The Coronation of King Charles III

By Victoria R. Crosby

As millions of people watched on television around the world, the coronation of King Charles III and his consort Queen Camilla, was the 40th coronation to be held at Westminster Abbey, the first going back to William the Conqueror in 1066. It has been seventy years since the king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned. Charles was four years old at that time, and although the traditional aspects of the coronation remained, there were many changes that the average viewer may not have realized, as most people weren’t even born then or are too young to remember. But this coronation was a much smaller event, with twenty-two hundred people invited compared to over eight thousand attending the Queen’s coronation in 1953.

Three thousand “Golden tickets” were distributed to people who had performed public service to the country and commonwealth, and one thousand tickets to veterans. There were a hundred heads of state representing more than two hundred countries.

There were fewer carriages in use. The King and Queen rode to the Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee coach, built in Australia as a gift for the late Queen, and after the service rode back to Buckingham Palace in the Golden Coronation Coach, which, although it had been adjusted with better suspension, is said to be an uncomfortable ride. There were no coronets on members of the nobility, nor ermine robes. Women didn’t wear tiaras, but hats or fascinators. Women bishops participated in the 2023 ceremony; in 1953, women were not ordained.

For the first time in history, a woman, Penny Mordaunt, carried the Sword of State as the leader of the House of Commons and lord president of the Privy Council.

The guests and participants were a reflection of Great Britain and the Commonwealth today, with multi-faith and multi-cultural representation, including a gospel choir and a Greek chant, an homage to the late Prince Philip’s heritage, and a hymn written by Andrew Lloyd Webber sung in Welsh by Sir Bryn Terfel CBE. In addition to world leaders – including Justin Trudeau and his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and her daughter

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