Buckingham Palace said the ceremony would “reflect the monarch’s role today and look to the future”.
King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6, Buckingham Palace announced.
The coronation will be performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury eight months after the king succeeded the late Queen Elizabeth II to the throne, reports BGNES.
Buckingham Palace said the ceremony would “reflect the monarch’s role today and look to the future, while honoring long-held traditions and presenting a glamorous spectacle”.
The news comes after widespread reports that the service will be shorter and simpler than the Queen’s coronation in 1953, which lasted around three hours and packed 8,000 people into the abbey, four times the normal capacity.
This led to complaints that Charles would have a “cut-price coronation”. However, palace insiders said it reflected how Britain had changed as well as the fact that many people were facing hardship. But according to them, the coronation will still be “a celebration in the best traditions of millennial history.”
It is not known whether the day will be declared a public holiday, but it seems unlikely given that there are already two public holidays in May and the ceremony takes place on a Saturday.
Charles will be anointed, receive the royal insignia of the orb, ring and scepter and be crowned with St Edward’s Crown, which was made for Charles II in 1661.
There is speculation that the coronation could last just over an hour and be attended by around 2,000 people. The palace’s claim that the ceremony will look to the future suggests that it will not be entirely traditional.
Sources close to the king said he would want it to reflect a multicultural, modern Britain. It is expected to include more representatives of other faiths than coronations in the past, but will still be an Anglican service at its heart. In his first address to the nation on his ascension to the throne, the king went out of his way to emphasize his Christian faith.
The palace’s words about the ceremony, “which will honor long-standing traditions and be a glamorous spectacle”, also suggest that much of the service will follow a familiar format, including the recognition of the sovereign by the congregation and the swearing-in.
During the ceremony, the sovereign was “anointed, blessed and consecrated” by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The anointing of Queen Elizabeth II was one of the few elements of her coronation that was not televised.
As a palace source said: “The ceremony has retained a similar structure for more than a thousand years and next year’s coronation is expected to include the same basic elements while recognizing the spirit of our times.”
Camilla will also be anointed and crowned, just as the Queen Mother was at the coronation of George VI in 1937.
For the past 900 years, every coronation has taken place in Westminster Abbey. Since 1066 the service has almost always been conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The king is expected to sign a proclamation to officially announce the coronation date at a privy council meeting this year. The coronation was organized by the Duke of Norfolk, who as earl-marshal arranged for the Queen’s funeral.
Photo by Dan Marsh, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
