At the moment the Queen died, the throne passed immediately and without ceremony to the heir, Charles, the former Prince of Wales.
But there are a number of practical – and traditional – steps which he must go through to be crowned King.
What will he be called? He will be known as King Charles III.
That was the first decision of the new king’s reign. He could have chosen from any of his four names – Charles Philip Arthur George.
He is not the only one who faces a change of title.
Although he is heir to the throne, Prince William will not automatically become Prince of Wales – that will have to be conferred on him by his father. He has inherited his father’s title of Duke of Cornwall – William and Kate are now titled Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge.
There is also a new title for Charles’ wife, Camilla, who becomes the Queen Consort – consort is the term used for the spouse of the monarch.
Formal ceremonies It is expected that Charles will be officially proclaimed King on Saturday. This will happen at St James’s Palace in London, in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council.
This is made up of members of the Privy Council – a group of senior MPs, past and present, and peers – as well as some senior civil servants, Commonwealth high commissioners, and the Lord Mayor of London.
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More than 700 people are entitled in theory to attend, but given the short notice, the actual number is likely to be far fewer. At the last Accession Council in 1952, about 200 attended.
At the meeting, the death of Queen Elizabeth will be announced by the Lord President of the Privy Council (currently Penny Mordaunt MP), and a proclamation will be read aloud.
The wording of the proclamation can change, but it has traditionally been a series of prayers and pledges, commending the previous monarch and pledging support for the new one.
This proclamation is then signed by a number of senior figures including the prime minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chancellor.
As with all these ceremonies, there will be attention paid to what might have been altered, added or updated, as a sign of a new era.
The King’s first declaration The King attends a second meeting of the Accession Council, along with the Privy Council. This is not a “swearing in” at the start of a British monarch’s reign, in the style of some other heads of state, such as the President of the US. Instead there is a declaration made by the new King and – in line with a tradition dating from the early 18th Century – he will make an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland.
After a fanfare of trumpeters, a public proclamation will be made declaring Charles as the new King. This will be made from a balcony above Friary Court in St James’s Palace, by an official known as the Garter King of Arms.
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Queen Elizabeth II crowned her son Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969
He will call: “God save the King”, and for the first time since 1952, the national anthem will be played with the words “God Save the King”.
Gun salutes will be fired in Hyde Park, the Tower of London and from naval ships, and the proclamation announcing Charles as the King will be read in in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
The coronation The symbolic high point of the accession will be the coronation, when Charles is formally crowned. Because of the preparation needed, the coronation is not likely to happen very soon after Charles’s accession – Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in February 1952, but was not crowned until June 1953.
For the past 900 years the coronation has been held in Westminster Abbey – William the Conqueror was the first monarch to be crowned there, and Charles will be the 40th.
It is an Anglican religious service, carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the climax of the ceremony, he will place St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head – a solid gold crown, dating from 1661.
This is the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, and is only worn by the monarch at the moment of coronation itself (not least because it weighs a hefty 2.23kg – almost 5lbs).
Unlike royal weddings, the coronation is a state occasion – the government pays for it, and ultimately decides the guest list.
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There will be music, readings and the ritual of anointing the new monarch, using oils of orange, roses, cinnamon, musk and ambergris.
The new King will take the coronation oath in front of the watching world. During this elaborate ceremony he will receive the orb and sceptre as symbols of his new role and the Archbishop of Canterbury will place the solid gold crown on his head.
Head of the Commonwealth Charles has become head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.4 billion people. For 14 of these countries, as well as the UK, the King is head of state.
These countries, known as the Commonwealth realms, are: Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu.
A proposal to provide interest-free loans for private university education will be submitted to the Cabinet next week, acting Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
While addressing a meeting in Ruwanwella he said the proposal on the interest-free loan to be granted annually to five thousand students who have failed to gain the opportunity to enter government universities despite passing the advanced level examination, will be submitted to the Cabinet next week.
An interest-free loan amounting to Rs.900,000 will be available for studies under this loan scheme.
An amount of Rs.300,000 will also available for daily expenses. After the completion of studies, another two years will be available to repay this loan without interest.
Interest-free loan for private university education
A proposal to provide interest-free loans for private university education will be submitted to the Cabinet next week, acting Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
While addressing a meeting in Ruwanwella he said the proposal on the interest-free loan to be granted annually to five thousand students who have failed to gain the opportunity to enter government universities despite passing the advanced level examination, will be submitted to the Cabinet next week.
An interest-free loan amounting to Rs.900,000 will be available for studies under this loan scheme.
An amount of Rs.300,000 will also available for daily expenses. After the completion of studies, another two years will be available to repay this loan without interest.
The first coronation in 70 years is to take place on Saturday morning, with King Charles III and the Queen Consort preparing for their historic carriage ride to Westminster Abbey.
