King Charles III was crowned on Saturday in a ceremony steeped in 1,000 years of history at Westminster Abbey in Britain’s first royal coronation since 1953.
Summary
King Charles III was crowned on Saturday in a ceremony steeped in 1,000 years of history at Westminster Abbey in Britain’s first royal coronation since 1953.
- Crowned alongside Charles was his second wife, Queen Camilla, in a remarkable turn from the 1990s when her affair with the then-prince was tabloid fodder. As Charles’ then-wife, Diana, famously said of her union with Charles in 1993, “There were three of us in this marriage – so it was a bit crowded.”
- After Charles and Diana divorced and Diana’s death in 1997, his relationship with Camilla gradually became more public until they wed in 2005. Before her death, Queen Elizabeth signaled her approval for Camilla to take on the title of Queen Consort when Charles became king.
- Charles was officially crowned king when Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby placed the 360-year-old St. Edward’s Crown on his head while he sat the Coronation Chair.
- The chair was specifically built by King Edward I to encase the Stone of Scone, a sacred slab used to crown Scottish Kings that has been a part of every coronation since 1308. The stone was allegedly used by every Scottish king since the founder of the Scottish royal line moved from Ireland to Scotland in 498. The stone was used before that time for the coronations of Irish kings.
- William, the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, knelt in front of his father and pledged his loyalty as his “liege man of life and limb,” a moment greeted with raucous cheering from the spectators gathered outside of the abbey.
- Prince Harry had no role in the ceremony. He sat a few rows back from the rest of the immediate family and left for the airport immediately after the coronation was over. His wife Meghan Markle stayed in California with their children.
- Nearly 100 world leaders, nobles, members of Parliament, and other invited guests – along with millions watching only the second televised coronation at home.
- UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivered a reading, and the leaders of the 14 Commonwealth nations where Charles also reigns as sovereign were also in attendance, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- The more than 2,000 guests included Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, the presidents of France, Germany, and Italy, EU leaders Ursula von der Layen and Charles Michel, every living former UK prime minister including Tony Blair, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Liz Truss, and a US delegation led by First Lady Jill Biden and climate envoy John Kerry.
- Tens of thousands gathered in the rain to watch Charles and Camilla process through the streets of London in the Gold State Coach built for George III.
- Dozens of people were arrested during the coronation for “affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” including a leading anti-monarchy activist.
- “It was ludicrous but also magnificent,” Rachel Cooke wrote in the Guardian.” Already, we think of him differently; he used to be plain Charles, a vessel for moaning and waiting and a certain kind of purposelessness. Henceforth, however, we may ourselves be saying, as we did with the queen before him, that while we are not royalists or anything like it, we have time for the king.”
- The New York Times compiled a glossary of coronation terms, including: the Stone of Destiny, the Regalia, the Supertunica, the Ampulla, the Coronation Spoon, the “sovereigns orb,” and other traditional components of the ancient ritual.
- The Washington Post summarized the ceremony as “a globally broadcast spectacle that combined the medieval and modern, that paid homage to ancient rites as it sought to be inclusive and diverse, and somehow rich with pageantry and slimmed down at the same time.”
- The Telegraph highlighted the personal triumph at the heart of the coronation: “The King and Queen take their place in history just as he hoped: together. With the woman he loves by his side, Charles III embraced his ‘day of destiny’ in a Coronation watched by millions around the world.” In the end, Charles got his way.
- The Wall Street Journal wrote, “the lavish ceremony marked the latest iteration of the House of Windsor franchise, which is having to adapt to a nation that has far less deference to the monarchy or religion than in the past, yet is still broadly supportive of the monarchy as an institution.”
- Breitbart emphasized that the coronation is a Christian service. After the king swore a holy oath on the Bible, “The King was then, as a priest would be, anointed with Holy oil blessed in Jerusalem. This was the only part of the Coronation ceremony which was not viewed by the public: surrounded by screens, the King’s head, hands, and chest were crossed with oil. The most sacred part of proceedings, it is said this moment was private between King, priest, and God alone.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
