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So now we know: the coronation of King Charles III will be on 6 May next year. It will be the first time a monarch is crowned in the UK in more than 70 years – and it’s going to be a very different occasion to the last one.
On 3 June 1953 the world was still emerging from the austerity of the war years and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation was a much-needed shot of glamour to a globe still mired in misery and deprivation. It was also the first time a coronation was televised and it drew a global audience of nearly 30 million.
Things have changed, of course. These days TV broadcasts draw hundreds of millions of viewers. Events are livestreamed so you can watch them practically anywhere as long as you have Wi-Fi or data.
But alas, poor Charles: it’s impossible not to make comparisons between him and his mother. Elizabeth was just 27, a young beauty with movie star magic. Images of her played on TV after Charles’ coronation date was announced show her gliding down the Westminster Abbey aisle, trailing a blood-red cape and surrounded by glitter and gold.
She was the most famous woman in the world. The queen was also a young woman in a man’s world, the leader of a nation, the mother of two small children and wife to a sometimes-difficult man. People admired and even empathised with her.
Now Charles, who was just four years old when his mom was crowned, has taken over. Although details of Operation Golden Orb, as his coronation is called, have yet to be confirmed, it’s unlikely there’ll be same level of pomp and circumstance.
Queen Elizabeth’s ceremony lasted three hours; Charles’ is likely to last a little over one hour. Many of the ancient rituals, such as the presenting of gold ingots, will be scrapped.
READ MORE | King Charles appears in first official portrait – and there’s even a rare touch of royal PDA!
The ceremony will also be held on a Saturday, which means it won’t be a public holiday (although whether the Friday before is tacked on as a delayed May Day holiday remains to be seen). There also won’t be anything like the number of people who attended his mom’s ceremony: in 1953 there were over 8 000 guests, there are expected to be 2 000 next year.
In many ways, the coronation will reflect Charles’ wish for a slimmed-down monarchy and his sensitivity to public sentiment. Britain is going through a cost-of-living crisis and spending millions of pounds on a ceremony wouldn’t go down well.
Still, there will be something. The king is likely to trundle through the streets in the gold state coach. The ceremony will be held at Westminster Abbey.
People will line the streets, as they always do for major events involving the royal family. Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort, have generally been well received by the public and there will be bunting and flags and crowds waiting for a wave from the Buckingham Palace balcony.
But let’s face it: King Charles III is 73 years old. He’s the ex-husband of Princess Diana. The guy at the centre of the Tampongate scandal. The new monarch who freaked out about pens when he had to sign stuff in the days after his mother’s death.
He’s admitted he talks to trees and listens to them too. He apparently takes his own loo seat on tour with him. There are memes about his sausage fingers.
Charles may be on the throne but that pedestal his mother possessed has gone. Seven decades and a constantly evolving world has seen to that.
