Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Transition from Elizabeth II to Charles III

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

As all of you know, yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II passed away.  Her death will usher in a series of changes, some immediate and others weeks or months from now. As the transition of a British monarch is something that hasn’t happened in most of our lifetimes, it is worth it to take the time to understand exactly how the process works.  Learn more about the end of the reign of Elisabeth II and the beginning of the reign of Charles III on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Search Past Episodes at fathom.fm Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As all of you know, Queen Elizabeth II recently passed away. Her death will usher in a series of changes, some immediate and others weeks or months from now. As the tradition of a British monarch is something that we haven't experienced in most of our lifetimes, it's worth to take the time to understand exactly how the process works and what will be changing. Learn more about the end of the reign of Elizabeth II and the beginning of the reign of Charles III on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. About two years ago, I did an episode on Operation London Bridge, and this was the advanced plan for the death of Queen Elizabeth. at the second. About 200 years ago, the death of a British king was often an unorganized and undignified affair. But with the long reign of Queen Victoria, there was plenty of time to plan for a transition. If you want, you can go back and listen to the episode I recorded on Operation London Bridge. I documented many of the things that would happen in the immediate aftermath of the queen's death. And today, I actually went and checked to see how many parts of the plan were put into action.

Sure enough, most of the plan was put into action. Everything from a BBC television, television presenter dressed in black announcing the news, a notice placed in front of Buckingham Palace, and the royal website was darkened. But before I start talking about the transition, I'd like to talk about just how remarkable the reign of Elizabeth II was in the history of monarchies, not just British or European monarchies, but world monarchies. The total length of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II was 70 years, 214 days. This was almost seven full years longer than the reign of Queen Victoria, who had the previous longest reign for a British monarch. A reign of this length was historic by global standards.

If you look at the reigns of all monarchs throughout history who did not have a regency, meaning they did not ascend to the throne as a child, Elizabeth II had the longest reign that we know of. Louis XIV of France ruled for 72 years and 110 days, but he became king when he was four years old. Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25 when she was already. an adult. The only other monarch with a similar reign was Rama the 9th, the King of Thailand, for 70 years and 126 days. He passed away in 2016. The reign of Elizabeth coincided with the

dissolution of the British Empire. Many former colonies had Elizabeth as their head of state for at least a brief period after independence. That means that at one point or another, she was the head of state for 32 different independent countries, and at the time of her death, she was the queen of 14 different countries. She had 15 different prime ministers serve under her, the first of which was Winston Churchill. She also met every U.S. president that served during her reign, starting with Harry Truman, save for one, Lyndon Johnson.

After all, the ceremonies and services take place, the queen will be laid to rest next to her husband, Prince Philip, at the King George of the 6th Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. Upon the death of a monarch, the heir to the throne immediately becomes the new monarch. There is no moment where there is no monarch. Charles has the distinction of having served as the heir apparent for the longest time in history. He was born before Elizabeth became queen, and he has been the heir apparent for her entire lengthy reign. One of the big questions that was answered was what Charles would take as his regal name.

A monarch doesn't have to take their given name as their regal name. Elizabeth did, but her father, Albert, didn't. Instead, he went by one of his middle names and became King George the Six. After such a long time as heir, many people thought that Charles might pick a different real name just to change up the brand. Also, the previous two kings named Charles weren't necessarily the most successful monarchs. The first got his head chopped off in a revolution, and the second might have had as many as 20 illegitimate children. In addition to becoming king, Charles also inherited a large amount of property that is part of the crown. The crown as an institution is distinct from the personal property of Charles, the person.

property of the crown is always held by the monarch, whoever that might be. Personal property can always be distributed as the monarch should see fit. Included with the crown are all the royal residences, including Windsor Castle and Buckingham Castle. This also includes all of the artwork which is held by the crown. Technically, Balmoral Castle was held by the queen personally, and that will need to be resolved in her will, but most likely that will go to Charles as well. he will also receive the 86 million-pound annual sovereign grant, as well as income from the Duchy of Lancaster. In addition to becoming king, Charles will also have many other changes to his titles. For starters, he was the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cornwall, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Duke of Rossi.

These titles have either been merged into the crown or have been given to his son, Prince William. More on that in a bit. All of the lesser titles Charles might have held, Prince, Duke, Earl, Baron, etc. are all wiped away by becoming king. Charles also becomes the head of all royal orders, including orders such as the Order of the Garter and Order of the Bath. Charles has also granted the title Defender of the Faith, which makes him at least the titular head of the Church of England.

