Photo: King Charles III (Credit: Raşid Necati Aslım/Anadolu Agency
Hamed Chapman
The eldest son of the late Queen was formally proclaimed King Charles III at an Accession Council ceremony that was televised for the first time in the state apartments at St James’s Palace in Westminster on Saturday, September 10.
The 73-year-old new monarch was confirmed in his absence by the Privy Council before joining the archaic ceremonial to a fanfare of trumpets and gun salutes when he was accompanied by the Queen Consort and the new Prince of Wales, his heir, to make a declaration, approve a series of orders and sign an oath.
Assembled were 200 members of the Privy Council at the most senior royal palace, the formal board of advisors to the sovereign, that included former Prime Ministers, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major.
In his declaration, King Charles swore with the help of God to dedicate “what remains to me of my life” to “carrying out the heavy task that has been laid upon me”. He said he was “deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty which have now passed to me.”
The former Prince of Wales immediately became monarch following the death of his mother, Elizabeth II two days earlier. There will also be a coronation, when Charles is crowned king and his wife Camilla as Queen Consort in another ceremony full of pomp and pageant at a much later date yet to be announced.
In his first televised broadcast to the nation, the new sovereign, the oldest ever to ascend the British throne, spoke of his hopes during his reign and how he would like the royal family to operate. “As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation,” the King said.
“Queen Elizabeth’s was a life well-lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today,” he said in his broadcast.
At the proclamation, gun salutes rang out in Hyde Park, at the Tower of London and at military sites around the UK as he announced the news, while scarlet-robed soldiers in the palace courtyard doffed their quintessential bearskin hats in a royal tribute.
