His Majesty, King Charles III. There will come a time when that title falls from our lips without a peculiar sense of shock but, already, it is a reality.

The late Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son now has the unenviable task of taking over from the most formidable, respected and longest-serving monarch the country has ever known.

At 73, he already has a lifetime of service to look back on, in addition to the lesson of his mother, to help him occupy the role with all the poise that’s required. She truly stood for what we hope to claim as British values - indefatigability, stoicism and loyalty - traits that any leader should aspire to carry themselves with. And she embodied them with aplomb.

As he greeted, through his grief, well-wishers outside the gates of Buckingham Palace yesterday, it was clear that the King is not a man who struggles to win the affections of royal supporters.

Unlike his mother, the decades that King Charles has lived as a Prince means we know more of him: his interventions, his politics and his foibles.

He has been praised for being years ahead of many other public figures in his campaigning and commitment to the climate.

Whether he can withhold his judgements about public affairs from as his mother did remains to be seen, but what we are seeing is the modernisation of the monarchy. Before the Queen’s death her place on the throne always felt so immovable, but with Charles becoming the oldest to ever assume the role in the UK, the future reign of Prince William seems so inevitable.

Her Majesty, though, would have wished us to give our full support to Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort. So as we mourn the Queen, we say ‘God save the King’.

As we mourn Queen Elizabeth, we cheer for King Charles - The Yorkshire Post says