[5]The role of the Crown is both legal and practical; it functions in Newfoundland and Labrador in the same way it does in all of Canada's other provinces, being the centre of a constitutional construct in which the institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority share the power of the whole.

[7] The Canadian monarch—since  8 September 2022, King Charles III—is represented and his duties carried out by the lieutenant governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, whose direct participation in governance is limited by the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, the ministers of the Crown generally drawn from among them, and the judges and justices of the peace.

[5][8][9] This arrangement began with the granting in 1949 of royal assent to the Newfoundland Act[10] and continued an unbroken line of monarchical government extending back to the late 15th century.

[22] William wrote to his father, King George III, "During the last fortnight of our stay at Placentia, I read divine service in the courthouse for an example to the magistrates to perform that duty every Sunday 'til the arrival of the missionary from England.

"[20]Thirty-five years after the colony's status was elevated to that of a province of the Crown, Queen Victoria's eldest son and the grand-nephew of King William IV, Prince Albert Edward (the future King Edward VII) arrived at Newfoundland on 24 July 1860, aboard HMS Hero,[23] receiving the standard welcome from Governor Alexander Bannerman, in the form of an official address,[23] followed by a reply from the Prince.

The following morning, the royal party landed and toured St. John's by carriage, stopping at Government House, to meet again with the Governor and his ministers; the then-new courthouse,[28] where the Duke laid the cornerstone;[29] and the Prince's Rink, to hear 6,000 schoolchildren sing a specially-composed anthem.

[37] Prince Edward visited Topsail on 5 August 1919,[38][39] aboard HMS Renown, which anchored in Conception Bay because the ship had been deemed too large to turn around in St. John's Harbour.

[40] After the Balfour Declaration of 1926 established that the Dominions were "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs",[42] Newfoundland gave its assent to the enactment of Statute of Westminster 1931.

However, only three years later, the country suspended its legislature[44] and self-governing status and the Commission of Government took control,[45] putting Newfoundland under the authority of a governor who reported to the British Cabinet that adivised the monarch of the UK.

[45] King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Newfoundland on 17 June 1939 and,[46] accompanied by Governor Sir Humphrey Walwyn, undertook an hour-long drive from Conception Bay to St. John's and attended a garden party and other official events.

[47] The city's population of 50,000 doubled, as visitors came in to see the royal couple; though, a "lack of cheering and of visible enthusiasm” in the crowd was noted; the country remained downtrodden and demoralized after the loss of self-government and the Great Depression.

[48] Still, to bid the King and Queen farewell, the residents of St John's built a large bonfire on Signal Hill, visible to the monarch and his consort as they sailed away on the Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Britain.

Some notable visits have included Princess Mary, Princess Royal, marking in 1964 the 50th anniversary of the departure of the first contingent of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment from St. John's to the battlefields of the First World War; Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, along with his wife Diana, Princess of Wales, visiting Newfoundland in 1983 to mark the 400th anniversary of the island becoming an English, and later British, colony;[50] and, during her 1997 tour of Canada, Queen Elizabeth II, along with her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, travelling to Bonavista to see the arrival of the Matthew, as part of the re-enactment of John Cabot's arrival on the island 500 years before.