The countdown to the coronation of King Charles III in Britain has already begun and palace preparations are at a fever pitch. The rehearsals of all those who will participate are peaking. According to British press reports, the great ballroom at Buckingham Palace has been transformed into a space that resembles Westminster Abbey, and there the royal couple is training on the May 6 ritual until the last hours.
Inside the temple will be more than 2000 official guests. Among them kings and heads of state. Thousands of citizens are expected from outside, while millions of television viewers from all over the world will watch the ceremony live. An estimated 300,000,000 viewers will tune in to watch the 39th coronation in the history of Westminster Abbey. A ritual whose roots go back to 1066.
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8 a.m. areas will be opened to the public along the procession route so that citizens have the opportunity to greet the King and his wife on their way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.
9:15 – 10:30 The first guests of the ceremony will begin to arrive at the security checkpoints located next to Parliament in Victoria Tower Gardens. These include over 850 community and charity representatives from across the UK and around 450 guests who have received a British Empire Medal in recognition of their contribution.
11 The priests, the choir will take their place inside the Abbey.
11:30 – 12:45 Heads of state, government ministers, former prime ministers, kings of other states and members of the royal family will arrive at the Abbey.
The ceremony will be attended almost entirely by the royal family of the United Kingdom. Missing will be the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who has long said she will not attend the ceremony. Among others inside the temple will be the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, all his predecessors, the cabinet and the leader of the official opposition Sir Keir Starmer.
11:45 The Cavalry begins to prepare to escort the procession from Buckingham Palace.
12:20 The procession with the king and queen leaves the Palace for the Abbey.
12:53 am The king and the royal consort will arrive at Westminster Abbey.
1:00 King Charles III and his wife enter Westminster Abbey through the Great West Gate and the ceremony begins.
2:00 p.m. A king is crowned. The Archbishop of Canterbury will crown King Charles III with the Crown of St. Edward. It is a crown made in 1660 and weighs 2.27 kg. Trumpets will immediately sound and military guns across the UK will fire into the air to welcome the king’s coronation.
3:00 p.m. The ritual is completed and the Coronation Procession begins from the Abbey to the Palace this time. Other members of the royal family will also participate in this procession.
3:33 The King and his wife will arrive at Buckingham Palace through the Main Gate.
3:45 The king and his wife will proceed to the Palace gardens where military chaplains will salute them.
4:15 The king, royal consort and members of the royal family will appear on the palace balcony to greet the crowd and watch the planned air displays. The palace has not announced who exactly will appear on the balcony. It is most likely that only working members of the royal family will come out.
The coronation ceremony is divided into six sections
In accordance with protothema.gr and the author Andrea Mego the coronation ceremony will be divided into six sections: recognition, oath, anointing (also referred to as consecration), ascension (which includes the moment of coronation), enthronement and homage. In each section the king will wear a different coronation jewel and outfit. Among those that will be worn during the royal coronation will be:
Holy Coronation Robe of the King
The Supertunica it is the garment worn under the Imperial mantle. The Supertunica, like the other coronation vestments, is related to priestly vestments and although this particular garment dates from the twentieth century, its form has changed little from medieval coronations. This association with priestly vestments was a reminder of the divine nature of kingship. The sovereign is invested with the Supertunica after the anointing ceremony.
Essentially we are talking about a full-length cloak – coat of golden silk, opening at the front, with a narrow stripe and a wider stripe of embroidered ornament on either side and lined with red brindle silk. With belt similarly embroidered and with gold buckle cast with roses, thistles and shamrocks.
The crown of St. Edward
The crown was commissioned by the Royal Goldsmith, Robert Vyner, in 1661. Although not an exact copy of the medieval design, it nevertheless follows the original in having four crosses-pattée and four fleurs-de-lis and two arches. It consists of a solid gold bezel set with rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnets, topazes and tourmalines. The coronet has a velvet cap with an ermine band.
The Ruler’s Orb
The Orb it is a representation of the power of the sovereign. It symbolizes Christendom with its cross placed on a sphere, and the bands of jewels dividing it into three sections represent the three continents known in medieval times.
The Imperial State Crown, ή Crown of State, it is the crown that the monarch exchanges with the Crown of St. Edward at the end of the coronation ceremony. Before the Civil War the ancient coronation crown was always kept in Westminster Abbey and the monarch needed another crown to wear when leaving the Abbey.
The Imperial State Crown is also used on official occasions such as the annual State Opening of Parliament. The term imperial state crown dates back to the fifteenth century, when English monarchs chose an arched crown design to demonstrate that England was not subject to any other earthly power.
This crown was made for the coronation of King George VI in 1937.
The scepter represents the ruler’s temporal power and is associated with good governance. During the coronation service, the new ruler is first anointed with holy oil, then dressed in coronation robes, and then invested with a series of ornaments that symbolize the knightly nature of kingship. These include the spurs, swords, and arms, followed by the orb, a ring, and then the scepters. The sovereign is shown with two sceptres – one surmounted by a cross and another above a dove (which represents the Holy Spirit).
The Sovereign’s scepter with the Dove
This scepter it represents the spiritual role of the sovereign, with the dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. It was traditionally known as “the Rod of Equality and Mercy”.
The golden vessel used to hold the consecrated oil with which a sovereign is anointed during the coronation ceremony. The vessel has the form of an eagle with open wings. The head of the eagle is removable and there is an opening in the beak for pouring the oil.
The design is based on an earlier, smaller one based on a fourteenth-century legend: the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St. Thomas Becket and presented him with a golden eagle and a vial of oil for the anointing of future kings. Oil from the ampoule is poured into the 12th century anointing spoon at the most sacred moment of coronation. The gesture of anointing, when the Archbishop touches the holy oil on the ruler’s head, chest and hands, dates back to the Book of Kings of the Old Testament, where the anointing of Solomon as King is described.
Coronation ring
The ring consists of an octagonal mixed-cut sapphire in a gold setting overlaid with four rectangular-cut rubies and one square-cut ruby, linked together in a gold band to form a cross, bordered by fourteen cushion-cut diamonds and one diamond in each shoulder, with a gold hoop. During the coronation ceremony the ring is placed on the ruler’s fourth finger by the archbishop, as a symbol of “royal dignity”.
Since the thirteenth century it has been traditional to include a ruby as the main stone in the ring. The presentation of the ring is part of the coronation, which is preceded by the anointing with holy oil and followed by the coronation itself.
The gold bracelets
The armills or the oval gold bangles they are decorated in champlevé and basse-taille enamel with the national emblems (roses, thistles, fleurs-de-lis and harps) and dark blue and red beads between light blue enamel. They are lined with red velvet. These Armills were made in 1661 to replace those lost during the Commonwealth period (which were jewels). However, even at that date their exact purpose during the coronation ceremony was unclear. However, the wording of the ceremony refers to the “bracelets of honesty and wisdom” and Armills are believed to be related to ancient symbols of knighthood and military leadership and are still presented to the Sovereign. These Armills were used at every coronation from 1661.
The Spurs or gold spurs were first included in English coronation ornaments in 1189, at the coronation of Richard I (the Lionheart). They symbolized the knight, and their use in the coronation ritual comes directly from the knight’s creation ceremony. These spurs were made in 1661 for Charles II but were modified in 1820 for George IV when new fabrics replaced the earlier buckles and straps.
The spurs are part of the coronation ceremony in which the sovereign is invested with the ornaments or symbols of kingship. Traditionally the spurs were attached to the feet of the ruler, but since the Restoration they were simply kept on the ankles of kings, or in the case of queens, presented and then placed on the altar.
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