Coronation – live: King Charles’s portrait unveiled as Prince Louis pictured at first royal engagement

Buckingham Palace has shared the first official portrait of the King marking his coronation.

The image, by Hugo Burnand, showed the monarch seated in his full regalia – wearing the Imperial State Crown, holding the Orb and Sceptre with Cross, and dressed in his regal purple tunic and Robe of Estate.

The King and Queen also pledged to rededicate their lives to service as Charles called the nation’s support throughout the historic celebrations “the greatest possible coronation gift”.

As the weekend of festivities came to a close, Charles issued a special written coronation message, saying: “We thank you, each and every one.”

Traditional official portraits marking the crowning of Charles III and Queen Camilla were released to round off the monarchy’s landmark occasion.

Among them, the King was captured in his full regalia – wearing the Imperial State Crown, holding the Orb and Sceptre with Cross, and dressed in his regal purple tunic and Robe of Estate, seated on a Throne Chair in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace.

Camilla was pictured alongside the King, and also in a solo portrait, wearing Queen Mary’s Crown, with the train of her lengthy embroidered Robe of Estate spread in front of her.

With the Coronation weekend well and truly behind us, it is time for us to draw the curtains on this blog. Thank you all for tuning in!

If your heart didn’t ache to see the Duke of Sussex – yes, the ‘spare’, the black sheep, the outlier – taking those brave steps to sit alongside former friends and relatives after months of acrimony, then it must be made of stone, Victoria Richards writes:

Never was there a more solitary figure than the King’s second son walking down the aisle alone at the coronation.

If your heart didn’t ache to see Prince Harry – yes, the “spare”, the black sheep, the outlier – taking those brave steps all by himself to sit alongside former friends and relatives after months of acrimony, then it must be made of stone.

Forget what he’s “done”: the tell-all, explosive memoir, the revealing Netflix documentary, the inner circle revelations that have sent shockwaves through the core of the royal family. All I saw was a self-conscious, grim-faced man, in pain, without the comfort of his wife to soften the blow. I can only imagine how tightly he must have been gritting his teeth to do it in the first place.

And while the Duke of Sussex walked into the venue with his cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie, and their respective partners, he could not have looked more lonely.

Royal music events are a peculiar beast. Last year’s Platinum Party at the Palace was an eclectic affair, with the lineup – George Ezra, Elton John, Rod Stewart – seemingly pulled at random out of a “royals-friendly” ballot. The coronation concert, which comes a day after King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey, is very much the same.

Of course, there have been plenty of rumours that the reason last night’s billing at Windsor Castle is a hodgepodge of US pop, classical and dad-rock is because organisers struggled to attract the real megastars. Among those said to have turned down the event were Ed Sheeran, Adele, Elton John, Harry Styles and the Spice Girls.

Oddly, Sheeran is now filling in for Katy Perry as a judge on American Idol, but his absence is more likely to do with the fact that he’s only just disentangled himself from winning a major plagiarism lawsuit. Others, meanwhile, might have been less keen, given each star is limited to just one song. It’s hard to imagine kicking Adele off the stage after a solitary “Hello”.

Roisin O’Connor has more:

British police expressed regret over the arrests of the leader of anti-monarchist group Republic and five others at the coronation of King Charles, following criticism that the security response was heavy-handed.

London’s Met Police said they regretted that six of those arrested at the event were prevented from protesting during the coronation on Saturday. They have had their bail cancelled and no further action will be taken, the police statement added.

“We regret that those six people arrested were unable to join the wider group of protesters in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere on the procession route,” the statement, issued late on Monday, said.

The chief executive of Republic, Graham Smith, who was one of the six protesters arrested, said on Twitter that police had apologised to him in person on Monday but he planned to talk to lawyers about taking legal action.

Police said the arrests were made because of items which officers believed could have been used to disrupt the event.

The police said in their statement on Monday on that they were unable to prove the protesters intended to use the items to lock themselves to lock themselves to positions on the coronation route.

Republic said the items in question were intended for securing placards.

One man was also arrested for possession of a knife/pointed article.

There were over 11,000 police on the streets of central London for the coronation, the biggest ceremonial event staged in London for 70 years, and a total of 64 arrests were made.

As more than 20 million people tuned into watch the King’s coronation on Saturday (6 May), only a handful of eagle-eyed viewers spotted the mysterious cloaked figure holding a “scythe” and walking through Westminster Abbey.

A clip of the moment went viral online, with viewers joking that it had been the grim reaper, a mythological character known as Death personified, who collects souls after they die.

​​“Anyone else just notice the Grim Reaper at Westminster Abbey?” wrote one person on Twitter, while another added: “Who invited the Grim Reaper?”

Social media users were left asking whether the figure had been someone pulling a prank, knowing the coronation was being televised, or if it had just been a random passerby.

When contacted by Newsweek, Westminster Abbey identified the figure as a verger, a member of the abbey community who assists with religious services but who is not a member of the clergy.

Queen Camilla offered Princess Charlotte a comforting gesture after the eight year old stumbled while curtsying to King Charles III.

On Sunday 7 May, the Prince and Princess of Wales attended the coronation concert for the newly crowned King and Queen along with their two eldest children, Prince George, nine, and Princess Charlotte, eight.

Ahead of the star-studded concert, William, Kate and their children greeted the King and Queen with curtsies and bows as the monarch and his wife made their way to their front row seats in the royal box next to the Waleses.

Read more:

Prince Louis took control of a digger as royals joined the Big Help Out day of volunteering on Monday, while his grandfather the King issued “sincere and heartfelt thanks” to the nation for the coronation festivities.

The young royal joined Prince George and Princess Charlotte in helping renovate a Scout hut site in Slough, Berkshire, under the watchful eye of their parents the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Read more:

As King Charles III officially ascends the throne today, Britons have been remembering the atmosphere on the coronation day of Queen Elizabeth II 70 years ago.

Natalie Thomas writes.