Queen Elizabeth II Dies: Charles III Expresses ‘Profound Sorrow’ Over Queen’s Death in First Speech as King

Feb 13, 2024

His remarks capped a solemn day of remembrance after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The country now enters a mourning period that continues until after her funeral.

Click here to read the latest live coverage as King Charles III accedes to the throne.

Mark Landler

LONDON — Swiftly taking on the mantle of Britain’s monarch, King Charles III returned to London from Scotland on Friday, a day after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, to pledge that he would serve the British people “with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life.”

The king’s speech capped a day of mourning across Britain, but it was also a vivid demonstration of continuity in this constitutional monarchy. He met with the new prime minister, Liz Truss, just four days after the queen anointed her at Balmoral Castle, in the last official act of her seven-decade reign.

“Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived, a promise with destiny kept,” Charles said in a televised address that was at once dignified and deeply emotional, a son’s grieving eulogy for his mother and a sovereign’s solemn oath of duty.

Recalling Elizabeth’s vow, on her 21st birthday, to serve her people for the remainder of her life, “whether it be long or short,” the 73-year-old king declared, “I, too, now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.”

As king, Charles will no longer be able to throw himself into the charity work or the policy issues, like climate change, that occupied him during his long wait for the throne. Instead, he will shoulder his mother’s unique burden: imperial symbol of the United Kingdom, but a largely ceremonial figure, strictly removed from politics.

Charles’s ascent also marks a new chapter in the relationship between Britain’s head of state and its head of government — one that, under the queen, stretched back to Winston Churchill, her first prime minister. And it augured a new royal style, led by a king who has signaled he wants to reshape his family’s role in British life.

A glimmer of that new approach surfaced on Friday afternoon when Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, arrived at Buckingham Palace. The king jumped out of his vintage Rolls-Royce to engage in some distinctly democratic glad-handing, more typical of a politician on the campaign trail than a member of royalty.

To cries of “God save the king,” Charles shook hands, clasped elbows, and even accepted a peck on the cheek from the iPhone wielding well-wishers lined up outside the palace. Then he and Camilla lingered to look at the flowers and cards laid at the wrought-iron fence, before turning to walk into their new home.

Once inside, the king recorded his nine-and-a-half minute address in the blue drawing room, a photo of the queen on the desk beside him. He made some news, bestowing his old title, Prince of Wales, on his eldest son and heir, William.

The king’s words were piped into St. Paul’s Cathedral, echoing under its cavernous dome where Britain’s political establishment gathered for a service of thanksgiving for the queen, who died on Thursday at Balmoral, her summer retreat, at the age of 96.

The rituals were the start of 10 days of ceremony that will strike some as charming and others as hopelessly out of date. Next up is an Accession Council, convened on Saturday to formally designate Charles as the king, followed by a proclamation, to be read from the balcony of the Friary Court by the Garter King of Arms. The mourning rituals will culminate with a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, the first since Churchill’s in 1965.

In London and other parts of the realm, it was a day replete with tributes to the queen. Bells pealed at St. Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, and Windsor Castle. Artillery guns roared in Hyde Park, the Tower of London, on the island of Jersey, and in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar. In the House of Commons, the members stood in a minute’s silence, a rare stillness blanketing their often-raucous chamber.

Opening the tributes in Parliament, Ms. Truss hailed the queen as “the nation’s greatest diplomat.” She recalled watching Elizabeth charm a meeting of global business executives last year. “She was always so proud of Britain and always embodied the spirit of our great country,” Ms. Truss said.

The prime minister heralded the dawn of a new Carolean age, a phrase previously used to refer to the reign of Charles II from 1660 to 1685. Praising Charles III’s commitment to issues like environmental protection, she said, “We owe him our loyalty and devotion.”

Her recently deposed predecessor, Boris Johnson, noted wryly that the queen “saw off her 14th prime minister,” after he submitted his resignation to her at Balmoral on Tuesday. “She was as radiant and knowledgeable and fascinated about politics as ever I remember,” Mr. Johnson said of their leave-taking.

Mr. Johnson, now speaking from the backbench, recalled that at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the leader of a Middle Eastern country asked if the queen really had jumped out of a helicopter, wearing a pink dress, and parachuted into the stadium — a memorable live stunt that cemented her status as a pop-cultural phenomenon.

Later in the afternoon, Ms. Truss traveled to Buckingham Palace for her first face-to-face meeting with the king. Neither the palace nor Downing Street disclosed details of the session, though it was not hard to imagine they discussed the energy crisis and soaring inflation that is gripping the country — Ms. Truss’s most daunting challenges as she takes up the job.

If history is any guide, the relationship between the new king and Ms. Truss will remain opaque. The queen never discussed the advice she gave her prime ministers, and the prime ministers have been uniformly tight-lipped about what goes on during their weekly audiences at Buckingham Palace.

Charles, however, has never been shy about voicing his views on climate change, organic farming, architecture, or other favorite issues. When candidates for the Conservative Party leadership began raising doubts in July about Britain’s ambitious target to reach “net zero” in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Charles got involved in the debate, seizing on the record-setting temperatures set during a heat wave.

“Those commitments around net zero have never been more vitally important as we all swelter under today’s alarming record temperatures across Britain and Europe,” he said in a statement.

Given the obligation of the monarch to stay out of politics, Charles will now have to keep those opinions to himself. But that does not mean he cannot seek to influence policies in his private discussions with Ms. Truss, said Vernon Bogdanor, a professor of government at King’s College London.

“He’s got a lot more experience than this prime minister because he’s mixed with senior politicians for decades,” Professor Bogdanor said. “That’s the reverse of the position the young queen was in with Winston Churchill.”

Harold Hongju Koh, an American legal scholar who has taught at Oxford University, said the monarchy acts as a kind of “balance wheel” for the government, stabilizing the ship of state if its political leaders tip it too far in one direction.

“The Charles-Truss dynamic will inevitably unfold very differently from that of Elizabeth-Boris,” said Professor Koh, who teaches at Yale Law School. “The balance between the partners will inevitably get struck in a different place.”

