 understanding and example. Queen Elizabeth 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 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 70 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 makes 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, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. I pay tribute to my mother's memory and I honour 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 70 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 towards 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 at 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 17 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 to Wusig Cymru. The country whose title I've 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 centre 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. That was the national speech there from London from King Charles III as you were just listening now I'm going to be introducing our guests for you our correspondent who you heard from a little bit earlier Hamda Salhout as well Professor Anat Skoltinoff sorry who joins me in the studio here she's the professor of public law from the University of Winchester in the UK and also we've got on the line for us all the way from London joining us writer and political commentator Adam Schwartz. So let's start with Professor Anat in the studio here with me as you just heard the king's speech there he spoke about the queen's dedication as sovereign throughout her lifetime how she never wavered during all of these times under any circumstances is how symbolic is the monarchy now going forward since her death well obviously there's an important symbolic aspect to the monarchy but I would say it's more than that it's a constitutional monarchy and that's something that we heard in the speech just now so the king mentioned the parliamentary government as the system and as well he mentioned the constitutional role and tradition so in fact and I think that's something maybe that is not widely realized the monarch of the United Kingdom actually holds in law a lot of power it's not merely a figurehead or symbolic role in law has very many powers including the decision to appoint the prime minister the decision whether to give the royal assent to legislation so indeed will it's quite a lot of power but that power will only be practiced in a constitutional manner and that's something that as we may be expected the new king has expressed as well so I would definitely not say it's a merely symbolic role and that leads also to maybe two further questions one and which maybe he hinted a little bit a little bit in his speech whether the character of the monarchy will change somewhat under the new king and the other question whether there is even any possibility or wish in the United Kingdom for the system of government to change from a monarchy to a republic and that's something that might also be raised on such a day so I'll maybe turn to the first of these and this is something that he hinted at maybe you talked a lot about tradition but I also caught sort of a hint there when he talked about the United Kingdom today is a multicultural society that's something he's talked about in the past as well we have to remember that the monarch is the defender of the faith i.e. the Protestant faith and he will in the Council of Accession tomorrow be making that affirmation that he is indeed of the Protestant faith and will be head of the Church of England but maybe that's something that he wants to change slightly the character of that in view of the more multicultural society in the United Kingdom today well crossing to you Adam over there from London what did you think about some of that speech what's your take on what was just said by the king well I think firstly on a personal level I think anyone can empathize empathize with a son having to speak about their mother only a day after she passed in front of entire nation indeed the whole world having watched the speech I think I would probably break it down to three main themes that Charles really thought to sort of indicate I think the first is that he really wanted to of course contribute to his mother the queen I think in doing so he really was able to sort of connect with the wider British public in this very traumatic time I think that's something you saw earlier as well as you can see when he was meeting crowns outside Buckingham Palace I think the second thing that he did was to provide a sense of the continuity and stability now of course the system is very clear and Charles to go to throw in the moment his mother passed away but I think it's still so important that the British public saw a sort of visible sense of continuity particularly in the time when you know the government as well has changed with UK's new prime minister this week and thirdly I think what Charles was trying to do was try to sort of convey a sense of what kind of king he will be he's quite an unusual king in the sense that he takes the throne at the age of 73 now that's the oldest that anyone has ever taken to the throne in the UK and indeed he's been the longest heir in British history and the consequence of that has meant that actually the British public already have a sense of what Charles Prince of Wales is like but they don't necessarily have a sense of what Charles the king will be like and I think you know the fact that he referenced the fact that his roles will change and he won't be able to devote as much of his time to various aspects such as his charity work really indicates an acknowledgement that actually he's gonna have to change his style quite a bit but what I would say would be that you know the main challenge for Charles you know as he sort of takes his role as the king will really to be maintain the relevance of the monarchy in the 21st century in a excuse me in a modern democracy that the UK is I think he's going to have quite a lot of pressure to do so particularly from younger members of this family basically from the newly created Prince of Wales Prince William who will really want to make sure that actually during Charles's reign actually the royal family maintains that popularity that it had when Queen Elizabeth at her reign so I think it's going to be quite a difficult task but naturally every single monarch has the responsibility to take forward the royal family and the position and really make it their own in a way that's relevant to the modern democracy that the UK is Thanks Adam well onto Humda now in the field there. Humda as you just heard the king spoke about his Prince Harry and Prince William he also said that it's a time of change for the royal family as well including his wife Camilla and that William now assumes the title of Prince of Wales Prince Harry and Prince William have also been relatively quiet though since the news broke out about their grandmother are we expecting to hear more from them do you think well we could definitely expect to hear more from them as Prince William now ascends to this new title we also know that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been layered in controversy with the royal family and we do know that they released a sort of bombshell interview a few years back after leaving the royal family but in a situation like this it is it is hard to imagine that they will not release words when it comes to the death of the Queen we also need to keep in mind that King Charles's popularity is not as great as his