King Charles III has been proclaimed the United Kingdom’s monarch in a constitutional ceremony that dates back hundreds of years.
The 73-year-old King Charles assumed the role of the king after his mother Queen Elizabeth II – the longest-reigning British monarch – died at the age of 96.
The new King mourned the loss and paid warm tribute to his mother.
Pledging to follow his mother’s “inspiring example,” Charles said he was “deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty which have now passed to me.”
“I know how deeply you and the entire nation, and I think I may say the whole world, sympathize with me in this irreparable loss we have all suffered,” he said of the queen’s passing.
Charles was accompanied at the ceremony by his wife Camilla, the queen consort, and his eldest son Prince William who is now heir to the throne. Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton have now officially inherited the title of Prince and Princess of Wales.
The accession ceremony was followed by gun salutes and the reading of proclamations in London and in the other capital cities of the UK – Edinburgh in Scotland, Belfast in Northern Ireland, and Cardiff in Wales.
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will be held on Sept. 19
The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II will be held at 11 am on September 19, at Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace announced. The queen died on September 9 at Balmoral Castle, her summer retreat in the Scottish Highland.