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The new king has paid tribute to his “beloved mother” in a statement declaring the death of the Queen to be “a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family”.
The first statement “from His Majesty the King” said: “We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”
In remarks released just half an hour after Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen, 96, had died peacefully at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, Charles, 73, said: “During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.”
The statement was issued with a Buckingham Palace letterhead, a further sign of the former Prince of Wales’s transition to head of state after some seven decades as heir to the throne.
Minutes later speaking from Downing Street, the prime minister, Liz Truss, described the new monarch as King Charles III, confirming that is how he will be known, ending speculation he may choose a different name under which to reign. She described the Queen as the “rock on which modern Britain was built” and ended her statement with the words: “God save the King.”
King Charles III, and his wife Camilla, who is expected to be known as Queen Consort after an edict from the Queen during her platinum jubilee, are expected to remain at Balmoral on Thursday night and will return to London on Friday. The King’s new responsibilities will begin with leading the nation in mourning for its longest serving monarch.
Also at Balmoral on Thursday evening were the Duke of York (who remains stripped of royal duties over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein), and the Earl and Countess of Wessex, who flew to Aberdeen from London on the same RAF plane as the Duke of Cambridge.