Despite forecasts of rain, crowds have already begun to gather on the procession route.
There will be a huge security operation in central London, with 100 heads of state set to attend.
Protests have been promised by those opposed to the monarchy.
The Coronation service, which will last almost two hours, will be seen first-hand by 2,300 guests, including Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, who arrived from the United States on Friday on a commercial flight.
It will be the first time since the release of Prince Harry’s memoir that he will have been seen in public with his brother, Prince William, the Prince of Wales.
It is thought Prince Harry may fly back to the US a matter of hours after the ceremony to rejoin his wife Meghan.
EPA Image caption,London landmarks were lit up with projections to mark the Coronation
Charles became king of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms in September, when his mother Elizabeth died after 70 years on the throne. Months of intense planning have gone into the coronation celebrations – the 40th to take place at Westminster Abbey since 1066.
On the eve of the Coronation, the King looked relaxed as he went on a walkabout on the Mall, flanked by the Prince and Princess of Wales and a heavy security detail.
Barbara Crowther, 69, and her friend Pauline, joined the crowds holding a “Coronation Street” banner.
“We weren’t going to camp, but there are so many people here, we thought that if we don’t camp out, we won’t get anywhere near the front,” said Ms Crowther.
REUTERS Image caption,Royal fans had been gathering on the Mall the day before the Coronation
Katie Gordon, from Wiltshire, was painting faces with her two daughters on Friday. She thinks the new King and Queen are “going to be great”.
“We’re camping out tonight ready for the Coronation, and they’re painting everyone’s faces as they walk by,” Ms Gordon said.
“We’re doing it for free, it’s just something we’re doing. We bought the facepaints for ourselves and thought, why not do it for other people too?
As the sun set on Friday, hundreds of tents had appeared along the Coronation route, with those gathered hoping to witness the historic event.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will preside over the service, with guests ranging from US First Lady Jill Biden to President Macron of France and entertainers Ant and Dec.
Olena Zelenska, wife of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, met Catherine, Princess of Wales at a pre-Coronation reception at Buckingham Palace on Friday.
Charles was photographed sharing warm words with the First Lady of Ukraine, and greeting Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, with a handshake and a kiss on the cheek.
REUTERS Image caption,The Queen Consort, at an event in Parliament this week, will be crowned alongside the King
There has been controversy over whether people at home were being asked to pledge their allegiance to the King.
The Church of England has made clear this is entirely optional and people might instead have a “private moment of reflection”.
The keynote message of the Coronation from King Charles is in his first prayer when he reaches the Abbey reads: “I come not to be served, but to serve.”
The high point of the ceremony will come when the St Edward’s Crown is placed on the King’s head, a moment that will be marked by the Abbey bells being rung and a gun salute in nearby Horse Guards Parade.
Camilla will be crowned alongside Charles – and after the couple’s long and often complicated relationship, she will now be officially described as “Queen Camilla”.
The ceremony will emphasise diversity and inclusion, with more multi-faith elements than any previous coronation, with contributions from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh representatives.
A Bible lesson will be read by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is Hindu, and music will be sung in Welsh and Scottish and Irish Gaelic.
KENSINGTON PALACE Image caption,At a pre-Coronation reception, US First Lady, Jill Biden, the Princess of Wales and Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine
There will be women bishops taking part in the service for the first time in a coronation service that goes back almost a thousand years.
After the service, at around 13:00 BST, King Charles and Queen Camilla will travel in the Gold State Coach back to Buckingham Palace, in a spectacular mile-long (1.6km) procession, with 4,000 soldiers and 19 military bands.
Meticulous rehearsals for the procession were carried out by marching around a replica route with landmarks such as the Cenotaph marked out with traffic cones.
When they reach the Palace, it remains uncertain who will be seen with the King and Queen for the traditional balcony appearance.
PA MEDIA Image caption,The traditional Gold State Coach will be used on the way back to Buckingham Palace
There are plans for a flypast when the senior royals are on the Palace balcony, but there will be concerns about the weather, with a forecast for cloud and showers.
The run-up to the Coronation has also seen a number of vocal protests from anti-monarchy groups – and the Republic campaign group has announced its intention to hold a protest on the route of the procession.
There will be a massive security operation, with the Metropolitan Police putting 11,500 officers on duty in what it says will be its biggest ever single-day deployment.
Anti-monarchy groups have defended their right to protest, but the police have warned that “tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low”.
The guest list has also been disputed, with criticism of the presence of Chinese vice-president Han Zheng, accused of presiding over a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.
But this will be a ceremony played out before a huge global audience, with TV crews from all over the world arriving in London.
They will see pageantry, religious symbolism and ancient traditions, with King Charles III crowned in a 700-year-old Coronation chair, in a ceremony that most people will never have seen before in their lives.