For the king, the transition has also reinforced his partnership with his wife, Camilla, who made her public debut on Friday as the queen consort. It is a title her mother-in-law wished her to have. In marking her 70 years on the throne last February, the queen anticipated this moment of transition. She appealed in a personal statement for Britons to open their hearts to Camilla, as well as to Charles.

“When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me,” the queen wrote. “It is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

That settled a longstanding, delicate question about how the former Camilla Parker-Bowles would be known when Charles acceded to the throne. The two were romantically involved before and during Charles’s marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales. He and Diana later divorced, and Charles married Camilla. He then pursued a subtle but persistent campaign to recognize her as queen consort once he was king.

In his speech, Charles said, “I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla.” But he saved his final words for his mother. Quoting from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the king said, “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Jane Arraf

BAGHDAD — Many Iraqis expressed sorrow on Friday at the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign overlapped with the Iraqi monarchy early in their country’s history. Some could even say they lived through that history.

“Most Iraqis, especially true Iraqis, love the monarchy,” said Haj Mohammed al-Khashuly, who was born in 1932, the year Iraq achieved independence from the British.

Mr. Khashuly, 90, an owner of the century-old Shabandar Café, sat on a crowded bench near walls crowded with photos of Iraqi history, including King Faisal II, the last Iraqi king, who was killed in the 1958 revolution.

“We did not witness any harm from the British,” said Mr. Khashuly. In silent contrast, nearby hung photos of his three sons and a grandson, all killed in a 2007 car bombing on al-Mutanabbi Street in the eruption of violence after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ruled for centuries by Ottoman Turkey, the provinces that became present-day Iraq were seized during World War I by Britain, which installed an Iraqi monarchy that was later toppled in a bloody coup.

“There is a nostalgia for the monarchy,” said Maysoon al-Demluji, a former Iraqi culture deputy minister. “Many people think Iraq lived its best times then.”

For most Iraqis, Queen Elizabeth was inextricably linked with the British legacy in Iraq.

“The world is a sadder place without her,” said Tamara Daghistani, 76, an Iraqi-British resident of Jordan who maintains photographic archives of Iraq under the monarchy.

On the internet, images abound of a young Queen Elizabeth with an even younger King Faisal II.

“The monarchy helped rebuild Iraq — the railways, the schools, the dams, the port. We can’t deny that,” said Ms. Daghistani.

Other Iraqis had a harsher view.

“She helped ally the war against Iraq,” said Hussein Ali, 30, a shop owner speaking of the U.S. invasion. “God will judge her.”

In a small one-room museum off al-Mutanabi street, Hadi Jawad al-Ta’ie showed photos and newspaper clippings from the 1950s, including the nationalist revolution.

Mr. al-Ta’ie, 84 and a historian, said that as a young student in 1958, he helped tear down a statue of Gen. Frederick Stanley Maude, the British general who conquered Baghdad in 1917.

“Queen Elizabeth performed her duty to her people and her nation,” he said. But “Iraq was a milk cow” to the British, taking Iraqi wealth, he said.

Daniel Victor and Abdi Latif Dahir

In addition to her duties as the head of the British monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II also served as the head of the Commonwealth, a separate entity with member countries across the globe.

To some, it may not be familiar. Here are the basics.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary collection of 56 member countries born out of the dissolution of the British Empire. Most are former British colonies, though any country can apply to be included. Rwanda and Mozambique, for instance, have no colonial link to Britain but joined the Commonwealth within the last few decades.

The countries are spread across five continents, representing about 2.5 billion people, according to the Commonwealth’s official website. The Commonwealth has no legal control over the participating countries, but is intended to promote values like democracy, peace and human rights. Many countries join the Commonwealth, experts say, not necessarily to gain financial aid but for leverage, to boost their standing in the world. This is especially true of countries like Rwanda and Togo, whose leaders have been criticized for clamping down on dissent and press freedom.

It gathers leaders from the countries in a summit every two years, filling their schedules with closed-door meetings, panel discussions and formal dinners. In June, King Charles III — known then, before the queen’s death, as Prince Charles — spoke at its opening in Kigali, Rwanda. The next meeting will be held in Samoa in 2024.

But applying its principles in practice has proved elusive. That is partly because the various nations, linked by their past connections to the British monarchy, have different economies, politics and ruling philosophies, and may have conflicting perspectives on the legacy of British rule.

The Commonwealth has struggled to confront the British history of colonialism, with some countries pushing to sever relations with the monarchy or insisting on apologies or reparations. Internal conflicts among member countries do not allow for much cohesion.

“The Commonwealth meetings have either been letdowns or disasters,” Philip Murphy, the author of “The Empire’s New Clothes: The Myth of the Commonwealth,” said in June.

In 2018, the group’s leaders approved King Charles III to succeed Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the Commonwealth.

During his speech at the summit’s opening in June, he acknowledged what he said were the “painful” roots of the Commonwealth.

“If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we too must find new ways to acknowledge our past,” he said. “Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come.”

The New York Times

Ben Shpigel

President Biden, who last year said that Queen Elizabeth II reminded him of his mother, said on Friday that he would be among the many global leaders attending her funeral.

“I don’t know what the details are yet,” Mr. Biden said after a speech in Ohio, “but I’ll be going.”

White House officials had not officially confirmed the president’s travel plans.

Across his decades in public service, both in the executive office and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Biden has attended several funerals of world leaders. Among them: Pope John Paul II, in 2005; Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, in 2011; and Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister of Israel, in 2014, when he delivered a eulogy.

Mr. Biden said in a statement Thursday that he first met the queen in 1982, during a trip to Britain as a young senator. He last spent time with her in June 2021, when he visited Cornwall, England, for a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations.

After having tea with her at Windsor Castle, Mr. Biden said the queen’s appearance and generosity evoked memories of his mother, Catherine Finnegan, who died in 2010, adding that he didn’t think the queen “would be insulted” by the comparison.

