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The royal continuity campaign at Buckingham Palace continues: Four days after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the palace posted a new picture of King Charles III carrying out one of his key duties: Reviewing government papers contained in an iconic red box.
The picture shows the new king in the Eighteenth Century Room at Buckingham Palace last week before the funeral Monday of his mother, who died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
The picture, taken by photographer Victoria Jones of the Press Association, shows the king sitting at an antique desk, his hand on an open box filled with jumbled papers, at least one rolled up and tied with a ribbon. (The documents in the image were blurred.)
„It shows His Majesty The King carrying out official government duties from The King’s Red Box,“ the palace statement said.
Meaning: Charles, who became king the moment the queen died, also began working as the United Kingdom’s head of state immediately, even as he and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, traveled to greet people in the capitals of his kingdom and prepared for a grueling and complex state funeral.
The picture is another emblem of the continuity the palace and the new king have been trying to convey in the wake of the death of the beloved and long-reigning queen.
Another signal of continuity: The photo in the background of the picture shows Charles‘ parents, the late queen and the late Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April 2021.
