On May 6th, for the first time in nearly seventy years, a new monarch will be crowned in London. The style of the new king is Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
The King is both Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth, but performs only ceremonial duties while real political power lies elsewhere.
King Charles III will be the fortieth reigning monarch to be crowned at Westminster Abbey since 1066. It is expected that thousands of spectators will attend the event, some in special stands erected on the route that the royal procession will follow. Giant screens will be erected in Hyde Park, Green Park and St James´s Park for those who cannot find a place in Whitehall or The Mall. The coronation procession to the Abbey will be much smaller than that of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, and will feature only about 200 members of the armed forces, most from the Sovereign´s Escort of the Household Cavalry.
King Charles III and his Queen Camilla will travel by horse-drawn coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey via Trafalgar Square for the coronation ceremony, before returning by the same route to the Palace. He has chosen to travel to the Abbey in the air-conditioned Diamond Jubilee State coach (built in 2012 in Australia) rather than the heavy and uncomfortable Gold State coach (built in 1762, and used in coronations since 1831). He and his Queen will set out from Buckingham Palace at 10:20, and arrive at the Great West Door of the Abbey at 10:53, and they will process down the nave to the transept crossing, where the main ceremony will take place at 11:00 am.
The Coronation – its purpose
But what exactly is the purpose of the coronation rite? Why does it take place at all? The coronation ceremony is not a legal requirement, and it is certainly true that although some British monarchs have not been crowned, notably Edward VIII in 1936, they have still been recognized as legitimate monarchs. The answer is that while the monarch succeeds automatically on the death of the predecessor, the coronation is the formal investiture and presentation to the people of the new monarch. In the case of Richard III in 1483, it formed the legitimation of his rule over that of his nephew Edward V, one of the princes in the Tower. In many other countries, incoming monarchs nowadays simply affirm in the national legislature to uphold the laws of their nation.
The Coronation Ceremony
The coronation ceremony has been performed in England since the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, and in 1066, a year of three kings, both Harold II and William I were crowned at Westminster Abbey.
During the ceremony, the new King will be presented to the people, a tradition dating from Anglo-Saxon times. The Archbishop of Canterbury will proclaim Charles the undoubted King, and ask the congregation to show their homage and service. The congregation will shout God Save the King, to the sound of trumpet fanfares. While this part of the ceremony takes place, the King sits in the Coronation Chair facing the altar.
The Chair was made for King Edward I (1272 – 1307) to hold the Stone of Scone, sometimes called the Stone of Destiny. This stone is the ancient symbol of the monarchy of Scotland, and it was captured and appropriated by Edward I. For centuries, it was kept at Westminster but was returned to Scotland in 1996 on condition that it would be available for future coronations at Westminster. No fewer than 26 British monarchs have used the Coronation Chair with the Stone of Scone at their coronation.
The Oaths
The Archbishop will ask Charles to confirm that he will uphold the law and the Church of England during his reign, before the King places his hand on the Holy Gospel and takes the Coronation Oath, a legal requirement. The King may add his own form of words to encompass other religious faiths in the country. By law, he must then take a second oath to swear that he is a faithful Protestant. These oaths have been a legal requirement by Act of Parliament since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and they form the only part of the ceremony required by law.
The Anointing
The anointing of the monarch was essentially Christian and the ceremony has changed little over the last thousand years. The new monarch is anointed with holy oil dispensed from the Ampulla on to the medieval Coronation Spoon. This point in the ceremony is more intimate, since the monarch must strip off a little, so that the Archbishop can make the sign of the cross in oil on the King´s head, hands and chest. In this way, the new monarch becomes almost a priest.
On this occasion, the oil used in the ceremony does not contain any animal products such as civet oil or ambergris as it formerly did, and will be made principally from olives grown in Jerusalem, where Princess Alice, the King´s grandmother is buried. This modern choice of oil blends tradition with adaptation and change.
The Investiture and Enthronement
The King will be presented with items from the regalia, including the Orb, the Coronation Ring and the two Sceptres. At about midday, the Archbishop will place St Edward´s Crown on the King´s head. This crown dates from the time of his ancestor Charles II, who had it made in 1661 to replace the original which had been melted down and destroyed by Oliver Cromwell. This crowning moment will be marked by salutes fired from guns in all four nations of the kingdom.
Lastly, the enthronement. As he sits in the throne, the new King may receive the homage of royal and other peers, including his son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales.
