In the United Kingdom, the Accession Council is a ceremonial body which assembles in St. James's Palace upon the death of a monarch (Demise of the Crown), to make a formal proclamation of the accession of his or her successor to the throne, and to receive a religious oath from the new monarch. However, the proclamation has no legal force, as the succession will have automatically passed to the new monarch under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701.