The last time a British monarch died — King George VI, in 1952 — President Harry S. Truman did not attend his funeral. Instead, he sent his secretary of state, Dean Acheson.

Saskia Solomon

Fortnum & Mason, the famous food department store in Piccadilly has covered its window display “until further notice” as “a mark of our respect. Next door, Hatchard’s, London’s oldest bookstore, is closed. “We are proud to have held our Royal Warrant throughout her glorious reign and look forward to serving HM King Charles III,” a sign outside reads.

Ben Shpigel

The titles King Charles III granted Friday upon his oldest son, William, and William’s wife, Catherine, bridged two distinct eras of the royal family.

Known as the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine will assume the same titles as King Charles III and his first wife, Diana, a formal acknowledgment of the legacy of the woman known as the “people’s princess.” Soon after they received their new titles, a palace official said the couple “are focused on deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in following royal protocol, added that the prince and princess will approach their roles “in the modest and humble way they’ve approached their work previously.” Catherine in particular “appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path.”

A global phenomenon in the tabloid era, Diana was described by Roslyn Sulcas in The Times in 2020 as “a protean figure, both accessible and an enigma.” Her death — in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles — sent Britain into spiraling grief but the royal family into a cold remove.

Queen Elizabeth II had a fraught relationship with Diana. She initially refused to permit the Union Jack to fly at half-staff over Buckingham Palace when Diana died, then reversed course. She insisted that her responsibility was to privately comfort Diana’s sons, William, then 15, and Harry, then 12.

Both Diana and Charles admitted to having extramarital affairs, and Charles went on to marry his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles, after Diana’s death.

“After Diana, the royal family came to accept that modern marriages must be based on compatibility, understanding and love,” wrote Jenni Russell, a columnist for The Times of London, in an editorial published by The Times in 2017, “Charles has his Camilla; they are evidently happy. The next generation has been set free.”

Isabella Simonetti

There are 29 billion British coins in circulation with Queen Elizabeth II’s face on them. Since she first appeared on the coins, a year after her ascension in 1952, the Royal Mint has used five different portraits. And on all of them, she faces to the right.

Now it’s King Charles III’s turn to be on the coins, but he’ll most likely be facing the other direction.

Since the reign of Charles II in the 17th century, the monarch has typically faced the opposite position of their predecessor on coins, according to the Royal Family’s website. Because Queen Elizabeth faced to the right, the new king will presumably be shown facing left.

There was one exception: Edward VIII, who was king for less than one year in 1936, faced to the left because that is what he preferred, even though the monarch before him, George V, also looked left. The tradition was resumed with George VI, who faced left. He served until he died in 1952.

“It may have a practical use in the fact that it obviously marks a difference from the previous reign,” said Nigel Fletcher, a teaching fellow at King’s College London. Mr. Fletcher said that after new images of King Charles were created, molds and casts would be produced to make the currency.

Bills are a different matter. In 1960, Queen Elizabeth became the first monarch to appear on bank notes, meaning there is no convention for the direction the monarch faces on bills. There are more than 4.7 billion Bank of England currency notes in circulation.

With the nation in mourning, it’s not clear when any changes will be made.

The process of rolling out the new currency will not “happen overnight,” said Ethan Ilzetzki, an associate professor at the London School of Economics.

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, said in a statement Thursday that an announcement would not be made until the period of mourning was over.

The Royal Mint, the arm responsible for coin production in Britain, said in a statement that “further information will follow” but did not specify a timeline. “As we respect this period of respectful mourning, we continue to strike coins as usual,” the Royal Mint said.

The looming currency turnover in British money coincides with the ongoing replacement of paper notes with polymer, a cleaner material that offers enhanced protection against fraud. The change to polymer began in 2016, and after Sept. 30, people will not be able to use paper 20 and 50 pound notes to pay for things but will be able to exchange them at some banks or the Bank of England.

Saskia Solomon

Perched on a railing in front of the palace was Callum Taylor, a 27-year-old actor who had traveled to London from the northwestern town of Preston. Mr Taylor said he chose to bring yellow roses because he’d heard that it was one of her favorite colors. “I don’t know how true that is, but I thought it was a nice gesture.”

The New York Times

King Charles III delivered his first address as sovereign Friday, after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The following is a transcript of his remarks, as released by the palace.

I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow.

Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen — my beloved Mother — was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example.

Queen Elizabeth’s 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. Alongside the personal grief that all my family are feeling, we also share with so many of you in the United Kingdom, in all the countries where the queen was head of state, in the Commonwealth and across the world, a deep sense of gratitude for the more than seventy years in which my mother, as queen, served the people of so many nations.

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. 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. In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humor and an unerring ability always to see the best in people.

I pay tribute to my Mother’s memory and I honor her life of service. I know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you, and I share that sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all.

When the queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times. In the course of the last seventy years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. The institutions of the State have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms — of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud — have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant.

The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign’s particular relationship and responsibility toward the Church of England — the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted. In that faith, and the values it inspires, I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government.

As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the Realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life.

My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.

This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage seventeen years ago, she becomes my queen consort. I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much.

As my Heir, William now assumes the Scottish titles which have meant so much to me. He succeeds me as Duke of Cornwall and takes on the responsibilities for the Duchy of Cornwall which I have undertaken for more than five decades. Today, I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty. With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the center ground where vital help can be given.

I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas. In a little over a week’s time we will come together as a nation, as a Commonwealth and indeed a global community, to lay my beloved mother to rest. In our sorrow, let us remember and draw strength from the light of her example.

On behalf of all my family, I can only offer the most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support. They mean more to me than I can ever possibly express.

And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: Thank you. 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.”

Megan Specia

Shortly after William and his wife, Catherine, were given their new titles of prince and princess of Wales, a palace official said the couple “are focused on deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time.”

Michael D. Shear

President Biden said on Friday that he will be attending Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. Asked by reporters after a speech in Ohio, Mr. Biden said: “Yes. I don’t know what the details are yet but I’ll be going.” White House officials had not officially confirmed the president’s travel plans.

