LONDON, September 10. /TASS/. Charles III will be officially proclaimed King of Great Britain on Saturday. Buckingham Palace earlier said that a meeting of the Accession Council, which will officially declare Elizabeth II's son the new ruler, will begin in London at 10:00 a.m. local time (12:00 p.m. Moscow time).
"His Majesty The King will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10.00hrs tomorrow morning 10th September in the State Apartments of St James's Palace, London," the document said. The Privy Council, an advisory body to the monarch, will meet first in the palace's ceremonial chambers without His Majesty's participation. Its members will proclaim the sovereign, although in fact Charles III became king the moment his mother died the day before. Elizabeth II's successor will then hold His Majesty’s first Privy Council.
According to three centuries of tradition, His Majesty will take a single oath: to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland (this was the condition of the Anglo-Scottish union concluded in 1707). The oath concerning the Church of England, of which the British monarch is now supreme head, will be administered later in the Houses of Parliament.
At 11:00 (13:00 Moscow time), the Principal Proclamation of the heir to the throne as king will be read from the balcony of St. James's Palace to solemn fanfare. In recognition of the monarch, the flags lowered after the queen's death will be flown at full-mast. At the same time in Hyde Park, The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, will fire a salute of 41 volleys. Exactly one hour later, the Proclamation will be read out loud in the City of London. The artillery salute of 62 volleys will taje place in the Tower, which is associated with Henry VIII (two of his six wives were executed here).
Twenty-four hours later, the Proclamation will also be announced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Once this is done, the flags on government buildings across the country will return to half-mast in mourning for the death of Her Majesty The Queen.
Accession Council
The Accession Council consists of about 700 people, including Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office only on Tuesday, the heads of the Treasury, Foreign and Home Offices, members of the Privy Council, including members of the Royal Family, the Lord Mayor of London, as well as high commissioners and ambassadors representing the United Kingdom of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica and a dozen other countries, whose head is still formally the British monarch. However, it is unlikely that all of them will be able to witness such a momentous event. So many advisers in the palace, which was built in the 16th century as one of the residences of King Henry VIII (1491-1547), simply would not fit. According to British media, about 200 people will gather at St. James' Palace, including Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The meeting will be chaired by the leader of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, Penny Mordaunt.
Preparing Westminster Palace
Meanwhile, Westminster Palace, the Victorian Gothic-style building that houses the British Parliament, will begin preparations for placing the coffin containing the queen's body for a farewell ceremony on September 14. The ceremony will last five days. The floor of the building's largest and oldest hall, Westminster Hall, will be covered with 1,500 square meters of carpets.
The last time the hall was used in this way was twenty years ago, when Elizabeth II's mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002) died. Over 200,000 people came to bid farewell in three days. Previously, the coffins with the bodies of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill (in 1965), Elizabeth II's grandmother Mary of Teck (1953), her father George VI (1952), and grandfather George V (1936) were also set up here.
Also on Saturday, condolence books will be open at St. James's Palace, Buckingham Palace Royal Gallery, Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Balmoral Castle in northeast Scotland and the Royal Estate of Sandringham in eastern England.
Buckingham Palace announced that Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96 in Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. She was the longest-ruling monarch in British history — her reign lasted 70 years and seven months. Her eldest son, 73-year-old Charles, became the new monarch, and he will officially reign under the title of His Majesty King Charles III. The UK will observe a period of national mourning from September 9 and till the day of Her Majesty’s funeral.