Foreign monarchs are invited to the king’s coronation in a historic break with longstanding royal protocol
Foreign monarchs are invited to the coronation of King Charles in a historic break with a long-standing royal tradition.
Save-the-date announcements are expected to be sent out to guests this week, with official invitations to follow in April.
And while the guest list has been slashed to 2,000 from 8,000 who attended the late Queen’s coronation in 1953, there is one area the King has expanded.
For centuries, convention dictated that no other crowned royals should be present at the coronation of a British monarch, as the sacred ceremony was meant to be an intimate exchange between the monarch and his people in the presence of God.
But as part of his plan to update the ceremony, King Charles has decided to step away from the 900-year tradition by inviting his crowned friends, including European kings and rulers from Arab states.
Foreign monarchs are invited to the coronation of King Charles in a historic break with a long-standing royal tradition
A source said: “Inviting the King of Jordan (left), the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman and the Scandinavian royal family – who are all friends of Charles – will be a fair bit of soft power and diplomacy.” Pictured: The King and Queen of Jordan at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth
A source told The Mail on Sunday that the tradition is being revised in the name of diplomacy, saying: “I think the rule started because a coronation is supposed to be a monarch’s private event with God.
“At the coronation of the queen there were no crowned monarchs, only the protectorate rulers like the queen of Tonga. It’s a centuries-old tradition.”
The source added, “Inviting the King of Jordan, the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman and the Scandinavian royal family – who are all friends of Charles – will be a fair bit of soft power and diplomacy.”
Another well-placed source said, “You can expect the guest list for the coronation to be more like that of a royal wedding than the coronation was 70 years ago.”
The Sultan of Brunei (pictured), a friend of Charles, is invited to the coronation
Queen Elizabeth II receives the Sultan of Oman (centre) in December 2021, who is also invited to the coronation
Prince Sofia and Prince Carl Phillip of Sweden are also on the guest list
The decision on whether or not Charles will invite foreign monarchs has been kept top secret. Prince Albert of Monaco almost revealed a major break with tradition was imminent when he announced in January that he and his wife Charlene of Monaco were expecting an invitation.
He said at the time: “I don’t know how many coronations of an English monarch I will see in my lifetime, so we will try to take advantage of that.” Prince Albert added that he does not expect his children to be invited.
It is still uncertain whether Prince Harry will be visiting from his home in California with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for the occasion.
Inviting foreign monarchs is the latest change brought about by Charles as part of a coronation overhaul. He has already cut short a long segment of the ceremony known as “Homage,” while hereditary peers, clad in ermine, stand in line to pay their respects.
He also intends to pay greater attention to representatives of a variety of charities.
The royal family’s website states: “The coronation ceremony is an occasion for pageantry and celebration, but it is also a solemn religious ceremony and has remained essentially the same for a thousand years.”
The coronation was designed in part by retired Colonel Anthony Mather, who also wrote the Queen’s funeral plan. The blueprint is brought to fruition by the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshall and Britain’s longest-serving counterpart.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.