Megan Specia

While much of the speech focused on Queen Elizabeth’s formal role, Charles ended with a more personal message directed “to my darling mama.” He said: “I want simply to say this: Thank you. 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.”

Megan Specia

King Charles III bestowed the title of Prince of Wales on his son and heir, William, and William's wife, Kate, becomes the Princess of Wales. He also wished his son Harry and Harry's wife, Meghan, the best “as they continue to build their lives overseas.”

Traci Carl

For part of the speech, the camera angle widened to show a portrait of the queen, sitting on the desk next to the new king, showing that even in death, she is still a presence.

Megan Specia

Reflecting on the commitment of service to the nation that Queen Elizabeth II made when she ascended the throne, King Charles III said, “That promise of lifelong service, I renew to you all today.”

Megan Specia

Charles has echoed many of his mother's sentiments, speaking of her legacy but also of his own commitment to carry it on. “Our values have remained and must remain constant,” he said.

Megan Specia

King Charles III in his first address to the nation in a pre-recorded speech after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, said he addressed the nation “feeling profound sorrow.” Speaking of his mother, he said, “We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family could owe to her mother for her love affection, guidance, understanding and example.”

Stephen Castle

BALMORAL CASTLE, Scotland — By 7:30 on Wednesday morning, the flowers already lined the walls outside Balmoral Castle, the beautiful and remote Scottish country estate much loved by Queen Elizabeth II, and where her life and seven-decade reign ended on Thursday.

A candle flickered, too — fighting a losing battle against the relentless rain — as Erin Harkness added her bouquet. She reflected on the sense of loss that persuaded her to get into her car at 1 a.m. and drive from Dundee, 60 miles away, stopping for a few hours en route to doze while in a parking lot.

“It’s strange. It’s going to take a moment or two for the brain to cope, because it feels like any other day but there is that difference” said Ms. Harkness, 24, who cares for her disabled mother and volunteers for the National Trust for Scotland, which protects the country’s countryside and historic buildings. “You know that she’s gone now and that there is a hole in the nation, a Queen Elizabeth II shaped hole.”

As the rain pelted down in the early morning, Ms. Harkness was one of many who defied the elements to pay their respects to the queen. They were joined by television crews from around the world, sheltered under umbrellas as they awaited the departure of members of the royal family who had rushed to Balmoral on Thursday as the queen’s health deteriorated. Prince Harry was one of the first to leave, around 8:30 a.m.

By late morning, in the nearby town of Ballater, more people had gathered to be taken by bus to Balmoral, which has long been a focal point of royal life.

In the 19th century, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made Balmoral Castle their Scottish home. And since then, the castle has been a base for the royal family’s summer vacations, a place for walks and secluded picnics.

The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and Diana, the Princess of Wales, spent their honeymoon at Balmoral. By tradition, prime ministers are invited by the monarch for a brief stay at the castle each year, a visit enjoyed more by some than by others.

Balmoral featured prominently as a backdrop in television’s “The Crown” and the movie “The Queen,” which focuses on the aftermath of the death of Diana in 1997.

Even with gray clouds hovering there is no doubting the beauty of the spectacular countryside, which is bisected by the River Dee, in full, roaring flow. By several accounts, Queen Elizabeth, a lifelong lover of horses, dogs and country pursuits, was probably happier in Balmoral than anywhere else, occasionally even enjoying a little anonymity.

On one occasion, two American tourists, who knew the castle was close by, approached her and a protection officer, Richard Griffin, on a walk. They failed to recognize her, and asked if she had met the queen.

“‘I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly,’ ” the queen replied, according to an account by Mr. Griffin in interviews earlier this year.

On Friday, Iris Stevenson, 70, a retired office manager from Belfast in Northern Ireland, also told of a chance encounter with the queen. She said she and her husband were walking close to nearby Loch Muick two years ago, and stood aside from a single track road when a Range Rover SUV approached.

“We stood to let it pass, and it was the queen driving and she just raised her hand to thank us,” said Ms. Stevenson, who vacations regularly in the area and had come to pay her respects on Friday.

“I think she was a wonderful person,” she said. “She held her family together for so long — and the whole nation — and to work up to your last at 96 years of age is amazing.”

“You can say she worked until the day she died,” she added, referring to the fact that only on Tuesday the queen had appointed a new prime minister, Liz Truss.

On Friday, Queen Elizabeth’s love of Scotland was reciprocated in some of the tributes left with bouquets of flowers, one of which quoted the words of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns:

“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birthplace of Valor, the country of Worth”

Shona Leonard, from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, also paying respect to the queen, pointed to her powers as a unifying force as well as one of stability and consistency.

“She had a Scottish mum and an English dad,” she said, referring to the fact that the queen’s mother was descended from the Royal House of Scotland. “She knew the locals and she really loved this place,” added Ms. Leonard who, failing to find any flowers in the local store, brought a potted plant instead. “It’s incredible what she’s done, how she’s held the country together.”

Some English visitors, too, agreed that Balmoral was an appropriate place for Queen Elizabeth’s long reign to conclude. They included David Blenkiron, a sales representative from Durham in northeast England, who was on a work assignment in Scotland when the queen died. On Friday, he grabbed the only flowers he could find at a local supermarket at 6 a.m., and drove more than an hour to Balmoral.

“She’s always been there so it just felt the right thing to do,” said Mr. Blenkiron, 49. He said he remembered the street party he attended as a child during the 1977 Jubilee celebrations, and still had a ceremonial coin and beaker produced to mark the occasion.

“She’s been the queen all my life,” he said. “I’ve known nothing else,”

He acknowledged that the passing of the crown to King Charles will be an adjustment. “Every note in my pocket, every coin in my pocket, has her head on” he said referring to the national currency. As for the chorus of the national anthem, changed from “God save the Queen” to “God save the King,” Mr. Blenkiron predicted: “We will be singing the wrong words for quite a few years.”

Still, he added with a touch of emotion in his voice as he stood in the teeming rain: “If she had to go, this was the place. She loved it.”

