King Charles III admitted “feeling the weight of history” as he addressed MPs and peers in 900-year-old Westminster Hall today.
Speaking at a rare joint session of both Houses of Parliament, he pointed to memorials all around him of the late Queen - testament to her record-breaking 70 years on the throne.
The monarch spoke in the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster, where his namesake King Charles I was tried and convicted at the end of the Civil War.
The Queen’s father George VI was the first royal to address both Houses in Westminster Hall, nine days after the end of the Second World War.
The honour has been extended to a handful of foreign leaders, including French President Charles de Gaulle in 1960, South African leader Nelson Mandela in 1996 and US President Barack Obama in 2011.
Following in his mother’s footsteps 10 years after her last speech in the historic venue, Charles III listened as the Speakers of the Commons and Lords offered their condolences on her death - and their best wishes to her successor.
The King told 1,200 guests sitting on velvet chairs: "I am deeply grateful for the addresses of condolence by the House of Lords and the House of Commons, which so touchingly encompass what our late Sovereign, my beloved mother the Queen, meant to us all.
“As Shakespeare says of the earlier Queen Elizabeth, she was 'a pattern to all princes living'.
"As I stand before you today, I cannot help but feel the weight of history which surrounds us and which reminds us of the vital Parliamentary traditions to which Members of both Houses dedicate yourselves, with such personal commitment for the betterment of us all.”
Tom, the Queen’s coffin will be carried into Westminster Hall where she made Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilee addresses to both Houses in 1977, 2002 and 2012.
Today, her successor stood on the steps overlooking the vast stone floor where his mother’s body will rest for four days of Lying in State.
Standing at the gilded lectern from which he spoke, he looked up and saw opposite him the Queen’s crest in 1,500 separate pieces of stained glass in the North Window - a gift from Parliament to mark the Diamond Jubilee a decade ago.
Beneath the 14th Century, hammer-beam, oak roof, the King told MPs and peers: “Parliament is the living and breathing instrument of our democracy.
“That your traditions are ancient, we see in the construction of this great Hall and the reminders of mediaeval predecessors of the office to which I have been called, and the tangible connections to my darling late mother we see all around us; from the fountain in New Palace Yard which commemorates the late Queen's Silver Jubilee to the sundial in Old Palace Yard for the Golden Jubilee, the magnificent stained glass window before me for the Diamond Jubilee and, so poignantly and yet to be formally unveiled, your most generous gift to her late Majesty to mark the unprecedented Platinum Jubilee which we celebrated only three months ago, with such joyful hearts.
“The great bell of Big Ben - one of the most powerful symbols of our nation throughout the world and housed within the Elizabeth Tower also named for my mother's Diamond Jubilee - will mark the passage of the late Queen's progress from Buckingham Palace to this Parliament on Wednesday.”
Hundreds of MPs and peers filed into Westminster Hall from 9am - 80 minutes before proceedings were due to start - as the Band of the Household Cavalry played introductory music, including Sir Edward Elgar’s Ave Verum Corpus.
Fourteen members of The King’s Body Guard of the Yeoman of the Guard - Britain’s oldest military corps, formed in 1485 by Henry VII after the Battle of Bosworth Field - processed through the North Door in pairs, eventually flanking steps leading towards Central Lobby.
They were followed by nine members of the Honourable Corps of the Gentlemen at Arms - created by King Henry VIII in 1509 - with their brass helmets and white, swan feather plumes, marching in single file, before they stood behind the King and Queen Consort’s red, velvet thrones.
With the Speakers seated and the North Door open awaiting King Charles’ arrival, only the clatter of a TV helicopter hovering about Parliament Square intruded on the solemn silence.
At 10.20am, four State Trumpeters from the Household Cavalry standing on the South Window Balcony heralded the monarch’s arrival.
After taking their seats, the royals sat for tributes from Lords Speaker Lord McFall and Commons counterpart Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
Listening intently, the King laid his right arm on the armrest and his left arm across his left leg, while the Queen Consort sat with her hands folded in her lap.
Lord McFall’s strong Glaswegian tones reverberated around the hall as he told Charles: "We are proud and indeed humbled to welcome you as our King - and we look forward to welcoming you on many more occasions to Parliament, and to this hall in the years ahead.”
Sir Lindsay ushered in a murmur of gentle laughter, and sparked a rueful smile from Camilla, as told guests of the Queen’s visits to Parliament.
"Our late Queen was here to mark the historic moments, such as the 50th anniversary of the Second World War, a war in which she herself served in the armed forces,” he said.
"And in 1988, we celebrated the 300th anniversary of the revolutions of 1688 to 1689.
"It is perhaps very British to celebrate revolutions by presenting an address to Her Majesty; but those revolutions led to our constitutional freedoms, set out the foundation for a stable monarchy, which protects liberty."
The 19-minute ceremony closed with the playing of the National Anthem, the rousing words “God Save the King!” rising into the ancient roof, the entreaty propelled by the acoustics.
Processing out, the smiling monarch exchanged greetings with some members of the audience seated on the aisle-end of rows, who bowed and curtsied.
Exiting the Palace of Westminster, he climbed into a State limousine for the sad journey to RAF Northolt in North West London where he boarded a plane to Edinburgh to attend on his mother’s coffin at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
