King Charles honours Queen Elizabeth in first televised address
In his first televised address as monarch following the death of Queen Elizabeth, King Charles praised his mother's "profound, personal commitment" to serving Britain and other Commonwealth nations on Friday.
At 73, King Charles is the oldest person to ascend to the British throne, following a 70-year reign by his mother. Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-serving monarch, died at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday.
"Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived, a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today," the king said in a 10-minute address.
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King Charles delivered the speech, which was pre-recorded before its broadcast on Friday evening, from the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
Displayed prominently during the address was a photo of his mother smiling in a teal dress and matching hat.
"In 1947 on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples," King Charles said.
"That was more than a promise. It was a profound personal commitment, which defined her whole life."
"She made sacrifices for duty. Her dedication and devotion as sovereign never wavered through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration and through times of sadness and loss," he added.
In his address, King Charles said that his oldest son, Prince William, would receive the title Prince of Wales, which is traditionally held by the heir to the throne.
He also expressed his love to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle "as they continue to build their lives overseas". Prince Harry and his wife gave up their royal titles in 2020 and moved to the United States.
Ahead of the speech, the king had his first audience with new Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was asked to form a government by Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday.
Even though he officially became king following his mother's death, King Charles will be formally proclaimed as monarch on Saturday during a meeting of the Accession Council at St James's Palace in London.
The meeting of the council, which is made up of members of the Privy Council, the monarch's advisory panel, will be televised for the first time in its history.
On Friday, the royal family announced the official mourning period for the queen's death would run over a 17-day period, prompting many public events to be cancelled or delayed. A date for her state funeral is expected to be announced in "due course".
On Friday, US President Joe Biden said that he plans to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral.
"Yes. I don't know what the details are yet, but I'll be going," Biden told reporters while on a trip to Ohio.
The Bank of England said it would delay its latest decision on interest rates by a week until September 22 and the Premier League cancelled its slate of weekend matches.
Parliament has suspended official business for 10 days, with lawmakers assembling on Friday and Saturday to deliver tributes to the queen.
"She was our north, our south, our east and our west, our working week and our Sunday rest, our noon, our midnight, our talk, our song, we thought that love would last forever: we were wrong," an emotional Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, said as he paraphrased W H Auden's poem Funeral Blues on Friday.
The suspension of Parliament has raised some concerns that Truss might not be able to push through her plan to freeze energy bills for consumers amid a cost-of-living crisis before mid-October.
Parliament is set to be in recess from September 22 until October 17 for the fall political party conferences.
Earlier on Friday, King Charles returned to Buckingham Palace from Scotland and was greeted with applause and shouts of "God save the king!" by the assembled throng of people who had gathered outside to remember Queen Elizabeth.
His movement from RAF Northolt in west London was tracked by trailing news helicopters and broadcast live before arriving at the palace.
Heavy downpours that soaked members of the crowd in the morning had subsided and the Royal Standard, the royal flag the flies over the palace when the monarch is in residence, whipped in the wind as the afternoon sun broke through the clouds.
The king and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, walked along the security barrier outside the palace, shaking hands and greeting members of the crowd. One woman kissed his hand and another woman kissed him on the cheek as onlookers snapped photographs with their mobile telephones.
After greeting the crowd, King Charles and Camilla looked at hundreds of bouquets of flowers that had been placed outside the palace before walking, hand in hand, through the main gates.
"To my darling Mama as you begin your last, great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want to say this: thank you," King Charles said as he closed his address on Friday.
"Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years.
"May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