Megan Specia

Two days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son Charles’s new role as British monarch was officially proclaimed on Saturday in a ceremony at St. James’s Palace in London.

The palace, a Tudor royal residence near Buckingham Palace, has been the site of such ceremonies for centuries, but Saturday’s event was the first time that it had been televised.

The ceremony is held in two parts, the first of which included a meeting of the king’s Privy Council, a group of advisers to the monarch who have typically reached high levels of public office. In attendance on Saturday were Charles’s eldest son, Prince William, the new heir to the throne; Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss; and several of her predecessors. The king was not present at that meeting.

Notably, not a single person present in the room for the accession council had been part of the ceremony the last time around, when Elizabeth was proclaimed sovereign 70 years ago.

During that ceremony, the council proclaimed Charles the sovereign and then formally approved various arrangements for the upcoming proclamation of his rule. In the second part of the ceremony, King Charles III meets with his Privy Council.

The new king then will make four traditional public statements that generations of monarchs have made before him. He will give personal and political inaugural declarations, both of which in the past would have happened in a closed ceremony with the text later published in the London Gazette, the official government record.

On this occasion, for the first time, it will be broadcast, as will the formalities that follow. Charles will also make an oath to uphold the Church of Scotland.

Then, at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Eastern), a proclamation will be read out officially declaring the reign of King Charles III. The first will be made from the balcony at St. James’s Palace.

Heralds will arrive on horseback, wearing uniforms that have roots in clothing from the Middle Ages, and will begin passing the proclamation across the country, but the news will first be read in Trafalgar Square and then the Royal Exchange in London.

The pomp and ceremony can often feel like a holdover of an earlier time, and the procedures, enshrined in law, give a nod to the foundations of the modern British state.

Jenny Gross

Among the many transitions that Queen Elizabeth II’s death has set in motion for Britain will be one that affects the smallest, and perhaps cutest, members of the royal family: the monarch’s pack of four royal dogs. These include two corgis, a corgi-dachshund cross (known as a dorgi) and a cocker spaniel.

Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment about who would be now caring for the dogs, named Candy, Lissy, Muick and Sandy. But wherever the royal canines end up, they may need to become accustomed to a home that is less luxurious than a castle. Charles, who will officially be proclaimed king on Saturday, reportedly prefers Jack Russell terriers over Pembroke Welsh corgis.

The queen had more than 30 dogs, many of them corgis, during her seven-decade reign. But corgis do not have a long royal history — Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, became the first people in the royal family to have one when, while they were young princesses in 1933, King George VI, then the Duke of York, got them a puppy, named Dookie. Another corgi, Jane, joined the royal family soon after, until 1944, when she was hit by a car. For Elizabeth’s 18th birthday, she got another corgi, a two-month-old puppy named Sue, who became known as Susan.

“Susan is the one who was with her during her courtship with Prince Philip, who accompanied her on her honeymoon, who was there when her father died,” said Ciara Farrell, the library and collections manager of the Kennel Club, Britain’s largest organization devoted to dog welfare. “Susan was really a special dog for her.”

The queen bred corgis from Susan’s lineage for eight decades, and over the years the queen would bring her dogs with her on overseas visits. She was also photographed walking with them on the grounds of Windsor Castle.

The Pembroke Welsh corgi peaked in popularity in the 1960s in Britain, in the years after the queen ascended to the throne, with more than 8,000 corgi puppies registered in 1961. In the decades that followed, however, they became much less popular, hitting a low in 2014, when only 274 corgi puppies were registered, Ms. Farrell said.

The breed became so closely associated with the royal family that corgis have appeared in pop-culture depictions of the monarchy, particularly in the last decade. Willow, who was believed to be a 14th-generation direct descendant of Susan, was one of three corgis to star in the sketch that opened the 2012 London Olympics.

“That put the corgis back in the public consciousness,” Ms. Farrell said.

Corgis have become more popular in recent years, with more than 1,000 corgi puppies registered with the Kennel Club last year. Ms. Farrell said the high-profile performance of three corgis in the London Olympics sketch had helped, as did their roles in shows like “The Crown,” “Bridgerton” and an animated comedy called “The Queen’s Corgi.”

The queen also had gun dogs, Labradors and cocker spaniels, which lived on the royal estate at Sandringham in the English county of Norfolk, Ms. Farrell said.

Early last year, the queen received two new puppies, one corgi and one dorgi — gifts from her son Prince Andrew, according to The Daily Mail — as Britain went into a monthslong lockdown because of the coronavirus. The local news media reported that the queen, who was 96 when she died, had taken her dogs for long walks well into her 90s.

Victor Mather

Monarch, Defender of the Faith, great-grandmother, corgi enthusiast.

And sports lover.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96, most often appeared in the news pages, but she also found herself linked with the sporting world, as she was with so much of British culture during her life.

She was not a competitive athlete herself, but she rode horses from the time she was a child, and she inherited the royal stock of horses as an owner from her father. But the queen attended her share of sporting events and was a fixture of the equestrian set, and many of her children and grandchildren spent time on the playing fields.

The queen loved horse racing. As seen in the BBC documentary “Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of the Queen,” she watched the first part of the 1991 Epsom Derby on a TV, then hustled out to her box to watch the end through her binoculars. She also seemed to be quite pleased to have won 16 pounds (paid in notes with her face on them, of course).

Despite that windfall, the queen never achieved a fond aim: winning the Derby, perhaps Britain’s biggest race, as an owner. In 1953, just four days after her coronation, she watched Aureole finish second at Epsom Downs, beaten four lengths by Pinza. She never finished so highly again.

Hopes were high in 2011, as Carlton House, carrying her famed purple silks with gold braid and scarlet sleeves, went off as the 5-2 favorite. But he ran third. The queen also had three fifth places over the years.

The queen’s luck was better in other races, and her horses won over 1,800 races in her lifetime, including the Oaks, the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas and many other important British races.

Her presence at the Royal Ascot races may be most vivid in memory in part because of her traditional arrival in the royal procession in a carriage pulled by four horses. And she attended the 2007 Kentucky Derby during a visit to the United States.

