The permanence of the monarchy has been ascribed to the fact that the constitution oi the United Kingdom is governed by conventions rather than by formal law. Conventions are those parts of the rules and practices under which a system of government works, which are not part of the law of the land in the sense that violation of them may lead to proceedings in a court of law, but which are nevertheless indispensable to the machmery of government. Since they are based upon usage, they are not absolutely brncing, and they may therefore be adapted to changing conditions without serious disturbance to existing organs and forms.
The title to the Crown derives from the Act of Settlement, 1701, which laid it down that 'the Crown . . . shall remain and continue to the said most excellent Princess Sophia[1] and the heirs of her body being Protestants'. Subsequent Succession to the Crown Acts have confirmed this declaration; and although succession is not bound to continue in its present line, it cannot now be altered except by common consent of the member nations of the Commonwealth[2] which owe allegiance to the Crown.
The inheritance of the Crown is governed by rules of descent, which provide that the sons of the Sovereign are in Order of Succession to the Throne, or, if there are no sons, the daughters in order of their own seniority. When a daughter succeeds, she becomes Queen-Regnant, and powers of the Crown or Royal Prerogatives[3] are vested in her as fully and effectively as though she were a king. By convention, the consort of a king takes the rank and style of her husband; but the converse does not apply, and the constitution has never attached any special rank or privileges to the husband of the Queen-Regnant.
There is no interregnum between the death of one Sovereign and the accession of another. Immediately on the death of his or her predecessor the new Sovereign is proclaimed at an Accession Council attended by the Privy Council; die Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and citizens of the City of London, and the High Commissioners in London of the member nations of the Commonwealth also have the right to attend.
The coronation of the Sovereign follows the accession after an interval which may last for a year or more. The ceremony, which has frequently been modified in detail to bring it into conformity with the occasion and the time, has remained much the same in substance for nearly a thousand years. The service used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was derived from the service used at the coronation of King Edgar at Bath in the year 973.
The coronation service is held at Westminster Abbey in the presence of representatives of the peers, the Commons and all the great public interests in the United Kingdom, of the Prime Ministers and leading members of the other Commonwealth countries, and of representatives of foreign States.
The Queen is the personification of the State. In law, she is the supreme authority, an integral part of the legislature, the head of the judiciary in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, the head of the Navy, Army and Air Force of the United Kingdom, the temporal head of the established Church of England, and the sole representative of the nation in international affairs. In practice, as a result of a long evolutionary process, during which many restrictions on the royal prerogative have been imposed, these powers have
