The cannons have sounded, the bells have rung and the mourners have paid their respects.
Now King Charles III faces the duty of preserving a 1000-year-old monarchy that his mom nurtured for seven a long time however that faces an unsure future. The problem is immense.
Private affection for the Queen meant that the monarchy's position in British society was hardly ever debated in recent times. However now that she's gone, the royal household faces questions on whether or not it's nonetheless related in a contemporary, multicultural nation that appears very completely different than it did when Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952.
Amid a worldwide re-examination of the historical past of colonialism and slavery that has seen protesters tear down or deface statues in British cities and universities like Oxford and Cambridge change their course choices, an establishment that was as soon as the image of the British Empire is prone to face renewed scrutiny.
Charles will attempt to "preserve continuity" whereas additionally signalling that the royals are ready to alter, stated Anna Whitelock, a professor of historical past of recent monarchy at Metropolis College London. However he faces a raft of questions.
"What place does a monarchy have in a multi-faith, multi-ethnic society?" Whitelock requested. "And is it the appropriate rallying level for the nation? And will or not it's the monarch representing the UK overseas? What does it say about us? Is it a bastion of custom that individuals ought to applaud? Or is it truly a test on progress that really would not signify the inclusive, numerous society that individuals would hope that Britain would now develop into?"
And there may be one other, extra private, query lurking within the background: Is a 73-year-old white man one of the best individual to confront these points?
King Charles III's handwritten observe atop mom's coffin revealed
Charles waited longer than another inheritor to take the throne and in some ways embodies the modernisation of the monarchy. He was the primary monarch not educated at residence, the primary to earn a college diploma and the primary to develop up within the ever-intensifying glare of the media as deference to royalty light.
He has been lauded as an early advocate of the environmental motion and gained reward for working to enhance the lives of younger folks in underprivileged communities.
However he additionally has a fame, maybe undeserved, as a considerably stuffy older man who's extra at residence on the polo area or considered one of his nation estates than the soccer-mad cities of recent Britain.
Charles additionally alienated many individuals along with his messy divorce from the much-loved Princess Diana, and by straining the principles that bar royals from intervening in public affairs, wading into debates on points equivalent to environmental safety and architectural preservation.
Because the UK mourned his mom, it rapidly turned clear that Charles was able to be a extra private monarch. He has made a degree of wading into the crowds of properly wishers, stopping to shake arms and alternate a couple of phrases, extra like a US presidential candidate interesting for votes than a King who inherited the crown from a line of ancestors stretching again to 1066.
One girl even kissed him — a stage of familiarity nobody would have dared with Elizabeth.
At Monday's state funeral for the late Queen, Bertram Leon embodied the challenges dealing with Charles.
A proud Briton whose roots stretch again to the Windrush technology of immigrants who got here to the UK from the Caribbean after World Struggle II, Leon was at Westminster Abbey to signify the St. Lucian neighborhood in honouring the Queen. Now he expects Charles to take the monarchy in a brand new course.
"The King is definitely going to alter, maybe modernise the monarchy within the picture that he thinks within the present day," Leon stated, his British Empire Medal pinned to his chest. "We will not dwell again within the Nineteen Twenties, '30s or '50s, when Elizabeth took over. We are actually within the twenty first century, and I feel issues are going to be regarded and checked out a bit completely different."
Along with being King of the UK, Charles is head of state for 14 "realms" that retained the monarch as their sovereign after gaining independence from the previous British Empire. It's in these far-flung nations, which stretch from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean that Charles might face his first challenges.
The pressures had been clear earlier this 12 months when Prince William and his spouse, Kate, confronted requires a royal apology and reparations for slavery throughout a visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas to rejoice the Queen's 70 years on the throne.
Throughout that go to, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness instructed the royals that his nation was "transferring on," a couple of months after Barbados severed its ties with the monarchy.
The royals have additionally confronted criticism from inside after Prince Harry and his spouse, Meghan, gave up royal duties and moved to California. In a extensively publicised interview with US tv host Oprah Winfrey earlier this 12 months, the couple alleged that palace had been insensitive towards Meghan, who's bi-racial, and that a member of the royal household had requested in regards to the color of their first kid's pores and skin earlier than he was born.
Charles sought to deal with the tensions at residence and overseas in his first tackle as King.
"Wherever it's possible you'll dwell in the UK, or within the realms and territories internationally, and no matter could also be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I've all through my life," he stated.
Charles additionally confronted considerations about how he would conduct himself as Ling.
The legal guidelines and traditions that govern Britain's constitutional monarchy dictate that the sovereign should keep out of partisan politics, however Charles has spent a lot of his grownup life talking out on points which might be essential to him, significantly the atmosphere.
His phrases have prompted friction with politicians and enterprise leaders who accused the then-Prince of Wales of meddling in points on which he ought to have remained silent.
The query is whether or not Charles will observe his mom's instance and muffle his private opinions now that he's King, or use his new platform to achieve a broader viewers.
"My life will, after all, change as I take up my new obligations," Charles stated. "It's going to not be potential for me to present a lot of my time and energies to the charities and points for which I care so deeply. However I do know this essential work will go on within the trusted arms of others."
The King has been clear that he intends to slim down the monarchy, limiting the variety of working royals and lowering the expense of supporting them.
However for 10 days, Britain spared no expense because it honoured Elizabeth, who turned a comforting image of stability over the tumultuous years of her lengthy reign.
All of the spectacle that has develop into synonymous with the royals was on show as uniformed members of the royal household walked solemnly behind a gun carriage carrying the Queen's coffin away from Buckingham Palace, cannons and church bells sounded in lament and world leaders crammed Westminster Abbey for her funeral.
However it was pageantry with a goal, celebrating the Queen's life whereas additionally reminding the general public of the monarchy's position in public life and linking the folks to the royal household of their time of shared grief.
"Folks typically criticise the British monarchy and even chuckle at it as pomp and circumstance and vacancy," stated historian Robert Lacey, creator of Majesty: Elizabeth II and the Home of Windsor.
"Effectively, an event like this reveals it isn't vacancy, that the pomp and circumstance stands for one thing."