Long road through Scotland
King Charles III’S name has loaded history
through locations laden with House of Windsor history. Those included Dyce, where in 1975 The Queen formally opened the UK’S first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife, near St Andrews University, where her grandson Prince William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.
Sunday’s solemn drive came as The Queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch — King Charles III — in the rest of the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It came a day after a pomp-filled accession ceremony in England.
“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me,” Charles said Saturday.
Just before the proclamation was read Sunday in Edinburgh, a protester appeared with a sign condemning imperialism and urging leaders to “abolish the monarchy”. She was taken away by police. Reaction was mixed. One man shouted, “Let her go! It’s free speech!” while others shouted: “Have some respect!”
Still, there was some booing in Edinburgh when Joseph Morrow, Lord Lyon King of Arms, finished his proclamation with “God save the king!”
That upset Ann Hamilton, 48.
“There’s tens of thousands of people here today to show their respect. For them to be here, heckling through things, I think it was terrible. If they were so against it, they shouldn’t have come,” she said.
Still, it was a sign of how some, including people in Britain’s former colonies, are struggling with the legacy of the monarchy — and its future.
Earlier in the day, proclamations were read in other parts of the Commonwealth, including Australia and New Zealand.
Charles, even as he mourned his late mother, got to work at Buckingham Palace, meeting with the secretary general and other Commonwealth envoys. Many in those nations are grappling with both affection for the queen and lingering bitterness over their colonial legacies, which ranged from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British cultural institutions.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is in favour of an Australian republic, said Sunday that now was not the time for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen. India, a former British colony, observed a day of State mourning, with flags lowered to half-staff.
Amid the grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance Saturday.
The Queen’s coffin was taking a circuitous journey back to the capital. After it is flown to London on Tuesday, the coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19.
In Ballater, the Rev David Barr said locals consider the royal family as neighbours.
“When she comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside,” he said of the queen. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving great-gran — and aunty — and be normal.”
Elizabeth Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse passed through Ballater.
“It was very emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of The Queen,” she said. “She certainly gave service to this country, even up until a few days before her death.”
LONDON, England (AP) — Britain’s new monarch is named King Charles III — but that was not inevitable.
Charles Philip Arthur George could have chosen another royal name when he took the throne after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. While The Queen used her first given name, her father, King George VI, was named Albert Frederick Arthur George and called Bertie by friends and family.
Some observers thought the new king might prefer a different name because of the historical baggage associated with the two previous British monarchs called Charles.
KING CHARLES I
King Charles I is the only British sovereign whose rule led to revolution and the temporary abolition of the monarchy.
He took the throne in 1625, and his reign saw a growing power struggle between the crown and Parliament, which sought to limit The King’s powers.
After The King attempted to arrest lawmakers in the House of Commons in 1642, hostilities erupted into the English Civil War, which ended with victory for the parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell. Charles was convicted of high treason and beheaded in 1649 outside the Banqueting House in London, just up the street from Parliament.
KING CHARLES II
The son of Charles I spent his youth abroad during Britain’s 11 years of rule under Cromwell. He took the throne when the monarchy was restored in 1660.
He had considerably less power than his father had enjoyed. The monarch was stripped of the power to make law without the consent of Parliament. Further reforms in the following decades established that the Crown must accept the will of the democratically elected Parliament, the basis of Britain’s constitutional monarchy.
Charles II’S 25-year reign saw the return of public entertainment after the austere years under the Puritan Cromwell, when theatres were shut and Christmas celebrations were banned
Charles II was nicknamed the “Merry Monarch” because of his hedonism and many romances. The King Charles Spaniel is named after the dog-loving monarch.