A new King has been crowned, in a ceremony a top Australian soldier dubbed "surreal".
Brigadier Grant Mason, head of ADF staff in the UK, was among 40 Australian troops who took part in the processions as Charles III was crowned.
He compared the event to the spirit of wartime.
"I said to a number of people that it almost had that feel of 1944 getting ready with just the massive troops to go and do something really, really epic," he shared.
"Many of us were sort of standing around talking to each other at, at different points of the event, whether it was talking to our troops from the Australian Federation Guard or talking to members of the other commonwealth nations or members of the British military, just about what a surreal experience it was."
The soldiers even got a taste of home, Mason said, with Australians in the crowd taking up the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" chant.
A moment seven decades in the making
After seven decades of waiting, and two more hours of British bombast fuelled by gold, trumpets, choirs, celebrity and circumstance, King Charles III lived the moment he was born for.
Queen Elizabeth II's son, sitting on a two-metre-tall, 700-year-old wooden chair, holding two golden sceptres, valuable and controversial, waited calmly as Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby approached with St Edward's Crown.
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A brief adjustment of the enormous headpiece, a look to the bishop, a glance at the floor, eyes closed, and the moment was complete.
Charles became just the seventh monarch to don the crown, which he will never wear again.
"God save the King," rang out around Westminster Abbey.
After more than an hour-and-a-half of soaring ceremony built on ancient traditions, all that was left was for his loyal subjects, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to swear allegiance.
Prince William followed with his own pledge, kneeling, rising, touching the crown and kissing his father's cheek.
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Then it was time for Camilla to take centre stage, completing a carefully managed decades-long transition from "most hated woman" in Britain to Queen Consort and now simply Queen.
Staggeringly, it was a slimmed-down affair compared to Queen Elizabeth II's investiture: just 2000 guests, including world leaders, pop stars and famous Australian faces such as rock star Nick Cave and football star Samantha Kerr.
AS IT HAPPENED: King Charles' coronation
Dr Jill Biden became the first ever US First Lady to attend a British coronation — a ceremony no US president has ever attended.
"You can't imagine that moment where you actually see the crown being placed on the head of the king and then on the head on the queen," she said during a phone interview with The Associated Press after the ceremony in London.
"It's really surreal to see and experience that moment."
Biden said she was honoured to represent the US at the event.
Much was made in the lead-up of the risk that family politics would overshadow the occasion, as Prince Harry returned from California, ever so briefly, to watch his father make history.
Instead, his arrival was casual, swapping smiles and conversations with his cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and their husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank, as they entered the Abbey.
Less discussed but far more grave are the accusations hanging over Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties and paid $20 million to settle a civil sexual assault case amid links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince denies the claims.
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Despite this, and in contrast to Harry, the Duke of York arrived at Westminster Abbey wearing the Navy mantle.
Neither prince was present when Charles — already changed out of his ceremonial crown into the only slightly more practical Imperial State Crown — and Camilla, emerged onto the Buckingham Palace balcony for the moment the throngs had waited for.
The noise of the crowd told the story before the TV cameras zoomed in on the monarchs, trailed by their pages of honour and ladies in waiting.
They were followed by the rest of the working royal family before Royal Air Force helicopters and Red Arrows roared out of the rainy grey skies, down The Mall, and over the palace in a scaled-back flypast.
On top of the obvious constitutional considerations and star representatives, Australia played a central role via the implausibly golden Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which carried Camilla and Charles to and from the ceremony.
Eight Windsor grey horses pulled the heated, air-conditioned behemoth on hydraulic suspension past the endless crowds of royal fans, umbrellas and Union Jacks braving the wet and dreary London weather on The Mall.
"The reception is quite deafening and that can only be good news for the King and the Queen and their future role as head of state and consort for the King", former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter said on the 9News coverage of the event.
The ostentatious transport, first used in 2014, was an 80th birthday gift from Australian craftsman Jim Frecklington.
To the royal family and government, the occasion — code-named Operation Golden Orb — was a display of heritage, tradition and spectacle unmatched around the world.
The rite was expected to be watched by millions, though the awe and reverence the ceremony was designed to evoke are largely gone — and many greeted the day with a shrug.
Some even met it with disdain.
Republican protesters gathered outside to holler "Not my king" for a celebration of an institution they say stands for privilege and inequality, in a country of deepening poverty and fraying social ties.
In Australia, republicans, of which Albanese is one, had called for the prime minister to skip mouthing the oath of allegiance.
They used the ceremony, which reportedly cost up to £100 million ($187 million) to remind Australians that Charles is their King, the head of state of the country and 14 others.
"The Australian Republic Movement is also calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to stand up for Australian values by refusing to pledge allegiance to Charles," they said.
"While it is appropriate he attend the ceremony, he should do so as a representative of Australia and not take part in a disloyal and dishonest pledge that puts a foreign King above Australians."
Albanese defended his plan to state the pledge, saying he intended to follow protocol.
The ceremony also stirred up concerns about Britain's colonial past, which includes pilfering jewels and other precious symbols from countries from Africa to India.
The Star of Africa, perched atop the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross Charles held as the crown was placed on his head, is caught up in some of these conversations.
The diamond is cut from a larger gem that was mined in South Africa in 1905 and handed over to the British royal family by South Africa's colonial authorities.
"The Cullinan Diamond must be returned to South Africa with immediate effect," activist Thanduxolo Sabelo told South African media soon after the Queen's death.
"The minerals of our country and other countries continue to benefit Britain at the expense of our people."
– Reported with CNN and Associated Press
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