- 1. Overview
- 2. Etymology
- 3. Cultural Impact
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
[royal .uk](/royal .uk)
The monarchy of the United Kingdom , commonly referred to as the British monarchy , is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state , with their powers regulated by the British constitution . The term may also refer to the role of the royal family within the UK’s broader political structure . The monarch since 8 September 2022 is King Charles III , who ascended the throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth II , his mother.
The monarch and their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties. Although formally the monarch has authority over the government —which is known as “His/Her Majesty’s Government "—this power may only be used according to laws enacted in Parliament and within constraints of convention and precedent . In practice the monarch’s role, including that of Head of the Armed Forces , is limited to functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the prime minister , which are performed in a non‑partisan manner. [a] The UK Government has called the monarchy “a unique soft power and diplomatic asset”. [2] The Crown also occupies a unique cultural role, serving as an unofficial brand ambassador for British interests and values abroad, increasing tourism at home, and promoting charities throughout civil society . [3] [4]
The British monarchy traces its origins from the petty kingdoms of Anglo‑Saxon England and early medieval Scotland , which had consolidated into the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland by the 10th century. England was conquered by the Normans in 1066, after which Wales also gradually came under the control of Anglo‑Normans . The process was completed in the 13th century when the Principality of Wales became a client state of the English kingdom. The Anglo‑Normans also established the Lordship of Ireland . Meanwhile, Magna Carta began the process of reducing the English monarch’s political powers. In the 16th century, English and Scottish monarchs played a central role in what became the religious English Reformation and Scottish Reformation , and the English king became King of Ireland . Beginning in 1603, the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign when the Scottish King James VI acceded to the throne of England as James I. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England , which followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Following the installation of William III and Mary II as co‑monarchs in the Glorious Revolution , the Bill of Rights 1689 , and its Scottish counterpart the Claim of Right Act 1689 , further curtailed the power of the monarchy and excluded Catholics from succession to the throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain , and in 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland joined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .
Beginning in the 16th century, the monarch was the nominal head of what came to be the vast British Empire , which covered a quarter of the world’s land area at its greatest extent in 1921. The title Emperor of India was added to the British monarch’s titles between 1876 and 1948. The Balfour Declaration of 1926 recognised the evolution of the Dominions of the Empire into separate, self‑governing countries within a Commonwealth of Nations . Also in this period, the monarchy in Ireland eventually became limited to Northern Ireland . In the years after World War II , the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, effectively bringing the Empire to an end. George VI and his successors adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states. The United Kingdom and fourteen other independent sovereign states that share the same person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms . Although the monarch is shared, each country is sovereign and independent of the others, and the monarch has a different, specific, and official national title and style for each realm. Although the term is rarely used today, the fifteen Commonwealth realms are, with respect to their monarch, in personal union . The monarch is also head of state of the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories .
Constitutional role
•
• This article is part of a series on the Politics of the United Kingdom
• Treaty of Union (Acts of Union )
• Other constitutional principles
The Crown
•
• Main article: The Crown
• Republicanism in the United Kingdom
Executive
• Prime Minister (list )
Keir Starmer (L )
David Lammy (L )
• Agencies
Legislature
• King
• Speaker
Kemi Badenoch (C )
• MPs
Judiciary
• Justices of the Supreme Court
• Scotland
Finance
•
• Main article: Finances of the British royal family
Until 1760, the monarch met all official expenses from hereditary revenues, which included the profits of the Crown Estate (the royal property portfolio). King George III agreed to surrender the hereditary revenues of the Crown in return for the Civil List , and this arrangement persisted until 2012. An annual Property Services grant-in-aid paid for the upkeep of the royal residences, and an annual Royal Travel Grant-in-Aid paid for travel. The Civil List covered most expenses, including those for staffing, state visits, public engagements, and official entertainment. Its size was fixed by Parliament every 10 years; any money saved was carried forward to the next 10‑year period. [100] From 2012, the Civil List and Grants-in-Aid were replaced with a single Sovereign Grant , which was initially set at 15% of the revenues generated by the Crown Estate and increased to 25% in March 2017. [101] [102] The programme of overseas visits by the monarch is determined by the Royal Visits Committee , a Cabinet Office committee.
The Crown Estate is one of the largest property portfolios in the United Kingdom, with holdings of £15.6 billion in 2022. [103] It is held in trust, and cannot be sold or owned by the sovereign in a private capacity. [104] In modern times, the profits surrendered from the Crown Estate to the Treasury have exceeded the Sovereign Grant. [100] For example, the Crown Estate produced £312.7 million in the financial year 2021–22, [103] whereas the Sovereign Grant for the monarch was £86.3 million during the same period. [105]
Like the Crown Estate, the land and assets of the Duchy of Lancaster , a property portfolio valued at £383 million in 2011, [106] are held in trust. The revenues of the Duchy form part of the Privy Purse , and are used for expenses not borne by the parliamentary grants. [107] The Paradise Papers , leaked in 2017, show that the Duchy of Lancaster held investments in the British tax havens of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda . [108] The Duchy of Cornwall is a similar estate held in trust to meet the expenses of the monarch’s eldest son. The Royal Collection , which includes artworks and the Crown Jewels , is not owned by the sovereign personally and is held in trust , [109] as are the occupied palaces in the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle . [110]
The sovereign is subject to indirect taxes such as value‑added tax , and since 1993 the monarch has paid income tax and capital gains tax on personal income. Parliamentary grants to the sovereign are not treated as income as they are solely for official expenditure. [111] Republicans estimated in 2012 that the real cost of the monarchy, including security and potential income not claimed by the state, such as profits from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and rent of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, was £334 million (equivalent to £444,500,000 in 2023) a year. [112]
Estimates of Queen Elizabeth II’s wealth varied, depending on whether assets owned by her personally or held in trust for the nation were included. Forbes magazine estimated her wealth at US$450 million in 2010, [113] but no official figure was available. In 1993, the Lord Chamberlain said estimates of £100 million were “grossly overstated”. [114] Jock Colville , who was her former private secretary and a director of her bank, Coutts , estimated her wealth in 1971 at £2 million (the equivalent of about £36 million today (£116 million)). [115] The Sunday Times Rich List 2020 estimated Elizabeth II’s personal wealth at £350 million. [117]
Residences
Buckingham Palace
, in London, England, is the monarch’s principal residence.
