King Charles III Makes First Speech to Britain’s Parliaments in Ancient Westminster Hall

King Charles III met with both houses of the British Parliament in the near-millennia old Westminster Hall before flying to Scotland to attend in the lying in State of Queen Elizabeth II.

The speakers of the House of Lords and House of Commons addressed the new King as well as their own members in a crowded Westminster Hall on Monday Morning, the representatives of both chambers of the British legislature expressing their condolences to Charles III, their gratitude for the Queen’s life of service, and their fealty to the new monarch. The King “resolved faithfully” to follow the Queen’s example of service to the people and the British constitution.

It is part of the British constitution that while the Parliaments create and pass laws, they are ultimately signed off on by the monarch, to whom all loyalty is owed. While this system is a descendant of ancient absolute monarchies, in fact today it operates as a system of checks and balances on power for both sides as a so-called constitutional monarchy.

Lord McFall, the left-wing Labour politician who was ennobled and is now the speaker of the House of Lords reflected that the late Queen was both a servant and leader of the people and had humility and integrity which commanded respect worldwide. Lindsay Hoyle, also a Labour MP and now the speaker of the House of Commons said the Queen touched the hearts of countless people on her many visits around the nation and quoted a former holder of his office who spoke of the value of a constitutional monarchy to the British people.

Speaker Hoyle said: “…our constitutional monarchy is a symbol of stability in an ever-changing world. As speaker Boothroyd said, Queen Elizabeth’s wisdom and grace demonstrated for all to see the value of a constitutional monarchy in securing the liberties of our citizens and the fundamental unity of this Kingdom and the Commonwealth”.

Responding to the presentation of addresses by the speakers of the two houses, King Charles stood at a great lectern on a landing at the south end of Westminster Hall and delivered his own speech, expressing his gratitude for the condolences and adding his own words to the memory of the late Queen. Quoting the bard in a major speech for the second time in a major speech in his time as King, Charles III remarked: “As Shakespeare to the earlier Queen Elizabeth, she was a pattern to all princes living.”

As the speakers had done, the King also made reference to his surroundings, King William II’s Westminster Hall of 1097, the oldest surviving part of the Palace of Westminster. Topped by a magnificent medieval hammer-beam roof — which allows it to span the huge size of the hall without internal columns — the ancient Hall has seen centuries of government and history, and unlike other parts of the Palace was not destroyed by fire by German bombing in the Second World War.

Perhaps most importantly, Charles III called back to the late Queen’s 1947 vow to devote her whole life to service, a promise evidently kept given she was enacting the constitutional duty of handling a change of government from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss just two days before she died. Vowing to serve the nation as well, Charles told the two houses in the hall that: “While very young, her late majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people, and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lay at the heart of our nation.

“This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion. She set an example of selfless duty, which with God’s help and your counsels I am resolved faithfully to follow.”

The King will now fly back to Edinburgh where he will escort the Queen’s coffin in a procession from Holyroodhouse down the Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral for a service of Thanksgiving. The Queen will then lie in rest at the cathedral for one day and public mourners will be able to pay respects, entering the church and filing past in silence.

The Queen will then be moved to London — to Westminster Hall — where she will lie again, in state, and members of the public will again be permitted to file past 24 hours a day until the morning of the Royal funeral on Monday 19th.

The King’s speech: 

My Lords and members of the House of Commons. 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 to 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 to the betterment of us all. Parliament is the living and breathing instrument of our democracy.

Your traditions are ancient, as we see in the construction of this great hall, and the reminders of medieval 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. The sun-dial in New Palace Yard for the Golden jubilee. To 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 in 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.

My Lords and members of the House of Commons, we gather today in remembrance of the remarkable span of the Queen’s dedicated service to her nations and peoples. While very young, her late majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people, and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lay at the heart of our nation.

This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion. She set an example of selfless duty, which with God’s help and your counsels I am resolved faithfully to follow.