According to media reports, Buckingham Palace has announced that coronation of King Charles will take place on Saturday, May 6 next year, while King Charles’ former mistress Camilla Parker Bowels aka Queen Consort will be crowned alongside the British monarch. Although this date is now officially announced, no one is talking about an important fact. When King Charles will be coronated alongside his long-time lover and now wife being crowned, a large segment of the population in England will be facing acute food crisis, while hundreds and thousands would be in starvation. Moreover, they would also suffer from inflation. Does it sound as if the coronation is going to be an inauspicious event to the English populace? It may be mentioned here that, following death of Queen Elizabeth II, who had enjoyed respect and honor throughout her life had also seen her dignity being eclipsed due to her son’s extra-marital affairs with Camilla. Majority of the people in Britain actually dislike Camilla while they also do not hold King Charles into the similar position of the late queen. Some of them even believe, with King Charles III, monarchy in the United Kingdom will finally come to an end.
Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace announces stating coronation of King Charles, which is a “deeply religious affair” will take place in Westminster Abbey, eight months after the monarch’s accession and the death of the Queen.
The Palace said the ceremony will be “rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry” but also “reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future”.
Charles III will be anointed with holy oil, receive the orb, coronation ring and scepter, be crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown and blessed during the historic ceremony.
Camilla will also be anointed with holy oil and crowned, just like the Queen Mother was when she was crowned Queen in 1937.
May 6 is also the birthday of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son Archie – Charles’s grandson – who will be turning four on the day.
Guest lists have yet to be confirmed for the spectacle, including whether or not Harry and Meghan will be invited or be able to travel from California to attend. But a source said, Harry and Meghan may not be finally invited to attend the coronation ceremony.
May 5th was also the wedding anniversary of the late Queen’s sister Princess Margaret, while the King’s grandfather George VI held his coronation in the month of May.
The Palace said: “Buckingham Palace is pleased to announce that the coronation of His Majesty The King will take place on Saturday 6th May 2023.
“The coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey, London, and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“The ceremony will see His Majesty King Charles III crowned alongside the Queen Consort.
“The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry”.
It is understood that the ceremony will include the same core elements of the traditional service, which has retained a similar structure for more than 1,000 years, while also recognizing the spirit of our times.
Charles’s coronation is expected to be on a smaller scale and shorter, with suggestions that it could last just one hour rather than over three. It is expected to be more inclusive of multi-faith Britain than past coronations but will be an Anglican service.
Guest numbers will be reduced from 8,000 to around 2,000, with peers expected to wear suits and dresses instead of ceremonial robes, and a number of rituals, such as the presentation of gold ingots, axed.
Further details are due to be released in due course, but the Government and the royal household will be conscious of the scale of the event in light of the cost-of-living crisis facing the country.
The late Queen’s coronation took place on June 2 1953 – 16 months after she became monarch, and there had been speculation Charles would opt for a June date close to or even on the 70th anniversary of his mother’s ceremony.
Special seating structures were built inside the church at the time to increase the usual congregation from 2,000 to 8,000.
Security will be heightened given the high-profile nature of the day.
The King will be anointed, blessed and consecrated by the Archbishop.
Charles is expected to sign a proclamation formally declaring the date of the coronation at a meeting of the Privy Council later this year.
The King acceded to the throne on September 8, immediately on the death of his mother, Elizabeth II – the nation’s longest reigning monarch.
Plans for the major event are known by the codename Operation Golden Orb, which sets out the blueprint for the service and the pageantry surrounding it.
Charles will be anointed by the Archbishop and take his oath to “maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine worship, discipline, and government thereof, as the law established in England”.
Camilla will be crowned and take her place on a throne.
Elizabeth II delivered a masterstroke on the eve of her Platinum Jubilee in February 2022 when she endorsed Camilla, the then-Duchess of Cornwall to be known as Queen Consort when the time came.
Royal aides insisted, when she married Charles, that Camilla did not want to be queen and said originally that she “intended” to be known instead as Princess Consort – the first in British history – when Charles acceded to the throne.
The wife of a king automatically becomes a Queen and only a change in legislation would prevent her from doing so, but there had been much controversy over whether Camilla would use the title, being Charles’s former mistress who became his spouse.
The royal website used to declare: “A Queen Consort is crowned with the King, in a similar but simpler ceremony”.
But, following Charles’s marriage to Camilla, it added the get-out clause “unless decided otherwise”.