Returning to the Palace in the Gold State Coach, the Royal Procession will include 4000 members of the armed forces, and also representatives from Commonwealth countries and from the British Overseas Territories.
The history behind the ceremony
The origin of the British coronation ceremony lies in the fifth century Roman Empire of the East, when Emperor Leo I was crowned and anointed with holy oil. His coronation marked the beginning of the involvement of the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremony.
This ceremony is essentially a religious ceremony, as the new King will describe himself as Fidei Defensor, Defender of the Faith, a title granted to Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521. Confirmed in Parliament in 1543, this title has been used ever since by all British monarchs as Supreme Governors of the Church of England, and it is a title which still appears on British coins. The coronation reminds everyone that the Church of England is one of the established churches of the United Kingdom, and the monarch is its supreme governor.
A modern view
Graham Smith of the group Republic campaigns for an elected head of state, saying that most people have no memory of the last coronation, and that the tradition based on that ceremony is therefore meaningless. He asserts that the coronation has no constitutional value, and because it is not legally required, Charles would still be king even if the ceremony were not performed.
Nearly 50% of respondents to a recent poll suggested that they were not likely to watch the coronation, either in person or on television and another poll suggested that the Royal Family is now less important than it was seventy years ago. On the other hand, it is reported that some Anglican churches are experiencing a growth in size of congregation.
The coronation ceremony is clearly tied to the Anglican Church and faith, since the fundamental part of the coronation is about upholding the Church of England. That part is exclusive and runs in a different direction from the multi-faith, multi-ethnic society which make up modern Britain. Although within this coronation ceremony, the King may embrace other faiths to appeal to a wider range of the population of the country, many people could feel alienated by a religious ceremony which is particularly Anglican in form and in history.
Modernisation
The new king has tried to curb the cost of the ceremony at a difficult time when many people are struggling financially. The number of guests invited by the king will be roughly a quarter of those who attended the coronation in 1953.
Attempts to modernise by making the ceremony smaller, by commissioning new music, by involving guests from diverse backgrounds may be seen as window-dressing, since they appear to change the appearance of the ceremony but without changing its substance. Meaningful change would involve the disestablishment of the Church of England, or perhaps even a referendum on the future of the monarchy. Any such change would have to be managed carefully so that the essence of the institution is not lost, since the legitimacy of the monarchy is based in tradition and continuity.
Support for the monarchy
The interest shown by the public in the lying-in-state and funeral ceremony for the late Queen Elizabeth was high, since over 25 million watched on television, about 40% of the population of the kingdom. A recent opinion poll showed that 58% of the population of the UK supports the monarchy, while 26% would prefer an elected head of state. Looked at in another way, these figures show that only 32% of young people support the monarchy, while 78% of older people have the same view. Many young people indicated that they were just not interested in this issue. While the new king faces the problem of increasing both his relevance and his popularity, it is also true that people´s opinions are known to change as they grow older. King Charles may find that younger people become more royalist as they age.
Another survey shows that 48% of British people belonging to ethnic minorities are not convinced of the relevance of the monarchy. In a multi-ethnic society, the monarch cannot by his own ethnic background represent everyone.
Different views
Approval ratings of the monarchy have been turbulent following the difficulties surrounding Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his marriage. But the monarchy has undergone turbulence in the past, and perhaps the most unpopular British monarch was George IV, or Prinny as he was known when he was Prince Regent. Like Charles, Prinny also had marital difficulties, and his Queen Caroline was forcefully excluded from the Abbey at his coronation. He was a spendthrift and philanderer, and crowds hissed and even threw stones at his coach windows. He was described by the Duke of Wellington in this way: the worst man he ever fell in with his whole life, the most selfish, the most false, the most ill-natured, the most entirely without one redeeming quality. And yet the monarchy as an institution survived him, and grew in popularity in spite of his record.
Although the sense of history, the pomp, pageantry and ceremony may make attractive television, there is some feeling that the idea of a king, one man who assumes his position by accident of birth, and who does not represent all Britons in religion or in ethnic background, may be a tradition that a modern country can do without. Increasingly, and especially during a period of high inflation, people come to question both the sources of the wealth of the monarch and the number of residences available to him.
On the other hand, it is precisely the monarchy, the incorporation of the Church of England and the ancient ritual of coronation and kingship which form the bedrock of British tradition. The romance and magic of the coronation and the ceremonies surrounding the monarchy are an integral part of the character of the United Kingdom.
