CHARLES BECOMES KING
The nation mourns the Queen, but as her son immediately inherits her role, people’s affection for him becomes clear
Three days before the Queen’s funeral, the new King joins his siblings in a 15-minute vigil at their mother’s coffin in Westminster Hall
With his head bowed and grief etched on his face, the new King Charles paid one of his last public acts of homage to his mother as she lay in state after her death. On the Friday night before the Queen’s funeral, against the majestic backdrop of 900-year-old Westminster Hall, Her Majesty’s eldest son was joined by his three siblings to hold a vigil around her coffin. They stood in silent contemplation for 15 minutes as they guarded their mother’s body, one week after she died. People who had queued for hours to make their own tribute watched their new King’s vigil in silence as they paid their own respects.
DUTIFUL TO THE END
The Queen had passed away on 8 September, having made her last official appearance just two days earlier, when she welcomed then Prime Minister Liz Truss to Balmoral. Smiling in front of a roaring fire in the last photograph taken of her, she fulfilled her duties to the end. With the sad announcement of her death, there was an immediate passing of obligations to her eldest son, who rose to his task with dignity and determination.