Charles is to be officially proclaimed king on Saturday morning, two days following the death of his mother, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The proclamation will be read from the balcony of St. James’s Palace in London.
Step by step, Charles III installed himself as head of state. On Friday evening, for the first time in 70 years, the British anthem ‘God save the King’ was sung at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, concluding a tribute to Elizabeth II. It replaces ‘God save the Queen’, the anthem since the accession to the throne of the late sovereign in 1952.
Earlier, from Buckingham Palace, Charles III delivered his first televised address as sovereign, a recorded address in which he paid a moving tribute to Elizabeth II. He promised to serve the British all his life.
Allegiance of Parliament
On Saturday morning, the accession council, a group of dignitaries, will meet at St. James’s Palace in London and proclaim that Charles has become king. The proclamation will be read on the balcony of the palace, then relayed by the King-at-Arms of the Order of the Garter and half a dozen heralds in horse-drawn carriages who will also read it in Trafalgar square, then at the Royal Exchange.
Then Parliament will take a pledge of allegiance and express its condolences. In the followingnoon, the new king will receive the British Prime Minister and the main ministers.
Charles III ascends to the throne at a difficult time as the UK faces the worst economic crisis in 40 years. Four Prime Ministers have succeeded each other in six years.
At 73, Charles III is the oldest British monarch at the start of his reign. He is infinitely less popular than his mother, who knew how to maintain the prestige of the monarchy, giving no interviews and keeping her opinions to herself.
Elizabeth II, 96, died Thursday ‘peacefully’ in her castle of Balmoral in Scotland, where were then her son Charles and daughter Anne. His two other sons Andrew and Edwards and Prince William, then Prince Harry alone, arrived following the death.
/ATS
