The Constituent Assembly held its formal opening ceremony on 8 April 1956. It was a sign of the changing times that the King presided over the session dressed in the uniform of a marshal of the Ottoman Empire, whose subject he had been when he was born, but which had ceased to exist in 1922. He expected to be present during the debates leading to the election of a speaker of the Assembly, and Tahar Ben Ammar had to intervene to persuade him to leave. The King withdrew with ill grace.