Charles III has been crowned monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms. The coronation was held at London’s Westminster Abbey and included a lot of tradition and spectacle. Charles is the oldest sovereign to be crowned at 74 years old. He has spent his whole life as heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II.
Charles’s wife, Camilla, was also crowned during the ceremony. She went from being a one-time royal mistress to “queen consort” and now queen.
The line of succession to the throne was established in the seventeenth century. Parliament declared that James II had abdicated the government and offered the throne to James’s daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, rather than his young son James. The Act of Settlement confirmed that the title to the throne was determined by Parliament. The succession is governed not just by descent but also by Parliamentary legislation. The only eligible candidates for the throne are Protestant descendants of Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover and granddaughter of James I.
The Succession to the Crown Act (2013) revised the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement to abolish the concept of male primogeniture and repealed the regulations that barred persons who married Roman Catholics from the line of succession.
Prince Harry and Andrew were both in attendance at Charles III’s coronation but were relegated to the third row of seating and did not join the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Harry and his wife Meghan quit royal duties in 2020 and Andrew has been frozen out over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein and a related sexual abuse allegation which was settled out of court.
