King Charles III will be crowned on Saturday May 6 next year in what is expected to be a scaled-back coronation that takes into account the straitened times in which Britain finds itself.
The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, where coronations have taken place for nearly 1,000 years, and will crown the Queen consort, Camilla, at the same time, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
“The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” the Palace said.
What exactly that means has been a subject of speculation in the national press. The guest list could be trimmed by thousands, by comparison with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953; the ceremony reduced to around an hour; and some of the more esoteric aspects of it edited out altogether.
The palace declined to comment on the details of the event beyond confirming that the ceremony would include the same core elements that have been in place for hundreds of years but also reflect “the spirit of the times”.
The King’s coronation would combine solemn religious aspects with pageantry, an official in the royal household said, adding: “The government, the royal household, the earl marshal [the Duke of Norfolk, who is organising the ceremony] — everyone is very conscious of the financial circumstances in the country.”
The last coronation was a lavish affair lasting nearly three hours, attended by more than 8,000 guests at Westminster Abbey, with representatives present from 129 different nations. The ceremony, the first of its kind to be televised, was watched by 27mn people in the UK alone.
King Charles, who acceded to the throne when his mother died at the age of 96 last month, has made known his intention of slimming down the monarchy in response to public demand for a modern institution with lower costs and less ostentation.
