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Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8th 2022 aged 96. Whilst it was inevitable that something like this would eventually happen, this change of a monarch is, for most people today, in fact anyone under 70, a unique event. My father (born in 1906) was alive during four changes of monarch (three who died and one, even rarer, who abdicated). My sister (born in 1953), and Denise and Jon, had never witnessed such an event.

However, it is very likely that many people alive now will, like my father, witness this event, the death of a reigning monarch and the subsequent change of King, quite a few times in their own lifetime. Depending on how long King Charles III lives, Jon, Denise and my sister may be experiencing this event for the only time. Assuming no unnatural events, Charles will be followed by His son, William who will be followed by His eldest son, George. This is why I said a change of King. If George marries and has children and the eldest is female, only then would we have a Queen again and that could easily be in more than 80 years time.

What is more, in our modern world, the media, and therefore you, the public, has access to events that have never been seen before apart from by those who were a part of them. The life of our late Queen has been covered by that media and I am sure that you will have watched, listened to or read about it. Furthermore I am sure you have seen many of the events that have followed her death broadcast on your screens.

All I will say here is that for most of my lifetime, the Queen has been a symbol of certainty and continuity. She has led my country and the monarchy through generations of change. She was respected and admired all around the world. She was recognised everywhere and her dedication to duty should be a lesson to all of us, however small our duty may be. She came from the past, led us through the present and has left us with a secure future.

I have decided that our piece about the change of monarch would focus more on things you may not know and what actually takes place rather than looking at the people involved or less formal events. There has not really been any change to how the process is carried out for hundreds of years.

The first thing to understand is that some things happen automatically and immediately. As soon as Queen Elizabeth II died, Charles became King. We read that He was present at Her bedside at this moment. I hope so. When the then Princess Elizabeth became Queen on the death of Her father, George VI, She was at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. She had gone on an overseas tour in His place as He was unwell. The rooms in the photo on the left are, I believe, where she was staying and it was said that she climbed up the steps as a princess and came down as a queen. Regardless of where She was, that was when She became Queen under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement. You can read some more that here. As you will read later, although Charles became King the moment His mother died, He was not formally King until a ceremony two days later and, my guess is that He will not have His coronation until next year, 2023, probably in the warmer, drier, summer months but that is just a guess.

Similarly Prince William became Duke of Cornwall at the same time Charles became King, (you can read more here and here) and Camilla became Queen Consort. This title was a direct wish of the late Queen who wrote in a message to the public on Her Platinum Jubilee in February 2022, that "it is my sincere wish that, when the time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service."

The reason Camilla cannot be Queen is that you can only inherit the title King or Queen if you were born into the Royal family. However, in a strange way, a wife of a King is a Queen Consort but Prince Philip, the late Queen's husband, was never known as King Consort while Victoria's husband Albert was known as the Prince Consort. It is again possible, over time, that Camilla will be known as Queen Camilla. The late Queen's mother was, when Her husband George VI was King, usually called Queen Elizabeth until His death in 1952 when She became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. To settle one question I have heard asked, had Charles and Diana remained married then She would have officially been Diana, Queen Consort not Queen Diana.

Prince William, who has now been given the title Prince of Wales, did not get this title at the time His father became King as it is essentially a gift from the monarch not a hereditary title. Hereditary means automatically handed on.

Leaving aside the things which happen immediately, let's look at the more formal matters. For the first time these events were televised and so all of us with access could watch. The first was a meeting which took place in the throne room at St James Palace which was, until Buckingham Palace took its place, the usual home of monarchs when in London This had been the case since Tudor times. It was Henry VIII himself who had commissioned the building of the palace. Interestingly the throne room there only has one throne while the throne room at Buckingham Palace has an extra throne for the monarch's spouse.

The meeting was called the Accession Council and was basically a ceremonial one. It was attended by members' of the Privy Council which is a collection of advisors to the Monarch and is made up of senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. At present there are over 750 members but luckily they didn't all turn up. Also present officially was the Lord Mayor of the City of London, different to the Mayor of London, although he was there as a Privy Councillor, plus senior judges and officials.

The meeting was in two parts but the new King was only there for the second part. In that first part the Lord President of the Council, Penny Morduant, who was only appointed by Liz Truss a few days before, announced the monarch's death. Before you ask how could anyone not know this you must remember that all of this is based on tradition and started hundreds of years ago before there were even newspapers let alone however many TV channels we now have. In those days this was probably the first time anyone knew and it would be even longer before ordinary people found out.

The Lord President then asked the clerk of the council to read out the Accession Proclamation, which confirms the name of the new monarch. This proclamation was then signed by the members of the Royal Family who present, in this case the Queen Consort and Prince William. Next the new prime minister, Liz Truss, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the Lord Chancellor, Brandon Lewis MP, and the Earl Marshall, Edward Fitzalan-Howard who has the title of the Duke of Norfolk, added their signature. It is the Duke of Norfolk, a hereditary Duke but not a Royal one, who is responsible for organising state ceremonies. The Lord President of the Council then made a few more announcements, including stating where artillery guns would be fired and part two began.

The new King then entered the room. First He gave a speech in which He remembered His predecessor, confirmed His loyalty to the constitution, (the mainly unwritten rules which govern the United Kingdom) and asked for support from the nation for the job He must now do. Under the terms of the 1707 Act of Union joining Scotland and England, He also had to sign an oath to maintain and preserve the Church of Scotland.

