Coronations have always been seen as a special and important moment in the early part of a monarch’s reign. To understand why we have coronations, it’s important to understand what has taken place since the death of the previous monarch. Constitutionally, there is never a moment when we do not have a monarch. When the king or queen dies, their heir instantly becomes the new monarch. This is a process called accession, meaning ‘to come to’. It describes how the successor comes to the throne following a monarch’s death. At that very moment, the successor has all the status and authority that they need to be monarch.
