State Opening of Parliament

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremonial event which formally marks the beginning of each session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. At its core is the Monarch's "gracious speech from the throne", which is also known as the King's or Queen's Speech, is read by the monarch but written by the government of the day. In the speech the monarch gives notice of forthcoming state visits, before setting out the government's legislative programme for the new parliamentary session. No business of either the House of Lords or the House of Commons can proceed until the Sovereign's speech has been delivered.

The State Opening takes place in the House of Lords chamber within the Palace of Westminster on the first day of the new parliamentary session. This traditionally tends to fall in November, but can occur at any time of year depending on the timing of general elections and parliamentary session start dates. It takes place in front of a formal gathering of both Houses of Parliament; the monarch customarily wears the Imperial State Crown and a Robe of State, and members of the House of Lords wear their parliament robes. Members of the House of Commons on the other hand wear day dress.

State Openings of Parliament are documented from as early as the 14th century and the first visual depictions date from the 15th century. The most recent State Opening was held on 13 May 2026, starting the second session of Parliament since the 2024 United Kingdom general election. It was the third of Charles III's reign, the second of the elected Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer, and the second State Opening with a Labour government since 2010.

Significance

The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremony filled with historical ritual, constitutional symbolism and practical significance relating to the governance of the United Kingdom.

Parliament is composed of the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and a State Opening is the only routine occasion when the three are gathered together in one place. The monarch is seated on the throne, at one end of the chamber in front of the Cloth of Estate. The consort, if present, is seated alongside the monarch flanked by an entourage of Great Officers of State and members of the Royal Household. The Lords are seated on "the floor of the House" (i.e. in the main body of the chamber), while the Commons attend at "the bar of the House". The bar is a boundary rail at the far end that is facing the throne.

In addition to the Lords themselves, others are provided with seats on the floor of the House on the occasion of a State Opening, namely:

such members of the Royal Family as His Majesty may direct

Judges summoned by writ

the officers and attendants of the House

such Peeresses and members of the Diplomatic Corps as are in possession of an invitation issued by the Lord Great Chamberlain.

Sequence of events

The ceremonial surrounding the opening of parliament can be broken down into several parts. In some cases a more limited ceremony may take place.

Searching of the cellars

First, the cellars of the Palace of Westminster are searched by the Yeomen of the Guard. This is derived from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, an attempted assassination of James VI and I in which Guy Fawkes was caught guarding gunpowder in the cellars hours before the king was to open the second session of the Blessed Parliament. Since that year, the cellars have been searched, now largely, but not only, for ceremonial purposes. This is supervised by the Lord Great Chamberlain, and the Yeomen are paid for their services with a small glass of port wine.

Assembly of Peers and Commons

Peers and peeresses assemble in the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal wear their Parliament robes for the occasion. They are joined by senior representatives of the judiciary, who sit on woolsacks in the centre of the Chamber, and members of the diplomatic corps, who are seated behind the Bishops. The Commons assemble in their own chamber, wearing ordinary day dress, and begin the day, as any other, with prayers. Beforehand the Speaker's Procession takes place in the usual way: preceded by a doorkeeper, the Serjeant at Arms, leads the Speaker of the House of Commons from his official residence to the Commons Chamber, followed by his trainbearer, chaplain and secretary. In the Central Lobby, a police inspector makes the traditional cry of "Hats off, strangers!", instructing those assembled to remove their hats in deference to the highest-ranking commoner in the realm.

Delivery of parliamentary hostage

On the morning of the State Opening, the Treasurer, Comptroller and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, all of whom are government whips, assemble with other senior members of the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace, carrying their ceremonial white staves of office. The Treasurer and Comptroller, along with other senior members of the Royal Household, accompany the monarch in the carriage procession; but the Lord Chamberlain does not join them. Instead, on behalf of the monarch, he remains at Buckingham Palace keeping one MP, usually the Vice-Chamberlain, "hostage" for the duration of the state opening, by tradition as a surety for the safe return of the monarch. The hostage MP is well entertained until the successful conclusion of the ceremony, when they are released upon the safe return of the monarch. The Vice-Chamberlain's imprisonment is now purely ceremonial, though they do remain under guard; originally, it guaranteed the safety of the Sovereign as they entered a possibly hostile Parliament. The tradition is said to stem from the time of Charles I, who had a contentious relationship with Parliament and was eventually beheaded in 1649 during the Civil War between the monarchy and Parliament. A copy of his death warrant is displayed in the robing room used by the monarch as a ceremonial reminder of what can happen to a monarch who attempts to interfere with Parliament. However, it has been suggested that the custom in its present form is of much more recent origin with mention of hostage-taking only dating back to the 1960s or 70s. In 1845, by contrast, the Lord Chamberlain's routine absence from the State Opening was said to be due to "the department over which his lordship presides not being acknowledged in His Majesty's Palace at Westminster" where the Lord Great Chamberlain instead has the equivalent authority.

