The
monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the
British monarchy, is the
constitutional form of government by which a
hereditary sovereign reigns as the
head of state of the
United Kingdom, the
Crown Dependencies (the
Bailiwick of Guernsey, the
Bailiwick of Jersey and the
Isle of Man) and the
British Overseas Territories. The current monarch is
King Charles III, who ascended the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother,
Queen Elizabeth II.
The monarch and
their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties. As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to functions such as bestowing
honours and
appointing the
prime minister, which are performed in a non-partisan manner. The monarch is also
Head of the British Armed Forces. Though the ultimate executive authority over the government is still formally by and through the
royal prerogative, these powers may only be used according to laws enacted in Parliament and, in practice, within the constraints of convention and
precedent. The
Government of the United Kingdom is known as
His (Her) Majesty's Government.
The British monarchy traces its origins from the
petty kingdoms of
Anglo-Saxon England and
early medieval Scotland, which consolidated into the 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. Meanwhile,
Magna Carta began the process of reducing the English monarch's political powers. From 1603, the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a
single sovereign. 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 and
Mary 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
Roman 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. The British monarch was the nominal head of the vast
British Empire, which covered a quarter of the world's land area at its greatest extent in 1921.
The
Balfour Declaration of 1926 recognised the evolution of the
Dominions of the Empire into separate, self-governing countries within a
Commonwealth of Nations. In the years after the
Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, effectively bringing the Empire to an end.
George VI and his successors, Elizabeth II and Charles III, 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 in
personal union.
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Prince of Wales - as the title of the British monarchy's heir apparent, that goes back to 1301.
