For the first time in seventy years, the UK has a new monarch.
On Saturday, May 6th, King Charles III’s coronation ceremony, only the second in history to be televised, took place in Westminster Abbey.
Before Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla made the trek from Buckingham Palace in the gilded Diamond Jubilee State Coach to Westminster—the nation’s coronation church since 1066—protests in and around Trafalgar Square were already taking place.
Police arrested Graham Smith, leader of the anti-monarchist group ‘Republic’, along with 52 others, invoking the fact that “their duty to prevent disruption outweighed the right to protest.”
London police have announced that all of them remain in custody, having been charged for offenses ranging from disturbance of the peace to conspiracy.
After guests, among them about 100 world leaders, took their seats in the historic church, members of the British Royal Family started streaming in.
Following a public family spat and Prince Harry’s renunciation of his royal status in 2020, no formal role in the ceremony was granted to either him or the king’s brother Prince Andrew, who himself was forced to quit royal duties because of his association with late U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.
As a reminder of their ‘fall from grace,’ both sat in the third row behind working members of the royal family and neither appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.
Despite worries that the coronation ceremony, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, would be riddled with modernist innovations, it proved remarkably in keeping with tradition.
First, his hand placed on the Bible, Charles took the oath as king. Stressing the role of the royal as a servant to his people while obedient to God, Charles III promised to uphold law and justice and to ensure that Britain and its royal house would remain Protestant.
Of note was his promise that he would uphold freedom of religion for all, demonstrating that while the ceremony was Protestant, the reality of the UK now being a multi-faith country was acknowledged.
I, Charles, do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify, and declare that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the throne, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law.
Then followed both the King and Queen’s anointing, an intimate moment between king and God, during which hands, chest and head are anointed. To ensure privacy, large screens were placed around the ritual. Camilla’s anointing of the forehead did occur in full view of the attendees.
Finally, the King was crowned with the famous St. Edward’s Crown, named after King Edward the Confessor who ruled England in the 11th century, and first used at the coronation of King Charles II in 1661. Weighing over 2 kilograms, it is decorated with 444 precious gems and has been restored several times over the centuries.
The crowning was acknowledged by the congregation, which cried out “God save the King.”
After the two-hour ceremony, a massive military procession back to Buckingham Palace followed, as volleys rang out in salute, and thousands of soldiers cheered for their new King.
At their return to the royals’ residence, the UK’s newly crowned King and Queen, along with other members of the royal family, greeted the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Despite the poor weather, the square in front was packed.
The military flypast, a ceremonial flight of aircraft over Buckingham Palace to honor the King and Queen’s coronation, was scaled-down because of bad weather conditions.
As it seeks its place in a rapidly changing world order, while political inertia and a cost of living crisis plague it at home, in the institution of the monarchy, a post-Brexit UK finds well-needed comfort and stability.
While skepticism about its relevance in the modern world is at an all-time high, this Saturday’s ceremony exemplified why a nation should not so easily discard its time-honored traditions.