Hostage MPs in recent years have included:

2014: Desmond Swayne

2015–16: Kris Hopkins

2017: Chris Heaton-Harris

2019: Stuart Andrew

2021: Marcus Jones

2022: James Morris

2023: Jo Churchill

2024: Samantha Dixon

2026: Nic Dakin

Arrival of royal regalia

Before the arrival of the sovereign, the Imperial State Crown is brought to the Palace of Westminster, together with the Great Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance, in their own carriage, usually Queen Alexandra's State Coach. The King's Bargemaster and Watermen accompany it, acting as footmen as a reminder of past times when the regalia were brought from the Tower of London by river. On arrival at the Sovereign's Entrance, under the Victoria Tower, the Crown is passed by the Bargemaster to the Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, under the watchful eye of the Crown Jeweller. The regalia are then carried to be displayed in the Royal Gallery. Also in the procession, usually in King Edward VII's Town Coach, are the two maces (separate from the three used by parliament) which are carried by the Serjeants-at-Arms of the Royal Household who escort the regalia in procession.

Arrival of the Sovereign

The monarch travels "in State" from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, arriving at the Sovereign's Entrance under the Victoria Tower. Travelling in a state coach, the monarch is usually accompanied by his or her consort and sometimes by other members of the royal family. Senior members of the Royal Household follow in other carriages. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment provides a Sovereign's Escort, and other members of the armed forces line the processional route from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster.

At the monarch's arrival, the national anthem is played, a gun salute is sounded in Green Park and the Royal Standard is hoisted in place of the Union Flag at the top of the Victoria Tower where it remains until the monarch departs. The monarch is greeted on arrival by the Lord Great Chamberlain , whose duty is to oversee the royal areas of the Palace of Westminster, and the Earl Marshal, who has responsibility for State ceremonies, before proceeding to the Robing Room, where they put on the Parliament Robe of State and the Imperial State Crown.

Procession to the Chamber

A procession is formed of heralds, Great Officers of State and members of the Royal Household, and when all is ready a fanfare is sounded and the monarch proceeds in State through the Royal Gallery to the House of Lords. Directly ahead of the monarch walk two peers: one (nowadays usually the Leader of the House of Lords) carrying the Cap of Maintenance, and the other (nowadays generally a retired senior military officer) carrying the Great Sword of State. Once seated on the throne, the monarch, wearing the Imperial State Crown, instructs the House by saying, "My Lords, pray be seated"; his or her consort, if present, sits on a throne to the sovereign's left, and his or her children, if present, may be provided with seats elsewhere on the dais.

The Imperial State Crown has not been worn invariably: for example, on four occasions in the 20th century Parliament was opened by as yet uncrowned monarchs (i.e. after their accession to the throne, but before their coronation); on these occasions the robe of state was worn but the crown was not. Instead on those occasions it was carried on a cushion by one of the Great Officers of State.

Royal summons of the Commons to the Lords' chamber

Motioned by the monarch, the Lord Great Chamberlain raises his white staff of office to signal the official known as Black Rod to summon the House of Commons. Black Rod turns and, under the escort of the Door-keeper of the House of Lords, proceeds to the Members' Lobby of the House of Commons, and reaches the doors of the Commons.

On Black Rod's approach, the Doorkeeper of the Commons orders that the doors are slammed shut against them, symbolising the rights of parliament and its independence from the monarch. The Usher of the Black Rod then strikes with the end of their ceremonial staff, known as the Black Rod, three times on the closed doors of the Commons Chamber, and is then admitted. Over time the strikes have left an indentation in the door.

This ritual is strongly associated with the occasion when King Charles I stormed into the House of Commons in 1642 in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest five members of Parliament, including the celebrated English patriot and leading parliamentarian John Hampden. The door-closing ritual, however, predates the 1640s, and although it has long since come to symbolise the independence of the Commons, its primary purpose according to Erskine May is for the Commons to establish Black Rod's identity. Once this has been achieved, Black Rod cannot be refused admission, and all other business of whatever kind in the Commons chamber must cease.

The doors having been opened, the chief doorkeeper of the House of Commons introduces Black Rod. At the bar, Black Rod bows to the Speaker before proceeding to the table, bowing again, and announcing the command of the monarch for the attendance of the Commons, in the following words:

During the later decades of Elizabeth II's reign, a tradition developed for this command to be greeted with a defiant topical comment by republican-leaning Labour MP for Bolsover Dennis Skinner, upon which, with some mirth, the House rose to make its way to the Lords' Chamber. This customary intervention was omitted by Mr Skinner in 2015, claiming that he had "bigger fish to fry than uttering something", due to a dispute over seating with the Scottish Nationalists. Skinner resumed the practice in 2016, until he was unseated in 2019. During the reign of Charles III, at the 2026 State Opening of Parliament, Torcuil Crichton, the Scottish Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, resumed Skinner's tradition by remarking "Not now Andy." when Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod Lieutenant General Ed Davis struck the door, in reference to then-speculation of Great Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham re-running for Parliament and challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a leadership contest.

Procession of the Commons

The Speaker proceeds to attend the summons at once. The Serjeant-at-Arms picks up the ceremonial mace and, with the Speaker and Black Rod, leads the Members of the House of Commons as they walk, in pairs, towards the House of Lords. By custom, the members saunter, with much discussion and joking, rather than formally process. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition followed by The Deputy Prime Minister, First Secretary of State or another member of the government and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition usually walk side by side, leading the two lines of MPs. The Commons then arrive at the Bar of the House of Lords. The only people required to bow are the House of Commons Speaker, Commons Clerk, senior Lords official Black Rod and the Serjeant-at-Arms. No person who is not a member of the Upper House may pass the Bar unbidden when it is in session; a similar rule applies to the Commons. They remain standing at the Bar during the speech.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “State Opening of Parliament” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.