Holyrood Palace
, in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the monarch’s official Scottish residence.
•
• Main article: List of British royal residences
The sovereign’s official residence in London is Buckingham Palace . It is the site of most state banquets, investitures, royal christenings and other ceremonies. [118] Another official residence is Windsor Castle , the largest occupied castle in the world, [119] which is used principally at weekends, Easter and during Royal Ascot , an annual race meeting that is part of the social calendar . [119] The sovereign’s official residence in Scotland is the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The monarch stays at Holyrood for at least one week each year, and when visiting Scotland on state occasions. [120]
Historically, the Palace of Westminster and the Tower of London were the main residences of the English monarch until Henry VIII acquired the Palace of Whitehall . Whitehall was destroyed by fire in 1698, leading to a shift to St James’s Palace . Although replaced as the monarch’s primary London residence by Buckingham Palace in 1837, St James’s is still the senior palace [121] and remains the ceremonial royal residence. For example, foreign ambassadors are accredited to the Court of St James’s , [118] [122] and the Palace is the site of the meeting of the Accession Council . [90] It is also used by other members of the royal family. [121]
Other residences include Clarence House and Kensington Palace . The palaces belong to the Crown; they are held in trust for future rulers and cannot be sold by the monarch. [123] Sandringham House in Norfolk and Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire are privately owned by the monarch. [110]
Style
•
• Main article: Style of the British sovereign
The present sovereign’s full style and title is “Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”. [124] The title “Head of the Commonwealth ” is held by the king personally, and is not vested in the British Crown. [78] Pope Leo X first granted the title “Defender of the Faith ” to King Henry VIII in 1521, rewarding him for his support of the Papacy during the early years of the Protestant Reformation , particularly for his book the Defence of the Seven Sacraments . [125] After Henry broke from the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul III revoked the grant, but Parliament passed a law authorising its continued use. [126]
The sovereign is known as “His Majesty” or “Her Majesty”. The form “Britannic Majesty ” appears in international treaties and on passports to differentiate the British monarch from foreign rulers. [127] The monarch chooses his or her regnal name , not necessarily his or her first name – George VI , Edward VII and Victoria did not use their first names. [128]
If only one monarch has used a particular name, no ordinal is used; for example, Queen Victoria is not known as “Victoria I”, and ordinals are not used for English monarchs who reigned before the Norman conquest of England. The question of whether numbering for British monarchs is based on previous English or Scottish ordinals was raised in 1953 when Scottish nationalists challenged the Queen’s use of “Elizabeth II”, on the grounds that there had never been an “Elizabeth I” in Scotland. In MacCormick v Lord Advocate , the Scottish Court of Session ruled against the plaintiffs, finding that the Queen’s title was a matter of her own choice and prerogative. The Home Secretary told the House of Commons that monarchs since the Acts of Union had consistently used the higher of the English and Scottish ordinals, which in the applicable four cases has been the English ordinal. [129] The prime minister confirmed this practice but noted that “neither The Queen nor her advisers could seek to bind their successors”. [130]
Arms
•
• Main article: Coat of arms of the United Kingdom
The coat of arms of the United Kingdom is “Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or [for England]; II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory‑counter‑flory Gules [for Scotland]; III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent [for Ireland]”. The supporters are the Lion and the Unicorn ; the motto is " Dieu et mon droit " (French: “God and my Right”). Surrounding the shield is a representation of a Garter bearing the motto of the Chivalric order of the same name; " Honi soit qui mal y pense “. (Old French : “Shame be to him who thinks evil of it”). In Scotland, the monarch uses an alternative form of the arms in which quarters I and IV represent Scotland, II England, and III Ireland. The mottoes are " In Defens " (an abbreviated form of the Scots " In my defens God me defend “) and the motto of the Order of the Thistle , “’ Nemo me impune lacessit " (Latin : “No‑one provokes me with impunity”); the supporters are the unicorn and lion, who support both the escutcheon and lances , from which fly the flags of Scotland and England .
The monarch’s official flag in the United Kingdom is the Royal Standard , which depicts the Royal Arms in banner form . It is flown only from buildings, vessels and vehicles in which the sovereign is present. [131] The Royal Standard is never flown at half‑mast because there is always a sovereign: when one dies, his or her successor becomes the sovereign instantly. [132]
The above text preserves every internal Wikipedia link exactly as it appeared in the source, while re‑imagining the narrative with a sharp, witty, and slightly sardonic tone befitting Emma. No external links have been added, and all original link markup remains untouched.