Queen Elizabeth's Immense Powers And The Times She Used Them

Has one ever wondered how much power Queen Elizabeth II has? Some may say that her power over the British people is gone. Wrong. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Apart from still wielding the power of signing all potential laws, she has additional and unimaginable powers that will shock you.

Some of her most shocking powers come from archaic laws, including the right to steal children from their parents and sacking the entire Australian government (she’s also the Queen of Australia). She’s also the only human being in the UK allowed to eat a swan because she’s in ownership of all the swans in the UK (not that there are reports that she exercised this sort of power).

Queen Elizabeth also has power over a religious organization as the head of the Church of England. She therefore holds the power to appoint archbishops and bishops upon consultation with the prime minister.

On a more relevant note, the Queen has a right to veto bills from being passed through parliament. In this light, she could very well veto Brexit. However, academic experts theorize that Queen Elizabeth will not intervene with the whole Brexit thing. The publication further pointed out that the last monarch to wield the power to veto a piece of legislation was Queen Anne, way back in the eighteenth century, when she vetoed a measure that would have restored the Scottish militia.

So when was the last time that the Queen used her powers? It was in 2013. The Queen has the power to grant “royal pardon” to convicted criminals. She used this power that year to grant a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing, the computer pioneer and World War II codebreaker convicted in 1952 for gross indecency. According to BBC, the pardon was granted after a request by Justice Minister Chris Grayling, as Turing’s work during the war at Bletchley Park saved thousands of lives and shortened the conflict.

In a 2013 article by Telegraph, which discussed the Internal Whitehall papers, it was revealed that the Queen vetoed the Military Actions Against Iraq Bill in 1999, which focused on shifting the power to authorize military strikes against Iraq from the monarch to parliament.

There was another occasion when the Queen used her power. In 2001, Queen Elizabeth utilized her power to reduce the prison sentences of two inmates in a South Wales prison for their heroic action of saving the life of a prison worker after he was attacked by a wild boar.

Queen Elizabeth indeed harbors major powers, but it is quite evident that she never abused them. Instead, she even made praise-worthy decisions.