Theresa Villiers MP has published the following article on the Accession Council which took at the weekend:
"I felt hugely privileged to be asked to attend the Accession Council on Saturday, to see history unfolding before my eyes.
This meeting is a key part of the pageantry of the momentous change through which our country is going. Its purpose is to proclaim the new sovereign. It is largely composed of Privy Councillors who are serving and former members of the Cabinet. I was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as a Privy Councillor in 2010, at the request of the then Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Jumping on the tube from my home in Barnet that morning, I arrived early and was ushered into one of the splendid, gilded, reception rooms of St James’s Palace to see many familiar faces.
It took me back a few years when I spotted people like Tony Blair, Nick Clegg and Lord Mandelson. Six former Prime Ministers were there in the front row, along with representatives of the other countries of which the British monarch is Head of State, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Grenada.
Whilst we were all clad in sober black, brightly dressed heralds gave a splash of colour to the proceedings.
The Accession Proclamation read out. We responded with a loud and enthusiastic “God Save the King” and were ushered through to a magnificent Throne Room, waiting with huge anticipation for the arrival of His Majesty. Greeted with formal bows and curtseys, our new sovereign spoke of his “beloved mother Queen Elizabeth II” and promised to seek the “peace, harmony and prosperity of the peoples of these islands”.
Then trumpets then rang out from the balcony of St James's Palace and the proclamation was read out to the assembled crowds. The band of the Coldstream Guards struck up the national anthem and people yelled their approval for our new King.
Normally Privy Councillors meet with the monarch in private and are sworn to secrecy regarding what goes on. But that tradition was dispensed with for this one very special occasion. Cameras were let in so that people around the whole nation, and the world beyond, could witness this centuries old ceremony for the very first time.
One other longstanding tradition was observed though – that meetings of Privy Councillors take place standing up. It was one of the greatest privileges of my life to have been there in the room for this event, but I have to admit that standing up for a couple of hours in a hot crowded room made me slightly worried that someone was going to keel over (possibly me!) but thankfully no one did."
The photo was taken in 2016 at Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology at Queen's University Belfast during a visit by the then Prince of Wales.
