The death of his mother means for Charles III. not just sadness. He has to follow a tight schedule. He will officially ascend the throne tomorrow. Today, having just arrived in London with his wife, his first destination is Buckingham Palace.
Charles III will be proclaimed as the new British king tomorrow, Saturday. As announced by Buckingham Palace, the ceremony is to begin at 11 a.m. (CEST) at St. James's Palace in London (ntv will broadcast the proclamation live in a special broadcast from 10:45 a.m.). The proclamation will be read from the Castle balcony an hour later and then from other locations around the UK. The mourning flags on the royal castles are temporarily suspended for the proclamation.
With the death of the Queen, the crown passed directly to Charles. The proclamation is therefore more of a formality committed with great pomp. The Queen died Thursday at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, aged 96.
Already this evening (7 p.m. CEST) Charles III. address his subjects for the first time in a speech. A special session of Parliament to commemorate the late Queen will be adjourned at 6 p.m. for the televised speech, Parliament Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said at noon.
At noon, bells rang out at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle and churches across the country to commemorate the Queen who died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. A 96-gun salute, one for each year the Queen was born, was then fired at the Tower of London and elsewhere in the UK.
Charles and his wife Camilla returned to London less than 24 hours after the Queen's death. Coming from Scotland, the two landed in the afternoon at Northolt military airport, a good 20 kilometers north-west of London. A number of official appointments awaited the new king in the capital. King Charles initially wanted to go to Buckingham Palace, the official seat of the head of state, not to his previous residence, Clarence House, a few hundred meters away.
Charles also wanted to give an audience to Prime Minister Liz Truss in London that afternoon. In the Queen's honor session, Prime Minister Truss hailed Queen Elizabeth II as "one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known" and "the nation's greatest diplomat." Her legacy will live on "through the countless people she has met, the world history she has witnessed and the lives she has impacted."
King Charles III will lead Britain "into a new age of hope and progress," said the Prime Minister. "The crown endures. Our nation endures. And in that spirit I say, God save the king."
