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George V (1910-36) was succeed by his eldest son, Edward VIII (1936). However, Edward wished to marry the twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson, and this precipitated a constitutional crisis where the king was forced to abdicate in favour of his brother, George VI (1936-52). Upon George\'s death in 1952, his eldest daughter Elizabeth (1952-present) became Queen.
Her eldest son, Charles, is heir to the throne. The Crown remains at the centre of the British constitution and government and the monarch remains as the head of state, the head of the executive, judiciary and legislature, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the \'supreme governor of the Church of England\'.
Nevertheless, the actual powers of the reigning monarch have been falling into disuse, with the government of the day exercising the powers of the Crown on the monarch\'s behalf. Now, the monarch is expected to be politically neutral and act only on the advice of political ministers. Even so, the monarch is entitled to advise, warn and encourage ministers (both in Britain and in countries which acknowledge the British monarch as head of state, such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia).The monarchy under Elizabeth balances between traditional and modernising trends and the British public continues to support the system of constitutional monarchy (a worldwide television audience of 750,000,000 watched the Prince of Wales marry lady Diana Spencer in 1981), even though the role of the monarch and the behaviour of some of the younger members of the Royal Family has been known to attract criticism.
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