KING AT LAST

The queen's death wasn't only a time of great sorrow for the heir to the throne - it was also a time of momentous change. This extract from a new book by royal author Robert Jobson explores the depths of emotion Charles went through as he stepped into the role he'd been preparing for all his adult life

KING Charles III delivered his first televised address as sovereign on Friday 9 September 2022, the day after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history.

It was a poignant and deeply moving tribute to a remarkable woman, public servant and much-loved monarch.

His words were poetic and personal. His pay-off line, "May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest," was a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Horatio pays tribute to the Prince of Denmark as he dies in his friend's arms.

It was a mark of respect by Charles for the woman who had been his guiding light, which had now been extinguished.

The queen had passed away peacefully in her bed aged 96 at 3.10pm on 8 September at Balmoral Castle. Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, had fortunately both been in Scotland when they were first alerted that the queen's health had suddenly deteriorated.

Charles, who had been at a function at Dumfries House in Ayrshire on the evening of 7 September, helicoptered the next morning to Balmoral Castle on the queen's estate in the Scottish Highlands and soon joined his sister at their mother's bedside.

Anne never left her side. Charles, however, after a few hours with the queen, returned to Birkhall, his nearby estate on Royal Deeside that he had inherited from the late Queen Mother.

With its sloping lawn, the secluded, L-shaped property is embraced by the surrounding woodland. As the defining moment in his life approached, Charles went out foraging for mushrooms in the wild woods, carrying a basket and with his walking stick in hand, while the sound of the River Muick, a tributary of the River Dee, filled the air.