King Charles III has ar­rived at Buck­ing­ham Palace for the first time as Britain’s monarch.

The king flew to Lon­don from Scot­land on Fri­day and was dri­ven to the roy­al res­i­dence in an of­fi­cial Bent­ley. A large crowd cheered as the car ar­rived at the palace gates.

He got out of the car to greet well-wish­ers and look at some of the huge pile of flo­ral trib­utes left to ho­n­our his moth­er, Queen Eliz­a­beth II. Some called “Thank you Charles” and “Well done, Char­lie!” as he shook hands with the crowd. Sev­er­al shout­ed “God save the King!”

A few broke in­to a ren­di­tion of Britain’s na­tion­al an­them, which is now ti­tled “God Save the King.”

Bells tolled across Britain on Fri­day in ho­n­our of Queen Eliz­a­beth II as the na­tion start­ed 10 days of mourn­ing for its longest-serv­ing monarch.

In im­pos­ing city cathe­drals and small-town chapels, the bells be­gan ring­ing at noon (1100 GMT) as part of a long-planned, care­ful­ly or­ga­nized se­ries of events to mark the queen’s pass­ing, in­clud­ing 96-gun salutes planned in Lon­don — one for each year of the queen’s long life.  The coun­try has en­tered a 10-day mourn­ing pe­ri­od.

Britain's King Charles III, back to camera, greets well-wishers as he walks by the gates of Buckingham Palace following Thursday's death of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. (Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP)

Charles III to meet new PM soon

King Charles III is ex­pect­ed to meet Prime Min­is­ter Liz Truss, who was ap­point­ed just days ear­li­er, and de­liv­er a speech to the na­tion.

Se­nior law­mak­ers will al­so take an oath to King Charles III, the new monarch.

The king spent much of his 73 years prepar­ing for the role. He takes the throne at a time when many Britons are pre­oc­cu­pied with an en­er­gy cri­sis, the soar­ing cost of liv­ing, the war in Ukraine and the fall­out from Brex­it.

Prime Min­is­ter Liz Truss says the death of Queen Eliz­a­beth II has caused a “heart­felt out­pour­ing of grief” in Britain and around the world.

Truss spoke at the start of a spe­cial ses­sion of Par­lia­ment pay­ing trib­ute to the queen.  Nor­mal busi­ness in Par­lia­ment has been sus­pend­ed and law­mak­ers will spend two days of­fer­ing their mem­o­ries and re­flec­tions on the queen.

Truss called the monarch “the na­tion’s great­est diplo­mat” and said her de­vo­tion to du­ty was an ex­am­ple to every­one.

The prime min­is­ter was of­fi­cial­ly ap­point­ed by the queen on Tues­day, just two days be­fore her death. Truss said at the meet­ing, “she gen­er­ous­ly shared with me her deep ex­pe­ri­ence of gov­ern­ment, even in those last days.”

Britain's King Charles III, left, and Camilla, the Queen Consort, walk across the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, as he enters the palace for the first time as king, following Thursday's death of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. (Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP)

Queen’s im­age re­mains on British cur­ren­cy, for now

The death of Queen Eliz­a­beth II has left many won­der­ing what will hap­pen to British mon­ey that bears her im­age, and whether it would be re­placed by por­traits of the new King Charles III.

Fi­nan­cial au­thor­i­ties sought to re­as­sure peo­ple that there would be no big changes right away, but said lit­tle else.

“Cur­rent ban­knotes fea­tur­ing the im­age of Her Majesty The Queen will con­tin­ue to be le­gal ten­der,” the Bank of Eng­land said on its web­site. “A fur­ther an­nounce­ment re­gard­ing ex­ist­ing Bank of Eng­land ban­knotes will be made once the pe­ri­od of mourn­ing has been ob­served.”

The Queen was the first monarch to fea­ture on British bank notes af­ter the Trea­sury gave the cen­tral bank per­mis­sion to use her im­age for a new 1-pound note is­sued in 1960.