Why the King Is “Defender of the Faith” (And Why Charles Almost Changed It)

0:00 Ah Calarougus, shark, media and low, and welcome to Pallace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Frances. There is a moment in every coronation that tends to disappear beneath the gold coaches, the crowns, the trumpets and the spectacle. It lasts only a few seconds, but it may be the most important constitutional moment of the entire ceremony. The archbishop asks the new sovereign to promise that he will maintain the Protestant religion established by law and preserve the Church of England. The King answers that he will. For Americans, that can sound rather odd. The President of the United States but never makes such a promise because the American Constitution deliberately separates church and state. Britain never did. That single fact explains an enormous amount of the British monarchy. It is something many people outside the UK never fully appreciate. The monarch is not simply Britain's head of state. He is also the supreme governor of the Church of England. He appoints archbishops and, although always on the advice of the Prime Minister. His coronation takes place during a Christian religious service.

1:06 His official title includes the words Defender of the Faith. That title has become the center of a quiet but fascinating debate during the reign of King Charles the Third. Has Charles changed what it means? Or have people misunderstood what the title was always supposed to represent. Those questions have resurfaced after another round of commentary suggesting that Charles has attempted to redefine the monarchy's relationship with Christianity. But this debate did not begin when he became king, began decades earlier, when he was still Prince of Wales. And to understand it we have to go back much further than that. We have to begin with a pope that surprises most people because Defender of the Faith sounds like a title created by the Church of England. It wasn't.

1:50 In fifteen twenty one, England was still a Catholic country. Nary the eighth had not yet divorced Catherine of Aragon. There was no Church of England. Martin Luther's ideas were spreading across Europe, and Henry decided to enter the theological debate. He published a book defending the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church and attacking Luther's ideas. Whether Henry wrote every word himself or I had considerable help from scholars still debated, but the book impressed Popely the tenth enough that he awarded Henry a special title for die Defenser Defender of the Faith. Henry was delighted. If someone had told him that within fifteen years he would be excommunicated by that same church, he probably would have laughed. Henry wanted his marriage annulled so he could marry Anne Berleyn. The Pope refused.

2:34 Henry responded by breaking with Rome altogether. Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in fifteen thirty four, declaring that the King the Pope was the supreme head of the church in England. Pope Paul the third Leo, the tense successor, who had been watching England's break with Rome with increasing alarm, naturally revoked Henry's title. The English Parliament gave it back, not immediately. The formal restoration came a decade later, in fifteen forty four, when Parliament passed an act conferring the title on Henry and his heirs in perpetuity. That decision tells us something important about the English Constitution. Parliament believed the title no longer belonged to Rome to grant or remove.

3:14 It now belonged to the crown itself. Every English monarch since has carried it. When James the sixth of Scotland became James the First of England in sixteen o three, he inherited it. When Queen Victoria ascended the throne, she inherited. Elizabeth the Second inherited, Charles the Third inherited five centuries after Henry the eighth first received it. Those four words remained part of the king's official style, but what do they actually mean? That question is surprisingly difficult to answer because the answer has evolved. The King is not the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. That role belongs spiritually to the Archbishop of Canterbury, nor is the King a priest, bishop or theologian. His role as constitutional the title Supreme Governor was deliberately chosen during the reign of Elizabeth the First because because it avoided suggesting that the monarch exercised spiritual authority over the Church. The sovereign protects the church's constitutional position within the British state, while its religious leadership belongs to the bishops more powers in just a moment.

4:18 Over the centuries, it has survived civil war, revolution, empire, industrialization, two World Wars, and the collapse of Britain's global empire. Remarkably, the basic arrangement still exists twenty six Bishops continue to sit in the House of Lords. Parliament still opens with prayers, The coronation still takes place in Westminster Abbey. The monarch still promises to preserve the Church of England for centuries. This caused relatively little controversy because Britain was overwhelmingly Christian. That began to change after the Second World War. Immigration transformed the country. Britain became home to large Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities, all along with growing numbers of people who identified with no religion at all. The monarchy suddenly found itself representing a country that looked very different from the one Queen Elizabeth I inherited in nineteen fifty two.

5:05 Elizabeth handled that transition with characteristic steadiness. She never appeared uncertain about her own Christian faith. Her annual Christmas broadcasts frequently reflected on the teachings of Jesus Christ, she spoke naturally about prayer, forgiveness, and service. At the same time, she made a point of visiting mosques, synagogues, temples, and gurdwaras she welcomed leaders from many faith communities to Buckingham Palace. She understood that while the monarch occupies a specifically Christian constitutional office, the sovereign reigns of a people of every religion and none. There was remarkably little controversy about the way Elizabeth balanced those responsibilities. Then came Charles. Even as a young prince, Charles displayed an intellectual curiosity that set him apart from previous heirs to the throne. He was interested in architecture, environmentalism, traditional farming, philosophy, and comparative religion.

5:54 He developed friendships with Muslim scholars, He studied Islamic art. He spoke with Jewish leaders, seek leaders, Hindu leaders, and representatives of the Orthodox churches. Some people admired this enormously. They saw a thoughtful future king trying to understand the country he would one day serve. Others worry that he seemed almost too interested in every religion except the one he would someday be constitutionally responsible for. Defending those concerns exploded into public view in the nineteen nineties after Charles made what sounded like a very small suggestion in a nineteen ninety four television documentary presented by Jonathan Dimbleby. He wondered aloud whether he might prefer to think himself not as defender of the faith, but as defender of the divine, not one missing word, a different word entirely. To many listeners, it sounded like an intriguing piece of royal philosophy, to constitutional scholars that raised rather more pointed questions. The words defender of the faith are not merely decorative. They are woven into statute. The Coronation Oath is governed by an Act of Parliament dating to sixteen eighty eight. The what I cannot simply decide to update it. More fundamentally, the title points toward a specific constitutional arrangement. One established church, one sovereign who is its supreme governor, one promise made publicly before God and the nation substitute the divine for the faith. And you are not just softening the language.

7:13 You are quietly suggesting that the arrangements itself might be negotiable. Charles, for his part has always insisted he has been misunderstood. He was not proposing to abandon the Church of England. He was reflecting on how a monarch might hold his Christian responsibilities while genuinely caring for subjects of every faith. He had spoken of wanting to be a protector of faiths, not instead of defending the established church, but alongside it. Over time, most reasonable people came to accept that Charles was describing a pastoral instinct rather than the constitutional ambition. His coronation in May twenty twenty three settled the question, at least formally. He took the oath. He promised to maintain the Protestant religion established by law and preserve the Church of England. He was proclaimed defender of the faith.

7:58 But Charles being Charles, there was a characteristick wrinkle. Before administering the oath, the Archbishop of Canterbury added a carefully worded preface explaining that the Church of England seeks to foster an environment where people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely. The words of the oath went unchanged, the frame around them shifted just slightly to acknowledge the country that now exists rather than the one that the Oath was written for. It was a very British solution. The Constitution remained intact, the symbolism expanded. Nobody was entirely satisfied and nobody was entirely displeased. Whether that balance holds as Britain continues to change as a question and with the eighth Pope Leo the tenth and Pope Paul the third could not have imagined. But it is, in its way, the same question England has been quietly arguing about since fifteen twenty one. Who defends the faith? Which faith? And what defending it actually requires? And there you have it.

8:50 If you would like to email us addresses the Palace in triggered Gmail of Dark Calm. Please follow us on Spotify. Leave the comment there if you like. By Mark Francis My Things to do You John McDermot. This is Palace intrigue in good terms