A tearful King Charles III was greeted by thousands of well-wishers as he arrived at Buckingham Palace today where he will meet with representatives from the Commonwealth – while his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin embarks on the historic final journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh, then onto Westminster Abbey for her state funeral.
Crowds lining the length of The Mall – including excited young children sat on top of the shoulders of parents trying to take photos with their phones – cheered and waved at Britain’s new monarch as the emotional sovereign was driven in his state Rolls-Royce through the Palace gates, accompanied by a motorcade of four cars and four police motorbikes.
Charles is meeting Commonwealth general secretary Patricia Scotland in the 1844 Room at 2pm today, before attending a reception with High Commissioners and their spouses from countries where he is head of state at the royal residence’s Bow Room. Then at 3.30pm, the King – who was formally proclaimed at St James’s Palace yesterday – receives the Dean of Windsor.
Guests will include Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and High Commissioners for Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, New Zealand, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Honorary Consul of Tuvalu and the Acting High Commissioner for Australia.
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READ ALSO: King Charles III Proclaimed Monarch (Photos, Video)
Next week, the King and his wife Camilla, Queen Consort will embark on a tour of the four home nations in the run-up to his late mother’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey and burial at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, following her death at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96.
Today, the King was proclaimed as head of state at a swathe of ceremonies across Britain and the Commonwealth – from Edinburgh, Cardiff and Hillsborough castles, and the devolved parliaments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to the far-flung capitals of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The late Queen’s eldest son, who automatically became King three days ago, was yesterday formally proclaimed at a historic ceremony in St James’s Palace in London, following a meeting of the ancient Norman-era Accession Council.
In Edinburgh, huge crowds gathered down the Royal Mile as the King’s Body Guard for Scotland, known as the Royal Company of Archers, and the guard of honour marched from the Castle Esplanade to Mercat Cross. They were joined by soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland, where a drill is taking place in front of the cross in Edinburgh.
Rain beat down on officials at the proclamation event in Hillsborough, as a 40-second fanfare was sounded by a bugler after the last round of the 21-gun salute was fired before the band of the Royal Irish Regiment then played one verse of God Save the King. Guests at the event – including Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie and Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister – joined together and said three cheers for Charles III.
And at Cardiff Castle, more than 2,000 people witnessed Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary, Tom Lloyd, and the Lord-Lieutenant of South Glamorgan, Morfudd Meredith, read the proclamation of the new King in English and Welsh. Prior to the Proclamation, 26 men of the 3rd Battalion the Royal Welsh – supported by the Band of the Royal Welsh – were marching from City Hall at 11.25am along the Boulevard de Nantes, North Road and Duke Street to the castle. They were accompanied by the regimental mascot, a Welsh billy goat called Lance Corporal Shenkin IV, and Goat Major Sergeant Mark Jackson.