The Lord President then asked the new King to take certain oaths about His reign and he replied with the one word "approve". Slightly worryingly, and this is a joke, I noticed the King needed a script for this. I guess the script was there so He could see the order of what was happening. He could, if He wanted, object and disappove of any oath but He didn't. The last King who did was George V in 1910 when He rejected the anti-Catholic wording in the declaration oath. The wording was changed in the actual Accession Declaration Act when that was made public also in 1910.

The final part of this ceremony occurs when the Garter King of Arms, England's senior herald, climbs through a window on to the balcony of St James Palace and publicly reads out the proclamation which was signed in Part One. He was joined by the Earl Marshall and other officials wearing traditional heraldic garments. Later the proclamation was read in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh and other locations around the country. I wasn't joking about climbing through a window because to allow people to get out on the balcony they had to remove a window. Luckily for all concerned it was a full length window so no gymnastics were required. At this point Charles was now officially King Charles III of the United Kingdom.

For the final part of this rather long but I think very important piece, I want to tell you about some of the changes you will actually be able to see, some spread over many years. All 29 billion coins in circulation in the United Kingdom have the Queen's head on them. Because of Her long reign, the latest is the fifth portrait created during Her time on the throne. It was done in 2015 when she was 88 years old. New coins must now have the head of Charles III on them. The Royal Mint, who manufacture all our coins in Llantrisant in Wales have not said when the first Charles III coins will be produced nor what His portrait will look like but we do know His head will be facing to the left unlike the late Queen who faces right. Tradition dictates that the direction in which the monarch faces on coins must alternate for each new monarch. It has nothing to do with male or female.

In 1971 we moved to decimal coinage (read here) so all new coins were produced at that time and all had the head of Queen Elizabeth II. However, when I was young, we had coins with the heads of monarchs dating back to Queen Victoria. It will be a very gradual process to change to new coins showing the King's head. Even when these are available, you will not have to hand your coins in to be changed. They will still be legal for years to come.

The same is true of bank notes and stamps. There are about 4.5 billion individual Bank of England notes worth about £80 billion in circulation at the moment and, as with coins, these will be gradually phased out. The Queen has appeared on all Bank of England notes since 1960 but notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks do not depict the monarch.

Since 1967, all stamps issued by the Royal Mail have featured a silhouette of the side profile of Queen Elizabeth II. New stamps will have the head of King Charles III although, again, you can still use the old ones. Another thing you may notice, although as we send fewer and fewer letters these days it may take some time concerns postboxes. Each one has a royal cypher or badge on. New postboxes will now show CIIIR instead of EIIR. By the way the R stands for regina in the case of a queen (regina is Latin for Queen) or rex for a king(and I bet you guessed rex is Latin for king).

Talking of badges some police forces in England and Wales that still feature the royal cypher of Queen Elizabeth II in the centre of their helmet plates will have to make changes and talking about law, barristers and solicitors who were appointed by the monarch to be Queen's Counsel will now be known as King's Counsel and that will happen immediately. New letter heading needed there.

All British passports are issued in the name of Her Majesty and are still valid for travel, but for new passports, the wording on the inside of the front cover will be changed to His Majesty. And obviously the words of the national anthem will change from "God Save the Queen".

Finally, one you can even check out now. On some groceries or similar items you may see the words "By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen". These are products which have been granted a Royal Warrant, meaning that the company who makes them supplies the Royal Households on a regular basis. For over a hundred years the monarch, their consort and heir have each issued their own Royal Warrants. Currently there are about 900 Royal Warrants held by 800 companies. However when the grantor of a royal warrant, namely the three people named above, dies, any Royal Warrants they have issued become void and the company has two years to stop using the Royal Arms. The warrants Charles has issued as Prince of Wales will continue now that he is King because they go with the household, not the title. It is likely that the new King will now grant His son and heir, Prince William, the ability to issue His own warrants.

Extra finally, on a purely personal note, my father met the late Queen at an investiture in 1970, after he had been awarded an OBE. After she bestowed the award on him, they exchanged a few words although he was so overawed that when we asked him afterwards he couldn't really remember what she said. He did say she was very pleasant and spoke quite softly. This occasion also meant I got to drive my fairly new car through the gates of Buckingham Palace and be saluted by one of the guards. We shouldn't have been but the guy was a bit slow in saluting the General in the car in front.

It aslo means that since his death, way back in 1981, I am in possession of his medal and a document which has the signature of both Queen Elizabeth II and, seriously I only just noticed this, Prince Philip who was Grand Master of the Order of the British Empire. They could be stamped on or they could be individually written. That I may never know but as it took me 52 years to notice the "Philip" at the bottom, does it matter?

I have read many times that the late Queen, despite the many solemn occasions on which we all watched her, had a great sense of fun and humour in private. In that case, bearing in mind the royal warrant thing, I wonder whether I can now have a warrant for my birthday as I use a date (July 17th) also used by the new Queen Consort. Worth a try, eh?

I hope that this has shown something about what goes on when the monarch changes. I also hope it will be as many years as possible before it happens again. We 73-year-olds must plod on for a few more years yet.