mother's we do understand royal commentators are saying that he will be met with a lot less enthusiasm polls taken just in May of this year said he had he had about a 56 percent approval rating and that is behind the Queen's at 81 percent where his son now the first heir to the throne coming in with 77 percent approval rating so a lot on the hands of this new King and a lot on the hands of the of his children the next heirs to the throne well and out to back in the studio here speaking of approvals as Hamda just touched on that what's how will the king deal with all of this and his relationship what's it going to be with the common wells going forward yes so I think that's important because of course he's not just the head of state of the United Kingdom but in fact of 15 other states as it has been the case in the United Kingdom he becomes immediately the head of state in all these other states such as Australia New Zealand Canada various Caribbean states now regardless of the personal approval rating of Charles I think that in the United Kingdom there is generally a wish to retain the monarchy but that might not be the case in the other states in which he is head of state and some of these commonwealth states so just last year we've seen Barbados decide to become a republic and no longer have the Queen or now King of England as head of state maybe Jamaica may or may not follow that and that might be a time of reckoning for some of these other states as well where having the English monarch as head of state is also some relic of empire of colonialism that they might be trying to shake away in a state like Australia that's obviously the considerations are somewhat different again several years ago there was there a question of whether to become a republic or not that was defeated in a small majority so I think it will be interesting to see what happens in these states as I said in all these states he immediately becomes King nothing else needs to be done that doesn't matter when he's actually crowned which might be a few ones even down the line but they still might be a time of reckoning in these states and it will be definitely interesting to see if there are any constitutional changes there Adam over in London so obviously there's this has triggered a series of ceremonial and constitutional steps what role do you think William will now play well I think you know there's no really a set constitutional role for the air other than of obviously to ultimately support to the monarch in their role and of course eventually a seat to the throne but I think that very much depends on really what he himself will see the role to be and also what Charles will want him to do I think partly he will have to take on some of the responsibilities that Charles will leave behind the fact that he's no longer you know in his previous title will naturally pass some responsibilities to William but I think what William will try to do will be to build on his existing work that he's already achieved in his sort of previous role when you know the Queen has been around for the past 30 years and I think he's had a really really important role in trying to sort of modernize the image of the royal family and I think to some extent there's only so much that you know King Charles can do that on his own I think he will really need the support of Prince William to do that and I think Prince William has really looked into lots of different areas that were perhaps previously looked as taboo in the royal value or indeed the wider society you know he's talked quite widely about his mental health struggles as has Prince Harry following the death of his of their mother so I think that's something that they will build on but of course I think as we see you know just we saw the Queen age and Charles eventually take on more responsibilities I think we'll also see Prince William over time over the next few decades perhaps take on more responsibilities sort of in preparation for that role I think the fact that William is no longer you know two places away from the from being King rather than just one I think really will be quite an important change in his perspective and really it'd be a much more vivid concept that he will one day be King so I think we're going to see his change his role change but ultimately build on what he's already been doing in his previous role and turning to Hamda in the field now so Hamda obviously we know that there's still going to be some processes left in this like the state funeral for the Queen and also the 10-day national mourning period at what point though will the world turn from mourning to celebration well we do understand that just today Buckingham Palace announced that the royal period of mourning will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral making it actually a total of 17 days of mourning until after the Queen is laid to rest but we can expect celebrations when the new King has his coronation the United Kingdom will still be mourning though because the Queen was very beloved and as I mentioned earlier she was popular with more than three-fourths of the country more than three-fourths of the United Kingdom approved her leadership and her reign so the 10 days of mourning the seven days after that and then perhaps we can see the United Kingdom spirits lift when the new King has his formal coronation back in the studio now a professor announced what do you think what other states will the King be head of in your opinion well as I said he immediately becomes head of all these 15 states but we might see in some of them wish to become republics following as I mentioned last year Barbados but I think we can ask in the United Kingdom that there going to be any constitutional changes there again is nothing immediate that will be changed but it could be that the character of the monarchy will change for example we know that other European royal houses are much more scaled back in terms of the number of members who are royals and that might be something that the United Kingdom might move to as well so we could see some constitutional changes although none that arise immediately I think again going back to the point that was made about King Charles and this perception may be in the public eye he has definitely been more outspoken on public issues than his mother the Queen Elizabeth II and it's a question whether that will be the case as well when he is monarch so the idea of a constitutional monarchy the way the Queen has seen her role is to really be out of the public eye be very seen as very neutral not to take a position on public issues and that has maybe led to her success as a constitutional monarch it's a question whether that will somewhat change under King Charles or not obviously is in a different role now but it does seem to be the case that he has some viewpoints on public issues maybe that's contentious as well and of course the Miniti expresses views their opposing views as well so of course we still do not expect him to be part of the political process that would be undermining the constitution right monarchy but it might change to some extent. Professor Anart thank you so much I just want to thank all our guests Professor Anart firstly in the studio with me here Anart Skolkanov Professor of Public Law from the University of Winchester in the UK Handa Salhut in the field for us our correspondent and Adam Schwartz from London writer and political commentator well moving on now