King Charles III met on Thursday with Pope Leo XIV during a state visit to the Vatican, where he will make history as the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pontiff.

The 76-year-old monarch, who holds the title of supreme governor of the mother church of Anglicanism, flew to Rome on Wednesday evening with his wife, Queen Camilla, for what Buckingham Palace described as a "historic" trip.

The royals were greeted at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning by a ceremonial guard of honour by the Swiss Guard, the pope's colourful private bodyguards, before a private meeting with Leo in the papal library.

It was Charles's first meeting with Pope Leo, who took over as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.

The king and q

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