LONDON (AP) — Ceremonial gun salutes rang out across London under soggy skies Monday to mark the anniversary of the coronation of King Charles III.
Smoke blasted from the barrels of six large horse-drawn guns in a 41-gun salute in Green Park, next to Buckingham Palace, at noon. An hour later, three guns cracked off a 62-shot salute from Tower Wharf next to the River Thames.
Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned in Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023, in a glitzy spectacle that echoed medieval times as he was anointed as monarch following the September 2022 death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The past year has been overshadowed by his cancer diagnosis, but it has helped to humanize him and connect him with the British people, who haven’t always expected such openness from the royal family.
Rohan Wadke, a visitor to Buckingham Palace, applauded Charles for confiding in the public about his health issues.
“It’s still a taboo for a lot of people,” Wadke said.
Charles, 75, returned to public-facing duties last week with a visit to a cancer-care center, where he held hands with a patient receiving chemotherapy drugs and told her he was due for treatment that afternoon.
Despite rainfall reminiscent of last year’s coronation, visitors still turned out to watch the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, with gunners in their gold braided jackets, fire off the salute as the Band of the Irish Guards played music in the park next to the palace.
Manda Pillay-Maloney said that she visited the palace Monday — a holiday in the U.K. — to recognize the year since Charles was crowned.
“Excited, happy to be here,” Pillay-Maloney said. “It’s my first stop since I’ve arrived from Stevenage, just to … pay my respects and say, hey, thank you … you’re doing a good job.”