A NEW KING

“Today the Crown passes – as it has done for more than a thousand years – to our new monarch, our new head of state: His Majesty King Charles III,” Prime Minister Liz Truss announced after the queen’s death.

“With the king’s family, we mourn the loss of his mother. And as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him. To help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all,” she said.

“We offer him our loyalty and devotion, just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long. And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country – exactly as Her Majesty would have wished – by saying the words ‘God save the king’.”

Charles was proclaimed king at the Accession Council on 10 September in the State Apartments of St James’ Palace, London. He made an official declaration to the council, confirming his “willingness and intention” to follow in his mother’s footsteps.

“And in carrying out the heavy task that has been laid upon me, and to which I now dedicate what remains to me of my life, I pray for the guidance and help of Almighty God.”

King Charles is also the head of the Commonwealth after being designated the queen’s successor by the Commonwealth heads of government in 2018.