Charles III on Saturday finally met his date with destiny after a lifetime as heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, as he was officially crowned king in the first coronation in Britain since 1953.

At 12:02pm exactly (1102 GMT), the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby placed the solid gold St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head as a sacred and ancient symbol of the monarch’s authority.

Cries of “God Save the King” rang out from the 2,300-strong congregation at Westminster Abbey and trumpet fanfares sounded at the climax of the solemn religious confirmation of his accession.

Outside, ceremonial gun salutes blasted out across land and sea while bells pealed in celebration at churches across the country.

The build-up to the ceremony — the religious confirmation of Charles’s accession after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II last September — has been mostly celebratory.

But even before Charles, 74, and Queen Camilla, 75, left Buckingham Palace aboard the Diamond Jubilee State Coach for a rainy procession to the abbey, police arrested dozens of protesters using new powers rushed onto the statute book to crack down on direct action groups.

The anti-monarchy movement Republic — which wants an elected head of state — said six of its organisers were detained, while climate activists Just Stop Oil said 19 of its number were held.

Nevertheless, dozens of Republic activists held aloft banners on the route of the procession route, declaring: “Not My King.” Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International voiced concern at the arrests. “This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London,” HRW said.

London’s Metropolitan Police had some 11,500 officers on the streets in one of its biggest-ever security operations. It has warned that it has an “extremely low threshold” for protests.

Header photo: King Charles III being crowned on Saturday. — Screengrab from Royal Family live stream