But the Epsom Derby was a can’t-miss event for her. In her 70-year reign, she failed to attend only three: in 2022 because of ill health, in 1984 to attend ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of D-Day in France and in 1956 for a state visit to Sweden.

While many of the queen’s family members participated in sports at various levels, including rugby and polo, it was her daughter and granddaughter who hit the family’s sporting heights. The queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, qualified for the 1976 Olympics in the three-day equestrian event, finishing 24th aboard Goodwill. Anne’s daughter, the queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall, entered the same event in 2012, finishing eighth individually and winning a silver medal in the team event aboard High Kingdom.

Anne’s first husband and Zara’s father, Mark Phillips, was a two-time Olympic medalist in the three-day event. Zara is married to Mike Tindall, a World Cup-winning rugby player who played on the England team for a decade.

The queen attended many events and performances in her long life. She presented the trophy to the winning England team at Wembley Stadium after the 1966 World Cup final. She also gamely filmed a video with Daniel Craig (“Good evening, Mr. Bond” was her line) for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, at which she formally opened the Games.

At pretty much all these events, she managed to look like she was enjoying herself, even if she wasn’t. So it’s hard to say what she really thought of, well, 1950s Atlantic Coast Conference football.

Yes, during her first trip to the United States as queen, Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, attended the North Carolina-Maryland game on Oct. 19, 1957.

The story was front-page news in The Times under the headline, “Elizabeth II Sees a Football Game; Equipped With Blanket and Chrysanthemum.”

Reporting at the time indicated that attending her first football game was at the queen’s own request.

The queen was driven around the field before the game, then took her seat in Byrd Stadium (now Maryland Stadium) in College Park, Md.

While Philip stuck with what was going on the field, the queen often turned around to watch the fans, The Times reported.

No report is available of what the queen thought of the halftime show: “Bare-legged girls wearing large cigarette packages that covered body and head danced as the loudspeaker proclaimed the ‘North Carolina parade of industries,’” The Times said. “Dixie” was also played by the marching band.

After Ted Kershner of Maryland scored an 81-yard touchdown, “the queen burst into a smile and seemed to begin to catch the spirit of the game,” The Times said. Maryland upset North Carolina, 21-7.

Trips to the former colonies often involved appearances at sporting events. In Vancouver in 2002, she dropped a ceremonial puck between Markus Naslund of the Canucks and Mike Ricci of the Sharks before a preseason hockey game. Wayne Gretzky sat with the queen for the game, but she left after the first period — longer, to be honest, than many watch preseason games.

In 1991, President George Bush took Elizabeth to Camden Yards in Baltimore for a baseball game, her first. After meeting Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson and three Ripkens, she stayed for two innings.

Despite all those trips to the races and other sports, the queen was an infrequent visitor to one of Britain’s most famous events: Wimbledon.

Elizabeth was the patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for 64 years until turning the role over to the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, in 2017. But “royal insiders” — quoted in British tabloids, for what that’s worth — as well as some biographers and journalists who cover the royal family have claimed that she disliked the sport.

Generally plenty of other royals, including Prince William, do turn up at Wimbledon to present trophies and enjoy the spectacle. But the queen attended Wimbledon only four times during her reign, most recently in 2010, when she watched the Scotsman Andy Murray win a second-round match. She presented the Englishwoman Virginia Wade the Rosewater Dish after her win in 1977. A Briton hasn’t won that prize since.

Still, even if the queen didn’t love tennis, tennis loved the queen. After her death, tributes poured in from the All England Club (“Her Majesty’s visits to the Championships in 1957, 1962, 1977 and 2010 were special moments in the club’s history”), the tennis tours and Martina Navratilova, among others.

How utterly sad- Queens Elizabeth has died- long live the King…🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Abdi Latif Dahir, Lynsey Chutel and Elian Peltier

NAIROBI, Kenya — Though Queen Elizabeth II was revered by many in Africa, her death also reignited a different sort of conversation — one that touched on the legacy of the British Empire and the brutality the monarchy meted out to people in its former colonies.

In a younger generation of Africans growing up in a post-colonial world, some lamented that the queen never faced up to the grim aftermath of colonialism and empire, or issued an official apology. They said they wanted to use the moment to recall the oppression and horrors their parents and grandparents endured in the name of the Crown, and to urge for the return of crown jewels — rare massive diamonds — taken from the continent.

“You can look at the monarchy from the point of view of high tea and nice outfits and charity,” said Alice Mugo, a 34-year-old lawyer in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “But there’s also the ugly side, and for you to ignore the ugly side is dishonest.”

Ms. Mugo said she recently found her grandmother’s “movement pass,” issued when the British colonial government in Kenya declared a state of emergency to help suppress the anticolonial Mau Mau rebellion. The passes restricted the free movement of Kenyans.

It was while a young Elizabeth was on an official tour of Kenya, in 1952, that she learned of her father’s death and that she would become queen. The clampdown on Kenyans, which began just months after the queen ascended the throne, led to the establishment of a vast system of detention camps and the torture, rape, castration and killing of tens of thousands of people.

Those mourning the queen’s death, Ms. Mugo said, were not aware of how her government robbed millions of basic freedoms.

Similar sentiments were echoed by a South African political party, Economic Freedom Fighters, which said in a statement that it would not mourn the queen, “because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history.”

The queen, they wrote, was the “head of an institution built up, sustained and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world.”

The debate over how Africans should view the queen went viral when Uju Anya, a Nigeria-born professor at Carnegie Mellon University, posted a tweet in which she wished the queen “excruciating” pain on her deathbed for overseeing a “thieving raping genocidal empire.” When criticism came — including from her own university and Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon — Ms. Anya doubled down.

“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch,” she wrote, “you can keep wishing upon a star.”

Her original tweet was removed by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules.

For some across the continent, the queen was an admirable figure who represented continuity and balance in a changing world. In Ghana, tributes for “Maa Lizzy” were shared on Twitter.

