The role of the monarchy today

In The English Constitution, Bagehot (1826–77) argued that it was incumbent
on monarchs to embody the following qualities:
“The right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.”
Specifi cally, the role and powers of the monarch are best explained by splitting
them into two broad categories: actual and notional.
Actual prerogative powers—those exercised by the monarch
Despite the huge upheavals of recent centuries, the reigning sovereign still
holds the following key constitutional offi ces:
• head of state;
• head of the executive, legislature, and judiciary;
• commander-in-chief of the armed forces;
• supreme governor of the established Church of England;
• head of the Commonwealth (and head of state of 15 of its 53
members);
• the authority from which the Royal Mint derives its licence to coin and
print money (at present, in his or her image).
But so much for their offi cial titles: what does the monarch actually do? And
more specifi cally: which prerogative powers do monarchs personally still
exercise in an age when the government holds sway over most key political
decisions?
The core roles and duties fo the monarch—many of which are largely
ceremonial—include:
• reading Her Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech, or the ‘Gracious Address’—
better known as the Queen’s Speech—at the annual State
Opening of Parliament each October or November, or shortly after a
general election;
• governing the Church of England;
• ‘creating’ peers, and conferring knighthoods and honours in person;
• meeting the prime minister once a week (usually on Tuesdays) to discuss
Cabinet business and to offer advice on affairs of state;
• entertaining visiting heads of state at Buckingham Palace;
• visiting other nations on offi cial state visits—including those of the
Commonwealth—as Britain’s premier overseas ambassador;
• chairing meetings of the Privy Council (a body of advisers made up
of members of the current and previous Cabinets, plus other distinguished
individuals, which issues Royal Charters and Orders in Council
• attending, on horseback, the ‘Trooping the Colour’ (the monarch’s annual
birthday parade, led by regiments of HM Armed Forces).
Although this list of powers may seem feeble in the scheme of things, there
is considerable anecdotal evidence to suggest that recent monarchs have
discharged their duties with some rigour. Queen Elizabeth II is reputed to
have given certain prime ministers a hard time in her weekly audiences by
grilling them on specifi c details of Cabinet business. In her fi rst audience
with then newly elected Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, in 1964, she
famously wrong-footed him by expressing interest in proposals for a ‘new
town’ near Bletchley. Having not yet read his Cabinet papers, he clearly
knew nothing of them. In his 1975 resignation speech, Wilson made a joke
of the episode, saying that he would advise his successors to ‘do their homework’
before meeting the Queen.
In addition to the above prerogative powers retained by the monarch and
his or her immediate family, the monarch has traditionally been called on to
fulfi l a unifying role as a national fi gurehead at times of crisis. The late HM
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother famously toured bombsites in London’s
East End to provide comfort to dispossessed families during the Blitz, while
the Queen’s annual televised Christmas Day address is designed as much to
‘sum up’ the year past and look to the one ahead on behalf of the whole nation
as to update her subjects on her own regal affairs. Such is the onus placed on
the sovereign to ‘speak for the nation’ at times of tragedy or disaster, that the
initial silence of Queen Elizabeth II following the death of Diana, Princess of
Wales and lover Dodi Fayed in a Paris car crash in 1997 became a cause célèbre
among her critics—and allegedly prompted newly elected premier Tony
Blair to appeal to her to make a statement in tribute to her daughter-in-law
(as dramatized in the Oscar-winning fi lm The Queen).
Notional prerogative powers—those deferred to government
Most sovereign powers are exercised ‘on the advice of ministers’, which
means that it is ministers—and the prime minister, in most cases—who take
the necessary decisions. In practice, then, it is the monarch who offers the
‘advice’ to prime ministers, rather than the other way around, and prime
ministers who discharge the following functions:
• dissolving and summoning Parliament—that is, calling elections and
forming new parliaments after the results are in;
• giving the Royal Assent to Bills passed by Parliament;
• appointing ministers and other senior public offi cials, including
judges, diplomats, governors, offi cers in the armed forces, police chief
constables, and Church of England bishops and archbishops;
• devising the legislative agenda for each parliamentary session (year
of Parliament) and writing the Queen’s Speech, which will make these
proposals public at the State Opening of Parliament;
• declaring war and peace;
• the prorogation of Parliament—that is, the suspending of the activities
of Parliament (if not Parliament itself) for the duration of holiday periods,
such as the Summer Recess, and the annual Christmas and Easter
breaks;
• drawing up lists of nominations—in consultation with the leaders of
opposition parties—for peerages, knighthoods, and other honours in
the New Year Honours List and the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
In addition, the monarch may occasionally issue a ‘Royal Pardon’—known
formally as the ‘Royal Prerogative of Mercy’—to convicted criminals. This
tends to happen either when an individual found guilty of a crime is subsequently
pardoned in light of new evidence, or (very rarely) when the actions
and/or behaviour of a prisoner are deemed to warrant their early release
from a sentence. Unlike all other sovereign powers exercised by the government
on the monarch’s behalf, pardons are issued on the advice not of
the prime minister, but of the Home Secretary in England and Wales, and
the First Minister in Scotland, following the introduction of devolution . A recent example of a Royal Pardon was the posthumous forgiveness
offered to families of all British soldiers executed for cowardice during
the Second World War.