The coronation of King Charles III is fast approaching.
Of course, the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September of last year was an invitation to look back at everything that had changed since she’d come to the throne. Britain likes looking back. We’re good at it, and as long as you don’t look in certain directions it’s pretty comforting.
But this coronation is an uncertain first step into the future, celebrating a king who is already an older man. So what should we expect from a coronation? There aren’t that many people about who remember the last one, though interestingly both Elizabeth II and her son’s big days fall during an exceptionally difficult time for millions of people across the country. The coronation of King Charles III will accordingly be a smaller, less opulent ceremony than his mum’s shindig, and it'll include more religions and cultures than hers did.
If you’re not into the royals it could be a very long weekend. Even if you are, your tolerance for Gyles Brandreth will be sorely, sorely tested. It’ll be a day of people saying what a magical day it all is, and wonderful, and historic, and magically wonderfully historic. It’ll be a day of Union flags and ceremony.
But there’s more to the coronation than just a heavily revised TV schedule. This is what’s going to happen.
When is King Charles’ coronation?
The coronation is on Saturday 6 May, and everything will kick off that morning with the King’s Procession from Buckingham Palace. It’s not far – just down the Mall, turn right before you get to Admiralty Arch, left through Horseguards, then down Whitehall to Westminster. The King and Queen will arrive at Westminster Abbey for 11am.
What is the coronation?
The coronation is two things: it’s the moment that a crown is placed on a man’s head, and it’s the pomp and ceremony and sleight of hand which is meant to draw the country together around its monarch. It’s a whole weekend of grand stuff and small stuff and a competition among MPs to see who can be the most crawlingly embarrassing, and it’s a split second that connects a human man to the idea of the infinite and the divine.
If you’re still wondering why it matters, have another look at episode of ‘Smoke and Mirrors’, the episode of The Crown in which Elizabeth II had her own coronation while Prince Philip acted like a big baby and David Windsor cry-parped his bagpipes having not had his own big do.
“Who wants transparency when you can have magic?” asks the former Edward VIII as he watches from his party in Paris. “Who wants prose when you can have poetry? Pull away the veil and what are you left with? An ordinary young woman of modest ability and little imagination. But wrap her up like this, anoint her with oil, and hey, presto, what do you have? A goddess.”
Where will the coronation happen?
It will be at Westminster Abbey, where 39 British monarchs have been crowned stretching back to William the Conquerer in 1066.
Henry III’s coronation in 1216 was at Gloucester Cathedral because London was in the hands of the French Prince Louis, who was after the throne himself, and some barons who had been extremely annoyed with Henry’s dad King John. Edward V, Lady Jane Grey, and Edward VIII were never crowned.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will be running the gaff.
What is the King's Procession?
There are two processions on coronation day, and the King's Procession is the first action of the whole day. It's the smaller of the two, with just the 200 military personnel accompanying King Charles and Queen Camilla in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach. A nice touch here: the crown on the top of the state coach is made from timber from HMS Victory, Horatio Nelson's flagship. It's also got air con.
The procession will lead from Buckingham Palace and go down the Mall, through Admiralty Arch, down Whitehall and along Parliament Street before arriving at the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, between the two towers.
What will happen at King Charles’ coronation?
The coronation service itself hasn’t changed in nearly 1,000 years. It starts with the recognition, where Charles will be presented to everyone in the Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury while standing by the 700-year-old Coronation Chair. Then he’ll take the oath, swearing to uphold the law and the Church of England.
After that it’s the most quasi-magical bit of the ceremony: the anointing. Under a gold cloth, the Archbishop dots the king’s forehead, hands and chest with holy oil which has been blessed. The exact recipe is a secret, but there’s ambergris, orange flowers, roses, jasmine and cinnamon in there.
Charles’ oil will be free of animal products and was prepared by Mark Hutton, a chemist who worked at a branch of Lloyd’s on a housing estate in Hull. He had to source ingredients from across Europe, a process he described as “tough cheese”. (Don’t know if there’s any cheese in the oil.)
There’s a lot of merch involved in this stage: the king’s on the Coronation Chair, a Coronation Spoon which dates from the late 12th century, and a vessel shaped like a golden eagle for pouring the oil from. It used to be held that the moment the holy oil touched the monarch, they became invested with God’s authority. Not so much now, obviously.
After that it’s the investiture, when Charles will get his hands on the bits and bobs that connote his authority: the Sceptre, for power; the Sovereign’s Sceptre, which sounds exactly the same but is for justice and mercy; the Royal Orb, for religious and moral authority; and, lastly, the St Edward’s Crown. That crown is solid gold, and was first used in a coronation for Charles II in 1661.
Finally, there’s the enthronement and homage, where the King gets off the Coronation Chair and pops himself on the throne. Peers come up and kneel before Charles to pay homage.
The Palace says that this coronation “will reflect the Monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry”.
After having been whisked to the Abbey with Queen Consort Camilla and been crowned, Charles will then be taken back to Buckingham Palace where he and other members of the royal will watch everything else happening on the day from the balcony.
The procession back from the Abbey to the palace will be a lot more expansive and grand than the one to get Charles and Camilla there. They'll jump into the Gold State Coach, a bone-rattling four-tonne contraption built in 1762 which has been used for every coronation since George IV's shinding in 1831, and do the same route they had done beforehand in reverse. This bit could take a while – the Gold State Coach is only ever pulled at walking pace, because it's so heavy and old.
Who's playing the coronation?
Alas, the royals’ favourite myopic piano player Elton John is on tour this summer and will be playing in Berlin on 5 and 8 May, so he’s out. But all is not lost: Take That are apparently set to perform, alongside Lionel Richie and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
There’s no real precedent for pop stars rocking up to play at coronations, mainly because the last time there was a coronation, the biggest pop star we had to hand was Patti Page with her banger ‘(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window?’. But on Sunday 7 May, the Coronation Concert will – it says here – “bring global music icons and contemporary stars together in celebration of the historic occasion”.
Elton’s not the only star to turn down the big day because of scheduling conflicts: Adele, Harry Styles, the Spice Girls, and Robbie Williams all reportedly said no.
However, the organisers did eventually manage to get some names together: Robbie's former bandmates Take That will be playing at the Windsor Castle gig which starts at 8pm, along with Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and everyone's favourite Italian warbler Andrea Bocelli.
Is there a bank holiday for the coronation?
Yes, Monday 8 May will be a bank holiday. What are we directed to do on our precious bank holiday weekender? “Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort,” reads a missive from the Palace, “hope the Coronation Weekend will provide an opportunity to spend time and celebrate with friends, families and communities across the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.”
