NThe Union Jack is also at full mast. In honor of the new king. After Charles’ proclamation the day before, it was only set to half-staff again at 1 p.m. Only a few hundred, probably mostly Londoners, took advantage of the early foggy hour to arrive at Buckingham Palace at 6am on Sunday morning. Only a little later, at ten o’clock, there are already thousands moving in long columns towards the palace. Signs show the way for the “floral tributes”, which should only be deposited in Green Park, i.e. in front of the palace. It’s already cordoned off over a wide area. In front of Westminster Abbey, the church owned by the monarch, the grandstands are already being set up and traffic lights and signs for the upcoming funeral procession are being taken down; golden crowns are placed on the flagpoles along the Mall.
David is also on his way to the palace. In his arms he has a big Paddington Bear. What did the queen mean to him? “She was my mother, she was everyone’s mother,” he says. Mother? Not grandmother? He laughs: “Look at me,” says the man in his mid-sixties. What does he think of the new king? “He deserves at least one chance.” More important for him: “William and Harry are reunited.” That was the biggest and nicest surprise for him the night before when the two brothers and their wives showed up together in front of Windsor Castle and, albeit in pairs, took a dip in the crowd. “Didn’t Meghan look great?” he asks, beaming as if she were the future queen.
Fraddie, cradled in his mother’s arms, had only just become friends with the Queen. “At the platinum anniversary celebrations in early June, the children all had to come to school in the colors of the Union Jack, blue, red and white,” says his mother April. “And everyone had to draw a queen.” Fraddie’s Elisabeth also wore a golden crown, of course. Did he like her? “Yes,” the six-year-old replies after a long hesitation. “Nevertheless, he is very happy that the king is now a man,” says Father Daniel and laughs. He is holding a bouquet of white roses wrapped in plastic as if the floral greetings are meant to last forever.
Where will Charles III. reside?
The flower carpet with all its stuffed animals in front of the castle is almost Dian in size. Here, where a quarter of a century ago hundreds of thousands of the former “Princess of Wales” commemorated her accidental death and where the Queen felt least comfortable, and not because of her daughter-in-law, the late Queen is remembered the most. Recently, Elizabeth II was less and less in the unloved castle that Victoria had made her main residence in 1837. Whether King Charles III. Will move into Buckingham Palace is not yet certain. He is at home in the much more modest Clarence House, just a few minutes’ walk away. The residence is part of the royal St James’s Palace, which is also the official residence of the British monarch to this day.
Charles was also officially proclaimed King here on Saturday, by an illustrious group of active and former politicians as well as many ecclesiastical dignitaries and representatives of the Commonwealth. The Council of Heirs was basically just stating the obvious, but the tradition-minded kingdom doesn’t like parting with loved ones so easily. Then it’s more likely to give the common people more insights from time to time. Just as Elisabeth permitted cameras at her coronation for the first time in 1953, albeit not at her anointing, on Saturday for the first time the subjects were allowed to follow her king’s proclamation live. And we were able to experience a nervous Charles, who struggled with the fountain pens and seemed to be talking quietly to himself during the council’s decisions. Importantly, the monarch must also take an oath that he will “promote and preserve” the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, not Anglican.