“I grew to admire her over the years, just watching how she carried herself, and her commitment to what she committed to at 25,” said Yemi Adamolekun, the executive director of Enough is Enough Nigeria, a network of organizations promoting good governance. “She just kept at it, and I think there’s a lot to be admired in that regard.”

African leaders mourned the queen’s passing and offered condolences to Britain and her family. The presidents of Kenya and Ghana also ordered that flags be flown at half-staff for several days, drawing pushback on social media.

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, wrote on Twitter that “The story of modern Nigeria will never be complete without a chapter on Queen Elizabeth II, a towering global personality and an outstanding leader.”

William Ruto, Kenya’s president-elect, called the queen’s leadership of the Commonwealth “admirable.” The association, which was born out of the embers of the British Empire but has lost much of its earlier glory, has still attracted new members like Rwanda, Gabon and Togo, which have had no colonial connections to Britain.

For 27-year-old Naledi Mashishi, whose South African grandmother was forced to sing the God Save the Queen anthem each day at school, Queen Elizabeth will forever remain the face of the empire and its bitter legacy in Africa.

In the wake of the queen’s death, Ms. Mashishi joined a legion of young South Africans demanding the return of the diamonds that form part of the crown jewels. Cut from the Cullinan, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905 and considered the largest diamond ever found, the rare gemstones sit atop the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign Scepter, which are both used during the coronation of the British monarch.

The stone was a gift from the Afrikaner government to King Edward VII after the South African War, also known as the Anglo-Boer War. But Black South Africans have questioned a minority government’s right to bestow as a gift a gem uncovered during a time of brutal exploitation of Black people. On her 21st birthday in 1947, the Queen made a speech from a still segregated Cape Town, pledging her service to the Commonwealth.

“I think there’s something very disingenuous about saying the queen or the current royal family have nothing to do with the past,” Ms. Mashishi said. “Meanwhile, they are still happily wearing these stolen jewels.”

But with the queen’s passing, observers say that tough conversations about the empire’s past actions in Africa will only continue to gain steam.

“It’s way more than the diamonds,” said Lebohang Pheko, a political economist and a senior researcher at the South African think tank, Trade Collective. “There are not going to be easy conversations around this anymore.”

Abdi Latif Dahir reported from Nairobi, Kenya; Lynsey Chutel from Johannesburg; and Elian Peltier from Dakar, Senegal. Ben Ezeamalu contributed reporting from Lagos, Nigeria.

Mark Landler

Prime Minister Liz Truss has arrived at Buckingham Palace for an audience with King Charles.

Megan Specia

LONDON — Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth issued a letter that was seen as a major moment of recognition for a long beleaguered member of the royal family, intended to smooth the path for her ascent when the inevitable finally came.

In a statement marking her 70 years on the throne, the queen laid out how her daughter-in-law Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall and wife of Prince Charles, should become the queen consort when Charles, “in the fullness of time,” ascended the throne. Elizabeth also asked the nation to pass on the good will it had long shown her to the woman who would bear the title of queen.

So when Elizabeth died on Thursday at 96, there was no question that as her eldest son became King Charles III, his wife would become queen consort — a title indicating she is the spouse of the reigning king.

In everyday contexts she will be known simply as Queen Camilla, though as the queen consort she would not be included in the line of succession.

Elizabeth’s statement had put to rest years of uncertainty about what role she would play.

But even more important, Camilla’s ascendance was seen by many royal watchers and historians as a culmination of years of careful image repair by the royal couple, who had often endured outright abuse, much of it directed disproportionately at Camilla by the British tabloids.

Arianne Chernock, an associate professor of history at Boston University and an expert in the modern British monarchy, said the images of both Charles and Camilla have been rehabilitated through the work of the queen and through the couple’s own efforts. But the two are also quite aware of the public’s perception of their past.

“If we think back to 1992, it’s actually quite difficult to imagine that they would be where they are today: with this kind of dignity about them, the sense of large public approval, and a genuine desire for them to succeed in their roles,” she said.

On Friday, some of that public approval was on display as the new king and queen greeted the crowds that had gathered outside Buckingham Palace as the royal couple made their first public appearance with their new titles.

Dressed in black and wearing pearls and an elegant diamond knot brooch, Queen Camilla walked alongside her husband and greeted the crowds before the two walked together into the storied palace.

Later in the day, in his first address to the nation as king, Charles spoke of his “darling wife Camilla,” who has now become queen, saying, “I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty which I have come to rely on so much.”

In the royal historian Penny Junor’s book “The Duchess,” which follows Camilla’s remarkable rise from maligned mistress to a key senior member of the royal household, Ms. Junor portrays Camilla as playing a central role in restoring Charles’s own reputation, and a true partner to him.

“The person who has given Charles the courage and the encouragement to do half the things he has done in the last few decades is Camilla,” Ms. Junor writes.

The public perception of their union has come a long way. During the 1990s, after the breakup of Charles’s marriage to Diana, who referred to Camilla as the “third person” in their failed marriage, the British tabloid press called Camilla “the most hated woman in Britain.”

While acknowledging that Camilla will probably never be universally loved, Ms. Junor writes that she is a warm and welcoming woman with “a twinkle in her eye” — and a stabilizing force in the royal family as it has endured the ups and downs of the last several decades.

In a piece for The Daily Mail on the book’s publication in 2017, Ms. Junor wrote: “Looking at the Duchess today, valued for her work, successfully juggling her roles of duty and family, beautifully presented and stepping out serenely beside a much, much happier Prince Charles on the world stage, it is easy to forget just what she went through to achieve this.”

Charles first met Camilla in the early 1970s, and they dated for some time, but Charles went abroad for military duty and Camilla soon married Andrew Parker Bowles, an army cavalry officer. The pair would go on to have two children.

Charles later married Diana, but their marriage painfully dissolved in front of the whole world. Camilla seemed to bear much of the public disapproval of the prince’s separation from the much-loved Diana in 1991.

Then came the release in 1993 of an embarrassing covert recording of a conversation between Charles and Camilla — which came to be known as the “Camillagate Tapes.” In the recording, Charles said he wanted to “live in her trousers.”

