United Kingdom has a King Now

Nazeer Waris

United Kingdom has a king now. King Charles III was crowned on Saturday, May 6. He was designated the King of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on September 8, 2022 soon after her mother Queen Elizabeth II passed away after being the monarch of England for close to 70 years.

Rules of the British monarchy say the first offspring of the King or Queen becomes the titular head of the United Kingdom. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth was the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom from 1952 till 2022. Charles is now 74. King Charles' full name is Charles Philip Arthur George. He shares his birth date with India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru i.e., November 14, although he was born on this date in 1948.

King Charles was crowned last Saturday at the Westminster Abbey in London at a grand ceremony attended by several heads of states which included wife of the President of the United States, India's vice president Jagadeep Dhankhar, French President Macron etc. For 900 years, the Westminster Abbey has been hosting the coronation ceremony. King Charles is the 40 monarch to be crowned there. History of British monarchy goes back to about 1,200 years.

Egbert who ruled from 827 to 839 is said to be the first monarch who established a stable rule over all of Anglo-Saxon England. But the current dynasty is traced from May 1, 1707 when Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland merged. After several changes over the centuries, the official name of Great Britain now is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There have been 13 monarchs since May 1, 1707.

Of these, three monarchs were queens while ten were kings. At the coronation ceremony, the King makes a declaration to uphold the constitutional government and in line with a tradition dating from the early 18th Century. He also takes an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland. There is also a new title for Charles' wife, Camilla, who becomes the Queen Consort - consort is the term used for the spouse of the monarch.

The coronation ceremony is an Anglican religious service, carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the climax of the ceremony, he will place St. Edward's Crown on Charles's head - a solid gold crown, dating from 1661. This is the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, and is only worn by the monarch at the moment of coronation itself (not least because it weighs a hefty 2.23 kilogram).

Charles has become head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.5 billion people. For 14 of these countries, as well as the UK, the King is head of state. India earlier being a colony of the British empire, is also a member of the Commonwealth.

The countries where the British monarchy is also head of the state are: Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu.