LIVERYMAN JULIAN FRANCIS GODOLPHIN TO LAUNCH NEW BOOK THE LION AND THE UNICORN 6TH MAY 2025
14 MAY 2025
In 2006 Peter Morgan achieved international success when The Queen won Oscar glory for Helen Mirren and nominations for best director and screenplay. Faced with such success it can often be hard to determine the exact elements that had led to the transmutation of words and ideas into box office gold but luckily for Morgan this was not one of those times.
He has since recounted that looking back over this period of his life he was vividly aware of why he was able to write such a successful screenplay as he had accidentally stumbled onto something of immense significance: the relationship between our most senior political leader and our Head of State – the Prime Minister and the Monarch. He recounts:
Two human beings, in flesh and blood, but also the representatives of their offices. At some level, just by having them sitting opposite one another, even in silence, one was dealing with the British constitution, the bone structure of our establishment in its most elemental form.
This observation was one of the inspirations for my new book On His Majesty’s Service: How the King Preserves the British Constitution as I hoped to figure out the principles that lay at the heart of this relationship. This will allow us to peak behind the curtain and glimpse the inner workings of the government to see the way in which power truly functions. What we find is that the King’s authority and influence can be used to nudge government policy to ensure it stays within the bounds of constitutional propriety.
I felt that a good place to start this quest might be with the King’s role within our constitutional monarchy. This role is largely a symbolic one, but this symbolism is, however, given substance by the existence of his prerogative or reserve powers. These are those discretionary powers that reside in our head of state, enabling them to uphold and support the fundamental constitutional settlements of the system of government of which they are head.
As a parliamentary committee report highlighted the sovereign’s constitutional prerogatives – that is, the discretionary powers that remain within the sovereign’s personal use – include the right to: advise, encourage and warn Ministers; to appoint the Prime Minister and other ministers; to dissolve Parliament; and to assent to legislation.
These powers are vital to the wellbeing of our political system, as they ensure the effective operation of the government and provide the last line of defence against government action that breaches fundamental constitutional principle. The monarch is not merely the symbolic guardian of the British constitution but is the one person who holds the powers of last resort for its own protection.
Seen in this light, our King is a rather more active participant in the constitution then is usually felt to be the case, for he is the protector, guardian, and defender of the constitution. A role that is highlighted in the King’s Coronation Oath, where he swore to ‘govern the Peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, your other Realms and the Territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs.’
From the eighteenth century onwards a division of the executive between a head of state and a head of government cemented our current conception of a constitutional monarchy. Under this system, the sovereign remains the formal head of the executive, but the vast bulk of the
legislative and prerogative powers of the crown are exercised not by the monarch personally but by ministers in the king’s name.
For this process to work, the sovereign must be politically neutral, operating on a level above party politics. This is because almost all public acts of the crown are taken on the advice of his or her ministers who are responsible to Parliament and the electorate for their actions. When ministers advise the monarchy, their advice is generally of such a binding nature that the sovereign has no choice but to accept.
If the king should reject the advice offered, they risk the resignation of the government, an act that would compel the monarch to find another government that would hold office as the king’s personal choice rather than that of the House of Commons. In so doing, the monarch would signal their opposition to one of the main political parties of the state – a situation they could not long survive.
The monarch’s true impact on governmental action does not therefore come from the direct use of power but rather from their exercise of influence on the decision-making process itself through their regular meetings with the Prime Minister, their receipt of all government papers and, as time goes on, their longevity in office. This is a more personal and passive use of power than we are trained to expect from politicians, but it can be just as effective. The monarch should not, therefore, be seen as a mere cypher for the government of the day but as an independent actor on the political stage.
How they exercise this power and help maintain the effective governance of our country is the explored more fully in my book which explores the fact that leadership of our country is split between a symbolic Head of State and a functional Head of Government which depends on the harmonious interaction between both these bodies to be effective. In a world where Prime Ministers must by necessity be careful in whom they choose to confide, their relationship with the Monarch provides an invaluable forum where they can vent, off load and seek advice and support from the one person who will never be a rival. The relationship also allows the King to help guide and advise a Prime Minister in a way that does incur political cost to our politicians.
I am delighted to share with you all my new book which will be launched on 6 May and have arranged a special pre-launch discount code for all members of the company that will get them 20% off if they order it from Biteback today. Please use code MAJESTY20 when ordering your copy. Alternatively, the book can also be found on Amazon if you prefer.
As we enter a new reign, we are left wondering how the King will differ in his approach to the use of his prerogative compared to that that of his mother. The long reign of Queen Elizabeth II has conditioned us to a certain form of royal behaviour, but the monarch is not bound by precedent.
It will be for the King to decide how he should act when called upon to deal with the political issues that are bound to arise in the future. The example of his ancestors will be a guide, but he will also need to pay attention to the circumstance of the moment if he is to weather future storms unscathed.
To that end, it seems timely that we should delve into examples of how the prerogatives have been used in the past so that we can condition ourselves to their potential use in the future.