God Save The King!

Monday. 7.15 a.m. So, now we have a new monarch, Charles III. On Saturday, I saw the proclamation of the new king on television because this ceremony has never been seen by the public before. It was a symbolic occasion, the sort of pageantry that we seem to do so well in Britain. The death of the Queen was incredibly sad and unexpected, considering we had only a few months ago celebrated her Platinum Jubilee. But now we are celebrating the accession of our new monarch, Charles III. He has to change drastically his life, transferring from being somewhat in the background as Prince of Wales to becoming monarch and very much in the forefront of the life of the nation.

This morning, on television, we had a ceremony in Central Hall, Westminster, of the new king and his    Queen Consort, listening to speeches from both sides of parliament, The Lords and Commons and then Charles gave his address. This was all done in front of the massed MPs and members of The Lords. I am somewhat surprised that Charles chose his name as his Reginal name, because of the connection of Charles I, who was actually put on trial in that same vast hall and then had his head chopped off by Oliver Cromwell's henchmen.

No sooner had the ceremony finished, than Charles and Camilla got in a car and were driven off to Northolt airfield to fly to Edinburgh because they were going to follow his mother's coffin to St Giles cathedral where it will be lying in state for 24 hours. It had been bought to Edinburgh from Balmoral where it took a good 6 hours for the journey to be completed.

I'm thinking, it must be difficult for Charles. He's just lost his mother. He thought the world of her. He immediately became king, the moment she passed away. An onerous task, a great job to take on, considering his age (he is 73.). He has to go through a great deal of pageantry over the next days, months and years, the build-up to his coronation, probably next year. Its date will no doubt be announced before too long. That in itself will be a huge event, not just for Charles, but for those who will have to organize it. On top of all this, which should be very exciting and overwhelming, he still has to be thinking of losing his late mother.