breaking news
Status: 09/10/2022 11:22 a.m
Charles III became king. already with the death of the Queen – but now the Accession Council has officially proclaimed him monarch. But it may be a long time before he is crowned.
Charles III has been officially proclaimed king. The proclamation in London was a formal act. The so-called Accession Council, the council for the succession to the throne, was convened specifically for this purpose. The first to sign the proclamation was the king’s eldest son and new heir to the throne, Prince William, followed by Charles’ wife, Queen Camilla.
Charles had already automatically become British king with the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
Proclamation will be read in several places
The first part of the ceremony at St. James’s Palace took place without the monarch. Then Charles was to lead a session of the Privy Council called Privy Council for the first time. Later, the proclamation is read from the palace balcony. There are further readings in the City of London and on Sunday in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The Accession Council includes members of the Crown Council, i.e. current and former members of the government, church officials, magistrates, members of the royal family and other personalities.
Aside from the proclamation, there is a coronation to follow. Elizabeth II’s coronation took place in 1953 – 14 months after she became queen after the death of her father.
Queen died on Thursday
The Queen died Thursday at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, aged 96. Two days earlier she had received the new Prime Minister Liz Truss there and formally commissioned her to form a government. Truss’s new cabinet was due to have its first audience with the king later today. The Prime Minister herself had already visited Charles at Buckingham Palace on Friday.
The Queen’s body is due to be transferred from Balmoral Castle to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the Queen’s residence in Scotland, this Sunday. The body will then be laid out in a cathedral in the Scottish capital before being taken to London.