Thank you, Anne. This is another interesting and informative video. I did note the sea of phone cameras outside St James's Palace during the proclamation that day and found it an unfortunate and disconcerting, yet entirely predictable, sight.
Hello, this has brought back memories for me of those ceremonies here in the UK. Even in my little town of Abingdon we had the new king proclaimed and I went to it. The local proclamation took place in the market place in the centre of the town, not far from the local council offices. It was led by our mayor (robed), with the rest of the town council in attendance and various other notables, including our local MP. The timing of the proclamation had to be later than the one in the nearby city of Oxford, partly because of the custom that the proclamations are made first centrally and then more and more locally down the chain of command (so to speak), but also because we share our MP with the western half of Oxford, so we had to wait for her to get here after attending the ceremony there first. It was very strange for me in my 60s to attend such a thing for the first time in my life (on average they take place about every 25-30 years, and my mother had lived in the reigns of 4 different monarchs). The poor mayor, trying to say 'God save the King', quite clearly started out of habit to say 'God save the Qu---' and had to check himself and change the word; and then we sang God save the King as the national anthem, again for the first time in my life. It still feels a bit strange even now.
Elizabeth II was proclaimed 'Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland' etc in 1952. That was changed to 'Northern Ireland' shortly afterwards.
London has just a Bishop, only two Archbishops in England, Canterbury & Wales. From memory the Proclamation was only read by a Herald in the Capital cities, ie London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. In my city, (made a "city" in 1898 as part of Queen Victoria's 1897 Jubilee) the proclamation was read by the High Sheriff of the County in which it now sits, it having ceased to be a County Borough in its own right after the 1972 Local Government Act reorganisations. In some smaller places the local Borough Mayor read the Proclamation. The High Sheriff in all counties did this I believe. It is a particularly ancient office which I presume has no equivalent in the Realms? Another video maybe? ;-)
Minor correction - the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London are not actually local, since they represent the neighbouring City of London. The Lord Mayor of Westminster, where St James’ Palace is actually located, is not invited. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London are historically invited as representatives of the financial powerbrokers of the kingdom, rather than as local representatives. (Also the Bishop of London is not an Archbishop.)
I have to wonder whether the new king particularly wished to retain 'Charles' as his regnal name; after all, there's no reason he'd want to pay tribute to the regicided Charles I or libertine Charles II. As far as I can tell, the actual Christian names of British royal heirs weren't widely known before ERII - they were known only by their (mutable) titles, e.g. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York (George VI, James II) - so it was no big deal for them to choose any regnal name they wished. In our more informal era, though, as the king's Christian name has always been publicly known, I imagine that the British public would find it pompous if he had chosen a different regnal name (imagine if he'd chosen 'Arthur', one of his middle names!) and would mock him for it so he was no doubt advised to stick with 'Charles'. I foresee that from now on, and for however much longer the British monarchy exists, regnal names will always correspond to Christian names. Anyway, another wonderfully informative video, great work, Professor Twomey!
Yes, it's interesting that so many in the past did not use their first given name, but I agree that choosing a different regnal name is less likely to occur in the future.
Thank you, Anne. This is another interesting and informative video. I did note the sea of phone cameras outside St James's Palace during the proclamation that day and found it an unfortunate and disconcerting, yet entirely predictable, sight.
Hello, this has brought back memories for me of those ceremonies here in the UK. Even in my little town of Abingdon we had the new king proclaimed and I went to it. The local proclamation took place in the market place in the centre of the town, not far from the local council offices. It was led by our mayor (robed), with the rest of the town council in attendance and various other notables, including our local MP. The timing of the proclamation had to be later than the one in the nearby city of Oxford, partly because of the custom that the proclamations are made first centrally and then more and more locally down the chain of command (so to speak), but also because we share our MP with the western half of Oxford, so we had to wait for her to get here after attending the ceremony there first. It was very strange for me in my 60s to attend such a thing for the first time in my life (on average they take place about every 25-30 years, and my mother had lived in the reigns of 4 different monarchs). The poor mayor, trying to say 'God save the King', quite clearly started out of habit to say 'God save the Qu---' and had to check himself and change the word; and then we sang God save the King as the national anthem, again for the first time in my life. It still feels a bit strange even now.
Thanks for sharing that. It's a lovely part of the world.
Elizabeth II was proclaimed 'Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland' etc in 1952. That was changed to 'Northern Ireland' shortly afterwards.
London has just a Bishop, only two Archbishops in England, Canterbury & Wales. From memory the Proclamation was only read by a Herald in the Capital cities, ie London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. In my city, (made a "city" in 1898 as part of Queen Victoria's 1897 Jubilee) the proclamation was read by the High Sheriff of the County in which it now sits, it having ceased to be a County Borough in its own right after the 1972 Local Government Act reorganisations. In some smaller places the local Borough Mayor read the Proclamation. The High Sheriff in all counties did this I believe. It is a particularly ancient office which I presume has no equivalent in the Realms? Another video maybe? ;-)
Minor correction - the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London are not actually local, since they represent the neighbouring City of London. The Lord Mayor of Westminster, where St James’ Palace is actually located, is not invited. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London are historically invited as representatives of the financial powerbrokers of the kingdom, rather than as local representatives.
(Also the Bishop of London is not an Archbishop.)
Thanks - that's very interesting. It's hard to pick up these nuances from a distance!
I have to wonder whether the new king particularly wished to retain 'Charles' as his regnal name; after all, there's no reason he'd want to pay tribute to the regicided Charles I or libertine Charles II. As far as I can tell, the actual Christian names of British royal heirs weren't widely known before ERII - they were known only by their (mutable) titles, e.g. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York (George VI, James II) - so it was no big deal for them to choose any regnal name they wished. In our more informal era, though, as the king's Christian name has always been publicly known, I imagine that the British public would find it pompous if he had chosen a different regnal name (imagine if he'd chosen 'Arthur', one of his middle names!) and would mock him for it so he was no doubt advised to stick with 'Charles'. I foresee that from now on, and for however much longer the British monarchy exists, regnal names will always correspond to Christian names. Anyway, another wonderfully informative video, great work, Professor Twomey!
Yes, it's interesting that so many in the past did not use their first given name, but I agree that choosing a different regnal name is less likely to occur in the future.