KING Charles was met by chants of “Not My King” as he arrived in York today to perform the ancient Maundy Money service, where the monarch hands out symbolic pennies to the poor on Maundy Thursday.

Republican protesters held up placards and waved flags to disrupt the ceremony — and organisers said they will also protest at the coronation in a month’s time.

Campaign group Republic, which organised today’s protest, said it expects around 1,000 republicans to attend in a “light-hearted” protest. It campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy.

Luke Whiting, a republican protester who travelled to York from London, was among around 30 protesting.

He said the monarchy was “increasingly outdated and irrelevant.”

“We're here to say let’s move on, it’s part of our history, it’s part of our past, but let’s move on to a brighter future,” he said.

Another protester said: “We are protesting [against] the king because we believe that we should have an elected head of state. I believe it is undemocratic and wrong in principle.”

And another said: “I think it’s frankly insulting to the people of York for Charles to come here because of his disgraced brother the Duke of York.”

Last year York City Council stripped Prince Andrew of his Freedom of the City of York which had been awarded in 1987 on the occasion of his marriage to Sarah Ferguson.

In April last year an extraordinary meeting of the council called on him to relinquish his Duke of York title following his financial settlement of a sexual assault case.

Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith said protesters at the coronation will make themselves “unmissable” during the day.

“We’re thinking it’s going to be over a thousand people at the coronation itself,” he said.

“We’re not quite sure what we’re going to do but we may have other groups along the route.

“But, certainly, there will be one large protest in the middle, on the procession route. And it will be a lot of this really, lots of ‘not my king’ placards — we’ll be making some noise. There’ll be a bit of a party atmosphere, trying to engage the people around us and keep it fairly light-hearted.

“And we’ll make sure that when the procession goes past we are unmissable.”

“We’ll be protesting at the coronation and beyond just to really challenge the idea of a succession of head of state and to say we want an election instead of a coronation — a choice instead of chance.”

He said he and his fellow protesters got a “mixed reaction” in York, admitting that the majority of those gathered outside the minster did not agree with them.

“Some of them get annoyed but it’s a free country and we can all stand here and demonstrate our support or our opposition,” he said.

It was the king’s second experience of opposition to the monarchy on a visit to York. On a visit in November eggs were thrown at him. The perpetrator was tackled to the ground by police and arrested.

Today’s protest took place as it was revealed that Charles and his late mother had received a total of £1.2 billion from two royal estates — the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall.

No corporation tax or capital gains tax was paid on the income.