Charles’s subsequent admission of adultery, in a TV documentary that aired a year later and was intended as image repair, was a further blow to the couple’s standing.

Camilla and her first husband divorced in 1995, and Charles and Diana’s divorce was finalized in 1996. After Diana’s death in 1997, the relationship between Charles and Camilla was kept far from the public eye. But in 1999, they began to make their first public appearances as a couple, and in 2003 they moved into the royal residence at Clarence House together.

In early 2005, Charles and Camilla announced their engagement, and in April of that year they were married in a civil ceremony. Prince William served as his father’s best man. Queen Elizabeth was notably absent from the ceremony, though she did attend the reception afterward.

And with the marriage, Camilla was given the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.

In the years following their marriage, speculation swirled about just what title Camilla would carry, and whether she would receive the title of queen, one packed with symbolism in a country that for 70 years had been led by an unforgettable monarch.

Analysts say the couple’s standing could be benefiting from the precarious situation Britain finds itself in right now, amid a cost of living crisis and a volatile political landscape.

“There’s a broad, widespread recognition that the U.K. really needs the sovereign to remain a stable entity,” Professor Chernock said. “And that the monarchy must remain this tradition that unites the United Kingdom.”

But, she added, the role of Queen Camilla alongside her husband can be seen as a transitional one. She said that if and when Charles’s son William, and his wife, Kate, take the throne, there could be more significant changes, but “attuned to and mindful of tradition.”

While the monarch has a constitutional role to play as the head of state by approving bills before they become law, the queen consort does not hold a formal position in the government. But Camilla will be crowned in a ceremony and be at Charles’s side during his coronation.

Elizabeth was not always the biggest champion of her son’s union with Camilla. But in one of her final attempts to smooth the transition to Charles’s reign, she released the letter in February specifying that Camilla should be called a queen, in what many saw as an official stamp of approval of their union.

Camilla’s new status could pave the way for her to capture some of the fondness that was accorded to a queen so many in Britain now mourn.

Michael J. de la Merced and Stephen Gandel

As Britain mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II and welcomes the ascension of her son as King Charles III, much attention will be paid to the formal procedures of royal mourning and the crowning of a new monarch. But it’s also worth examining the state of a multibillion-dollar fortune that will change hands.

Dissecting the royal family’s financial empire isn’t straightforward. Last year, Forbes put the headline value of its holdings at $28 billion, theoretically making the Windsors one of the two richest clans in Britain. Among those holdings are instantly recognizable icons like Buckingham Palace and crown jewels. Also included are vast tracts of land, from office properties and a major cricket ground in London to farmland on Britain’s outer edges.

But not all of that belongs to the Windsors, as we explain below. Here are the three largest parts of the royal holdings:

The Crown Estate, a £16.5 billion ($19.2 billion) portfolio of real estate that includes £8 billion worth of retail property in London’s West End, commercial land around the nation and even the British seabed. It generated £327.8 million in operating profit in its most recent fiscal year, up 8 percent from the previous year. (That said, the estate doesn’t belong personally to the Windsors, who instead surrender all of its revenue to the government. In return, they receive the so-called Sovereign Grant from taxpayers, amounting to 25 percent of the Crown Estate’s profits, to pay for royal duties and the upkeep of several palaces. Last year, that came to £86.3 million.)

The Duchy of Cornwall, a £1 billion array of property that belongs outright to the monarch’s heir — and so will pass from Charles to his elder son, William — and stretches from coastal southwestern England to London’s Oval cricket ground. It reported £24.6 million in operating profit last year, up 16 percent from the prior year.

The Duchy of Lancaster, an £818 million holding spread out over Britain that belongs to the monarch. It reported £23.3 million in operating profit last year, up 4 percent year on year.

(It’s worth noting that the royal family is entitled to income from the duchies, but not the underlying capital.)

The future of the Windsors’ fortunes is bound with that of Britain. The king enjoys an array of privileges not available to the average Briton — including a broad exemption from most taxes, though Charles and his late mother voluntarily paid some taxes — but the holdings of Charles and his family are largely tied up in real estate. That leaves their worth vulnerable to the economic forces buffeting the nation, including the double-digit inflation that is roiling retailers, the growing popularity of remote work that has hurt commercial real estate and more.

Megan Specia

King Charles III and his wife, Camilla, the queen consort, have arrived at Buckingham Palace and are greeting mourners who have gathered there to honor his mother.

Cora Engelbrecht

Some mourners held flowers, and others shouted, “God save the king!” while reaching out to shake hands with Charles as he made his way to the palace.

Mark Landler

The motorcade carrying King Charles is wending its way into London, three days after Liz Truss made the same journey after becoming prime minister.

Daniel Victor

Prince Harry was seen leaving Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Friday morning, having spent the night there after the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Harry reportedly did not arrive at the castle, where the queen spent her final hours, until 8 p.m. Thursday, about 90 minutes after the queen’s death was announced. His wife, Meghan, did not travel with him.

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, live in California but were in London on Thursday for prior engagements.

Harry and Meghan have not commented publicly about the queen’s death, although the home page of their website features a note on a plain, black background: “In loving memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022.”

The couple has not explained why Meghan did not join Harry in Scotland. (Catherine, the wife of Harry’s brother, Prince William, also did not join her husband in Scotland.)

Harry and Meghan have thus far been tight-lipped about their response to the queen’s death and their plans for the weeks ahead. A spokeswoman for the couple declined to comment on Friday.

Eternally a lightning rod for criticism and controversy from portions of the British news media, the couple stepped back from royal duties in 2020. But Harry was said to remain close with the queen; the couple, who named their daughter Lilibet after her, paid her a surprise visit in April.

Harry, 37, has had a strained relationship with other members of the royal family, including his father, King Charles III. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Harry said that, at one point, his father wasn’t taking his calls and that “there’s a lot to work through there.”

In April, at the time of the queen’s 96th birthday, Harry cryptically said in an interview that he was “making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.”