When Will Prince Charles Be Crowned King?
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After 70 years on the British throne, Queen Elizabeth II has died at age 96, the Royal Family has confirmed on Twitter. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," the tweet said. "The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."
With Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son, Charles, 73, next in the line of succession, many are wondering when the former Prince of Wales will officially be crowned King. The answer is kind of complicated, and it lies in the difference between becoming king and being crowned king. Allow us to explain.
When will Prince Charles become King of England?
Charles is already King, and it happened the moment the Queen died. According to University College London's Constitution Unit, the immediate transmission of monarch status comes from an old common law rule known as Rex nunquam moritur, which translates to "the king never dies."
At 73 years old, Charles is the oldest British royal in history to take the throne. (For the sake of comparison, Queen Elizabeth II was 25 when the death of her father, King George VI, vaulted her onto the British throne.)
Charles' wife, Camilla, automatically became Queen when Charles became King.
When will Prince Charles be crowned King?
A British coronation ceremony symbolically crowns a King or Queen after they've already ascended the throne. British coronations have historically happened a few months after the death of the previous ruler, so as not to overlap with the period of mourning. Queen Elizabeth II's coronation took place on June 2, 1953, roughly four months after she officially became Queen.
Because Charles became King the instant Queen Elizabeth II died, his crowning ceremony—whenever it eventually takes place—will commemorate an event that has already happened. In other words, he'd be King whether or not he ever had a coronation ceremony. (As UCL's Constitution Unit points out, Edward VIII carried out his brief reign in 1936 without ever officially being crowned king.)
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