Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s monarch for more than seven decades, died on Thursday last week aged 96.
The following is an explanation of the rules of the British court regarding the accession of a new sovereign and a description of the powers and responsibilities of the monarch.
Under the British constitution, a sovereign succeeds to the throne the moment his or her predecessor dies, before even being proclaimed to the people, and there is no interregnum.The new monarch is officially proclaimed king or queen by a special body called the Accession Council, to which members of the Privy Council — a group of several hundred selected royal advisers including members of the cabinet — are summoned.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
A full Privy Council session is only called on the accession of a new sovereign or when the monarch announces an intention to marry, an event of great importance given the hereditary basis of the monarchy.
Also invited to attend the Accession Council which proclaims the new sovereign are the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (that is bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords, together with the secular peers of the realm) and high commissioners from Commonwealth nations.
The sovereign’s coronation, in effect just a formal ratification procedure, follows the accession after an interval of mourning. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in June 1953, 16 months after George VI died.
The coronation takes place at London’s Westminster Abbey in the presence of politicians, eminent public figures, and representatives from countries around the world.
The sovereign reigns by grace of the 1701 Act of Settlement, which lays down the rules of succession, decreeing that only Protestant descendants of a granddaughter of James I of England (Princess Sophia the Electress of Hanover) can take the throne.
Until a new law in 2013, being married to a Roman Catholic also barred a royal from a place in the line of succession. However, a Catholic can still not become monarch.
The 2013 legislation also removed precedence being given to the male line, meaning that any royal born from Oct. 28, 2011, would not be discriminated against in succession to the throne based on gender.
Traditionally, the sovereign is held to personify the state, which he or she heads, and to symbolize a common link between the countries making up the United Kingdom. In law, the sovereign is head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and supreme governor of the Church of England.
In reality, he or she rubber stamps government decisions and reigns through the will of parliament. The monarch summons and prorogues parliament, and invites the leader of the political party which has won a general election to be prime minister and form a government.
The British sovereign is also head of the Commonwealth of nations which grew out of the British empire and head of state of 14 other countries.
These are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
The monarchy is Britain’s oldest secular institution, with the royal family tracing its ancestry back to William the Conqueror in 1066 and even to Egbert of Wessex, generally recognized as the first king of the English, in the year 829.
The sovereign is addressed as “Your Majesty.”
Queen Elizabeth’s official title was “Her Most Excellent Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
(Reuters)
英國在位逾七十年的君主伊麗莎白女王於上週四逝世，享耆壽九十六歲。
以下說明英國皇室新君主即位之規則，以及君主之權責。
根據英國憲法，君主在其前任去世的那一刻即繼承王位，沒有過渡期，即便尚未向人民宣布。
新君主由名為「登基會議」的特殊機構正式宣佈為國王或女王，英國樞密院成員——包括內閣成員在內的數百名選定之皇家顧問——將出席。
完整的樞密院會議只有在新君主即位或君主宣布結婚計畫時才會召開；君主制是以世襲為本，因此該會議非常重要。
亦受邀出席宣布新君主之登基會議的，還有屬靈及世俗的上議院（即坐在上議院的英國國教會主教，以及上議院議員），和來自大英國協國家的政府高層。
君主的加冕典禮，實際上只是一個正式的批准程序，是在新君主即位後，經過一段哀悼期後才舉行。一九五三年六月舉行之伊麗莎白二世女王加冕，是在喬治六世去世十六個月後。
加冕典禮在倫敦西敏寺教堂舉行，政治家、知名公眾人物和世界各國代表出席。
一七〇一年的《王位繼承法》制定了繼承規則，規定只有英格蘭詹姆斯一世孫女（漢諾威選帝侯夫人索菲亞公主）的新教徒後裔才能繼承王位。
在二〇一三年一部新法律頒布前，與羅馬天主教徒結婚之皇室成員也被禁止繼承王位。然而，天主教徒仍無法成為君主。
這項二〇一三年的立法還取消了男性血統的優先權，這表示二〇一一年十月二十八日之後出生的任何皇室成員，其王位之繼承都不會受到性別歧視。
傳統上，君主被認為是所領導國家的人格化，並象徵大不列顛及北愛爾蘭聯合王國組成國家間的共同聯繫。在法律上，君主是行政首腦、立法機關的一部分、司法機關首腦、武裝部隊總司令，以及英國國教之最高領導人。
實際上，君主是在政府決策上蓋橡皮圖章，透過議會的意志進行統治。君主召集議會、休會，並邀請在大選中獲勝的政黨領袖出任首相並組建政府。
英國君主也是大英國協國家及其他十四個國家的元首。大英國協是由大英帝國發展而來。
這十四個國家為安地卡及巴布達、澳洲、巴哈馬、貝里斯、加拿大、格瑞納達、牙買加、紐西蘭、巴布亞新幾內亞、聖克里斯多福及尼維斯、聖露西亞、聖文森及格瑞納丁、所羅門群島，以及吐瓦魯。
君主制為英國最古老的世俗制度，王室之祖先可以追溯到西元一〇六六年的征服者威廉，甚至可追溯到西元八二九年威塞克斯的埃格伯特國王——咸認為英格蘭第一位國王。
對君主之稱呼為「陛下」。
伊麗莎白女王之官方頭銜為「承蒙上帝恩典，大不列顛及北愛爾蘭聯合王國及其其他領土之女王、大英國協元首、信仰之捍衛者伊麗莎白二世女王卓越的陛下」。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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