The crown resized, the troops are gearing up for the largest military parade in 70 years in the UK. The Gold State Coach is all set to go.
It’s now time for the show.
The coronation of King Charles III will take place Saturday at Westminster Abbey, with all the pomp and circumstance that Britain can manage.
Enrobed clergymen will pass over mediaeval power emblems such as the rod, sceptre, and orb. Brass bands and bearskin-hatted soldiers will march through the streets. And the new monarch and queen will most likely close the day by waving to the ecstatic people from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
But don’t get too carried away. The pomp serves a purpose: to strengthen the foundations of crown and demonstrate that the people of the UK still support their king.
Royal historian Robert Lacey compares the ceremony to a presidential election and an inauguration in the United States. Describing it as both a celebration and a test of how the public perceives the new monarch.
“Obviously, the king is not subject to popular vote. So these big public rituals are the closest royal people get to that sort of test,” said Lacey, author of “Battle of Brothers: William & Harry — the Inside Story of a Family in Turmoil.” “Its basic purpose is to attract the loyalty and interest of the British people in order to demonstrate that crowd outside Buckingham Palace waving at the balcony.”
While flag-waving fans will fill TV screens around the world, Charles’ coronation comes at a difficult time for the royals.
Polls demonstrate that public support for the monarchy has dwindled over time. Britain is experiencing double-digit inflation, which is undermining economic standards. And prompting some to question the cost of the coronation. And the royal family is divided as Prince Harry, Charles’ younger son, lobs criticism from his home in Southern California.
More fundamentally, some in Britain’s increasingly diverse population want the monarchy’s links to the slave trade. And its position in the previous British Empire, which controlled over significant areas of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, to be revisited.