Another thing that changed immediately was the British National Anthem. It changed from God Save the Queen to God Save the King. Almost everyone in the UK will probably have to make an adjustment, as no one has used those lyrics in 70 years. Likewise, new passports will have to be issued in the name of the king instead of the queen. A whole bunch of these subtle name changes will have to be made. For example, Her Majesty's Theatre in London will become His Majesty's Theater. The red postal boxes all over the UK have what is known as the Royal Cipher,

which are the initials of the monarch. These will not be replaced, but any new ones which are built will have CR for Charles Rex, instead of ER, which stood for Elizabeth Regina. These postboxes can stick around a very long time as they are really well built. There are still post boxes with VR on them, dating back to the reign of Queen Victoria. A new monarch will also mean new stamps and currencies with the new monarch's image. As of the moment Charles becomes king, there will be no more stamps, coins, or banknotes issued with the image of Queen Elizabeth. While work is probably being done behind the scenes, I wouldn't expect any new stamps or currency announcements for at least one month,

while the royal family is still an official morning, and probably a few months after that even. While the biggest changes are obviously focused now on King Charles, there will also be implications for other people in the royal family as well, the biggest of which will probably be for his wife, Camilla. Camilla will now become Queen Camilla. In all of the news reports that I've read so far, I've heard people going out of their way to explicitly call her the Queen consort, which is true. The reason is that while there is only one type of king in the United States,

United Kingdom, there are three different types of queens. The first is a queen monarch, which is what Queen Elizabeth was. If there's a queen monarch, there is no one else above the queen. However, if there's a king, then the wife of the king would also be considered the queen consort. Queen Elizabeth's mother, who was also named Elizabeth, was the wife of George the Sixth, and she was Queen Elizabeth. When George the Sixth died, the Queen Consort became the third type of queen, which is a queen dowager, who is just a former queen consort who is now a widow. There was talk of Camilla not obtaining the title of queen when she first married Charles due to the high levels of popularity of Princess Diana.

However, that has since blown over, and she is just now Queen Camilla. The other person who had a change in titles is the now-era-parent Prince William. Prince William is not, at the time of recording this, the Prince of Wales. The title Prince of Wales does not automatically roll over to the air when a new monarch ascends to the throne. Now it's almost certain that King Charles will name William the next Prince of Wales sometime in the next year, but probably not until the coronation ceremony is over, which is at least six months away. Becoming Prince of Wales also requires an investiture ceremony at Carnarvan Castle in Wales. There was an 11-year gap between when Charles

was declared Prince of Wales and his investiture. Given how old Charles is, it's probable that the appointment and the investiture ceremony will not require an 11-year wait this time. Charles did have several titles as next in line to the throne, which have automatically now been given to William. In addition to his title of Duke of Cambridge, William is now also the Duke of Cornwall, which is the traditional English title for the heir, and the Duke of Rossi, which is the traditional Scottish title. There are several other minor titles that William has inherited as well. These include the Earl of Carrick, the Baron of Renfue, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Stuart of Scotland. All of these titles would be extended by proxy to Catherine, his wife, as well as their children. The only other two people who have their titles changed automatically are the children of Harry and Megan.

As the great-grandchildren of the monarch, they were not automatically entitled to use the title Prince or Princess. As grandchildren of the Monarch, they do automatically gain the title of Prince or Princess, as parade decree by George V in 1917. The children of William and Catherine already had the title of Prince and Princess because they were the children of a prince in the line of secession. It is possible that more titles could be bestowed on family members at a later date. There has been talk of Charles's brother Edward being given the title Duke of Edinburgh, which was the title held by Prince Philip, and then given to Charles after his death.

There's one final thing that could possibly change, and it's been discussed by Charles in the past, changing the name of the royal house. The name of the royal house currently is Windsor. This was changed in 1917 by George V, who took the name of Windsor Castle, because it was much more British-sounding than the previous name, the house of Sax, Coburg, and Gotha. The name Sax, Coburg, and Gotha, came from Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband. As children normally take the name of their father, the descendants of Victoria took the name of the house from Albert, like you would a family surname.

In 1917, when the name of the royal family's house was changed, because of the royal family's House was changed because of World War I in Germany. King George also changed something else. He gave the members of the royal family an actual surname. Windsor. Prior to this, British monarchs and members of the royal family didn't have an actual last name. So even though it's almost never used, it does exist. When Elizabeth ascended to the throne, this became an issue. Her husband, Prince Philip, didn't have a surname when he became a British citizen. He adopted the name Mountbatten, which was the title of his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Philip wanted his children to take his name,

so they compromised and agreed that their children would all use the surname Mountbatten Windsor. However, the agreement also said that the name of the royal house would remain the House of Windsor. King Charles is not bound by the decisions of the previous monarch as to the name of the royal house. He had a great deal of respect for his great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, as well as his father, and there has been talk that he would change the name of the royal house to Mountbatten, Windsor. If this were to happen, it might likely not happen for quite a while. It would not be high on the priority list, but it might happen. There will probably be even more changes over time than the ones I've listed.

The monarchy has pretty much unlimited power when it comes to things like titles and honors in the UK and how the royal family operates. After a single monarch ruling for so long, changes should be expected, and any change will probably seem jarring given the extremely long reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who is supporting the show over at patreon.com.

I have show merchandise available there, including hoodies, t-shirts, and stickers. Plus, it really just helps me get this show out every single day, including, of course, weekends and holidays. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone, unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you. to do. I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.