Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla made history on Thursday as the monarch joined Pope Leo XIV for a joint prayer inside the Sistine Chapel, marking the first public act of worship between a pope and the head of the Church of England since the 16th-century schism.

The meeting, held during King Charles’s state visit to the Vatican, signalled a rare moment of unity between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, centuries after King Henry VIII severed ties with the Holy See over his failed bid to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

The Vatican verify that “Charles and Leo will pray together in the first such public religious moment since Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church after the then pope refused to annul his marriage to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon.”

King Charles, who arrived in Rome on Wednesday along with Queen Camilla, met Pope Leo XIV for the first time since his election in May following the death of Pope Francis.

The visit comes at what palace insiders have described as a delicate period for the British monarch, following renewed attention on his brother, Prince Andrew, and his alleged involvement in the scandal surrounding the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The event marks another chapter in the royal family’s historic relationship with the Holy See. In 1961, the king’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, became the first British monarch to visit the Vatican since the 16th-century fracture between the churches.

Thursday’s prayer is being viewed by observers as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation and dialogue between two of the world’s most influential Christian institutions.