Charles has paid tribute to his beloved Sovereign and much loved Mother Queen Elizabeth II, as he’s confirmed as Britain’s new ruler.
The message from His Majesty The King came just half an hour after the peaceful death of the Queen was declared.
Clarence House has confirmed that Charles is now King, and will be known by the regnal name of King Charles III, but as his name is Charles Philip Arthur George there was a possibility that he could have opted to use one of those names instead.
His statement read: ‘The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.
‘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.
‘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.’
Charles was by his mother’s side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla.
His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland.
They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty’s other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William.
The family rushed to the Queen’s Scottish residence after an unusual statement from her doctors revealed they were worried about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision.
Charles has become monarch at 73 years old, almost half a decade older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position.
He’s likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother’s demise, having often talked about a slimmed-down front line.
Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are ‘no hangers-on’ in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy.
The idea of a slimmed-down monarch was evident to see during the Platinum Jubilee in June when the Queen banned those appearing on the Buckingham Palace terrace to working members of the Royal Family, but King Charles’ original model, which reportedly involved a close core of just seven people, including himself, has been hurled into doubt following a sequence of external events.
However, we must recognise that King Charles has now lost his mother, and you’re never old enough to lose a mother. Queen Elizabeth was a remarkable woman, and was a constant in our lives and had a tremendous sense of responsibility, but sadly Prince Philip reached out to his Lilibet and said come home to me.
The Queen was not only a National Treasure, but an International Treasure, but she was never the same after her dear Philip passed away, but she still rallied to give us the confidence to get through COVID with the simple words ‘We’ll meet again’.
Lilibet fell in love with Philip as a 13-year-old girl, and she fell in love with him the instant she laid eyes on the stunning 18-year-old when he was the proud Prince of Greece.
She was determined to marry him, despite parental resistance, and she was proven right, and as Queen Elizabeth II she barely ever made a bad judgment call.
We all like a good love story, and theirs may well be the greatest, and most enduring.
However, she made a vow to devote her life, however brief or prolonged it may be, to the service and duty of her people, and not once in seventy years did she once waver.
The Queen saw fifteen Prime Ministers in the time that she reigned, and she also remained a steadfast, stable and consistent presence in our lives. Now we have to envision a world without our magnificent Queen Elizabeth II but I doubt that we will ever see another ruler like her again.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 