In a colorful ritual not seen in Britain since 1953, the King was anointed with holy oil and took the Kings Oath before Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, placed St Edward’s Crown on his head . At this moment the coronation took place.
Parishioners sang “God Save the King”, the bells of Westminster Abbey rang and fireworks rang out across Britain. The heir to the throne, William, Prince of Wales, then knelt before his father and paid homage to him, saying: “I, William, Prince of Wales, swear allegiance to you and will bring you faith and truth, as your overlord of life and health. God help me.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have arrived at the Abbey with their two children, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Their eldest son, Prince George, was then a page to King Charles III. Kate, Princess of Wales paid tribute to Princess Diana by wearing a pair of pearl and diamond earrings from her late mother-in-law. Diana, who died in 1997, wore the earrings to events in the 1990s, including a banquet honoring Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1990, according to the Daily Mail.
Queen Camilla received the royal scepter, the rod of justice and mercy. She received the Queen Mary crown, first used in 1911, after which she was enthroned.
As the hymn “Praise, my soul, the king of heaven” played, King Charles III and Queen Camilla left the main part of the abbey to prepare for the next part of the day – a procession in a golden carriage to Buckingham Palace, where they entered through the central arch and received the royal salute from the military in the palace garden.
Then the King, Queen and members of the Royal Family will appear on the palace balcony to watch the flight of Royal Air Force planes. The national anthem was played and the crowd cheered ‘God Save the King’ as Charles III and Queen Camilla made the 1.3 mile journey from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace through streets filled with two million of people and seven thousand British soldiers.
Earlier in the ceremony, Charles III took the coronation oath. He put his hand on the Bible and said, “All that I promised here, I’ll do and keep. God help me.”
The king signed the oath, pledging to serve the people and rule according to law. He was also anointed behind a screen during the coronation ceremony. The king removed his vestments of state before the process, which is accompanied by George Frideric Handel’s opera The Priest’s Garden, written for the coronation of George II in 1727.
During his sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury said to Charles III: “We crown the king to serve him”. Justin Welby said that “Jesus Christ was not anointed to be served, but to be served”, adding: “The weight of the task entrusted to you today, Your Majesties, can only be borne by the spirit of God”. The Archbishop also spoke about the King’s priorities as monarch, including “how we educate and encourage young people to preserve the natural world”.
A number of religious leaders, including Vincent Nichols, the Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, offered a series of prayers and wishes to the king. The inclusion of a Catholic priest in the ceremony, experts said, is essential as much of the coronation oath is written around support for the Protestant faith after Henry VIII’s split with Rome and religious division which resulted in England and beyond.
In front of 2,300 guests, including more than 100 heads of state, the King vowed to defend the Protestant religion in the UK and uphold the rights of the Anglican Church as set out in an Act of Parliament. Tens of thousands of people gathered along the procession route from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey, many camped out overnight to get a good view of the 1,500-mile parade, which included 7,000 troops and 19 military bands, the most at any time in Britain since the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
A number of anti-monarchy protesters, including the leader of Britain’s main anti-monarchist campaign, The Republic, were arrested before the march began. Up to two thousand people gathered in Trafalgar Square under the statue of Charles I, who was executed in 1649, chanting and holding yellow banners that read “Not my king”. A sign read, “Don’t you think that’s a bit silly?” Dozens of people gathered for the ‘Not My King’ demonstration organized by protesters in the center of Cardiff in Wales after the coronation. Retired teachers John and Tracy told RA they joined the rally because they were ‘fed up’ with the amount of money being spent on a family when many live in poverty .
Another embarrassing moment came when Prince Andrew, Duke of York was booed by part of the crowd as he was driven to his coronation. The king’s brother was forced out of working royal life in 2019 due to his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The king’s youngest son, Prince Harry, attended the ceremony alone, without his wife Meghan and children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who stayed at their California home. It was the first time the prince had been seen with the royal family since the publication of his autobiography The Spare earlier this year, in which he was highly critical of his father, stepmother and brother William.
Prince Harry was seated in the third row, away from Prince William, his wife and children, and other members of the royal family. The Duke of Sussex was seen in TV footage watching closely as the Archbishop lifted St Edward’s crown over his father’s head before crowning him, according to the Daily Mail. And when, minutes later, parishioners paid their respects to the new monarch, Harry, along with other royals around him, uttered the words: ‘God save King Charles’. Long live King Charles. May the king live forever!”
Read the Latest Science and Technology News Today on The Eastern Herald.
