited, with priority given to current Cabinet ministers, former prime ministers and senior judges, as well as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Others were asked to enter an annual ballot for one of the remaining seats.

Founded in 1708, the Privy Council formally advises the sovereign, but its duties are largely ceremonial, including granting Royal charters and extending legislation to British overseas territories.

It is comprised largely of politicians, but Sir Edward Young, the late Queen’s private secretary, and his predecessors are all members, as is the Duke of Cambridge.

The Queen Consort was made a Privy Counsellor in 2016 ahead of the Queen’s official 90th birthday, meaning she will be at her husband’s side when he is formally proclaimed as the monarch.

Ms Mordaunt will open part one with the announcement of the Queen’s death, before calling upon the council clerk to read out the text of the Accession Proclamation.

The platform party, comprising members of the Royal family, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of York, the Prime Minister, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earl Marshal, together with the Lord President, will sign the Proclamation.

Ms Mordaunt will then call for silence and read the remaining items of business, dealing with the dissemination of the Proclamation and various orders giving directions for firing guns at Hyde Park and the Tower of London.

Part two, held in the red-carpeted Entrée Room at St James’s Palace, is considered the first council held by the new monarch and is attended only by Privy Counsellors. It is sometimes held immediately after part one but not always.

When King George VI died in the early hours of Wednesday, Feb 6 1952, part one was held at 5pm that day and it proclaimed his daughter, Elizabeth, as the new Queen.

Part two was held two days later, at 10am on Friday, Feb 8, following the return of the Queen from Kenya.

Meanwhile, when King Edward VII abdicated at 2pm on Friday, Dec 11 1936, parts one and two – proclaiming King George VI as the new sovereign – were held the following day at 11am.

King Charles will open part two with a personal declaration relating to the death of his mother.

In 1952, the Queen addressed the assembled counsellors at St James’s Palace with the words: “By the sudden death of my dear father, I am called to assume the duties and responsibility of sovereignty.

“At this time of deep sorrow it is a profound consolation to me to be assured of the sympathy which you, and all my peoples, feel toward me.”

The King will then take the oath swearing to protect the Church of Scotland.

The oath, necessary due to the country’s division of powers between church and state, has been taken by every sovereign at their accession since George I in 1714.

After reading the oath aloud, the King will sign it, witnessed by members of the Royal family and Privy Counsellors, including Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland.

Ms Mordaunt will conclude the meeting by reading through any remaining orders of business.

Privy Counsellors will sign the proclamation as they leave the palace.

The official record of proceedings will be published in a special supplement to the London Gazette and made available on its website.

Trumpeters from the Life Guards will give three blasts from a palace balcony.

The Garter King of Arms, David Vines White, will then step out and begin the ritual proclamations of King Charles III.

At the same time, a 41-gun salute – almost seven minutes of artillery – will be fired from Hyde Park.

The proclamation will then be read at the Royal Exchange in the City and in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and other locations according to custom.

Source: Telegraph