Charles, 73, will be “anointed, blessed and consecrated” by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will lead the service, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday. The monarch’s wife, the queen consort Camilla, 75, will also be crowned, he said in a statement, quoted AFP.
“The coronation will reflect the role of the monarch today and look to the future while maintaining its roots in long-standing traditions,” the palace explained.
The announcement of the date takes place shortly after a month after the death of Elizabeth II, on September 8, at the age of 96, when she spent the end of the summer in her Scottish castle of Balmoral.
His death ended 70 years of historic reign, marked the demise of one of the last icons of the 20th century and shocked the UK and the world.
From US President Joe Biden to Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, from Emperor Naruhito of Japan to the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and his father Juan Carlos I, personalities from all over the world attended his state funeral in London’s Westminster Abbey.
Then the longest-living monarch the UK has ever had was privately buried alongside her parents, sister and husband in an annex to St George’s Chapel, a 15th-century Gothic church on the grounds of Windsor Castle, about 40 km east of London.
This ended ten days of national mourning, in which hundreds of thousands of Britons took to the streets to bid farewell to their queen, in the funeral shrines spread out in Edinburgh and London, or along solemn funeral processions.
In them, the children and grandchildren of Elizabeth II were seen walking together behind the coffin despite the scandals and tensions that recently shook the British royal family, from the exile of Enrique and Meghan to the United States to the accusations against Prince Andrew of sexual abuse of an American minor.
The Coronation of His Majesty The King will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey.
The Ceremony will see His Majesty King Charles III crowned alongside The Queen Consort.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 11, 2022
More discreet and representative
The crowds will return to the streets in May for this new ceremony full of pomp and tradition.
However, Charles III’s coronation is expected to be “quicker and smaller” than his mother’s, according to Bob Morris, an expert on the British monarchy.
The first coronation ceremony broadcast on television in the world, the consecration of Elizabeth II took place on June 2, 1953, sixteen months after her ascension to the throne on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father George VI. it had more than 8,000 guests and lasted more than three hours.
For 900 years the coronations of British monarchs have been held in the majestic Westminster Abbey and since 1066 it has almost always been presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. And this will not be an exception.
But, in a United Kingdom mired in a serious crisis due to the cost of living, the ceremony is expected to be more discreet than that of Elizabeth II and, at the request of King Charles III, more representative of the diversity of British society today.
The act will be prepared for months in an operation named “Golden Orb”, after one of the symbols of power and spirituality that, together with the scepter and the crown, represent the monarch.
Charles III, long one of the least popular members of the British royal family, saw his acceptance skyrocket to 70% after taking the throne in September. Even so, he is still far behind his eldest son Guillermo, 40, and his wife, Catalina, favorites of the British with 84% and 80% respectively.