Privy Council (United Kingdom)
His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Caricature by Thomas Rowlandson titled Privy Council of a King (1815); throned is George IV, then Prince Regent.
Queen Victoria convened her first Privy Council on the day of her accession in 1837.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British Constitution. The term may also refer to the role of the royal family within the UK's broader political structure. The current monarch is King Charles III, who ascended the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
Ministerial folder with the monarch's emblem
The English Bill of Rights of 1689 curtailed the sovereign's governmental power.
In 1603 James VI and I became the first monarch to rule over England, Scotland, and Ireland together.