Poor King Charles. He can’t do the right thing to do the wrong thing, and he can’t do the wrong thing without making things worse—but he can’t have both.
He wants a stripped-down monarchy, but he wants his wife to be crowned queen, he wants a proper empire alongside his £1.8 billion personal fortune and, worst of all, he wants a coronation-lite; a reduced spectacle shaved of excess ermine, pomp, circumstance, dukes, nobles, weaknesses, wombles and fergie.
He wants everyone to understand, understand that this isn’t 1950s Britain anymore – but what’s the point of a coronation if not to make it a glorious, one-off spectacle; a ceremony that will wow the world of viewers? A ceremony that underscores that, for large numbers of Britons, the monarchy does mean something, and in many cases something very profound?
Then-Prince Charles attends a service to mark the installation of the Knights Grand Cross of the Honorable Order of the Bath in Westminster Abbey on May 24, 2022 in London, England
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall attend the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster May 27, 2015 in London
The Imperial State Crown, which was used during the coronation of King Charles III. will be on view at Westminster Abbey in London on May 6th
That’s why I want a coronation with bells, the kind of rousing show that only Britain can pull off. I want it loud and proud; Marching bands and golden trumpeters, jewels the size of clenched fists alongside miles of pennants and national exuberance.
Most of all, I wish for a king who would happily ride to Westminster Abbey in a golden pumpkin carriage and stumble enthusiastically under a crown the size of a bucket, a priceless symbol weighed down by rubies and diamonds and a millennial ritual and lore.
What I don’t want is a hand-wringing monarch who seems a little embarrassed about the whole stupid thing.
For so far, the Coronation forecasts seem to indicate that we can expect a grey-tinged day of reduced pageantry, something that sounds like it’s being organized by a committee of lemon-sucking Lib Dems chaired by Mr J Corbyn and his friend been , st alin pomp without the oomph.
what’s the point For the coronation to be a success, Charles must embrace the jewelry and embrace the absurdity of his fate like a man who was born to it.
On this day of days, he just can’t be the bright fellow he lovingly envisions, not when he holds a sovereign’s scepter while being anointed with holy oil and joined in an ancient ceremony that invokes the chivalrous essence of temporal powers is endowed kingship. Dude, it’s not like getting a Starbucks loyalty card. This stuff is real.
But Charles seems to be doing his best to pretend it’s not entirely real, and certainly not grand or exclusive, nor the absolute, utterly cooked essence of the hereditary privilege that it actually is. My goodness no. There is nothing to see here! Keep it up, dear rascals. Nothing fancy or elitist going on behind this velvet cord, thanks anyway.
I mean, the QCQ (Quotidian Coronation Quiche) is bad enough, but cutting the guest list from 8,000 to 2,000? What’s the point of that, other than a saving on the cost of lunch? What’s the point of having dukes other than inviting them to your coronation? And not invite Lady Pamela Hicks? That seems like folly too far.
The 94-year-old member of the Mountbatten family was a bridesmaid at Charles’ parents’ wedding, attended his mother’s coronation in 1953 and his grandfather, King George VI’s, coronation in 1937.
As well as being a close family friend, she is an indomitable piece of living history, proof that the Mountbattens and the Windsors are the Morecambe & Wise of royal circles; Allies and families who have been closely linked for decades.
And now, in what appears to be a cost-cutting, face-saving, wake-up whim, she’s been dropped from the guest list. To be replaced by whom? Perhaps by activist Ngozi Fulani, who was recently embroiled in a “racing row” at Buckingham Palace. Or by someone else whose value to the Crown lies in what it outwardly symbolizes, rather than in its service and loyalty.
The Queen’s coronation in 1953 was the first ever to be televised and is here restored in color for the ITV documentary ‘A Queen Is Crowned’.
Queen Elizabeth II in the documentary “A Queen is Crowned” during the coronation in 1953
You know, his reign has barely begun, but there are already awkward moments when King Charles displays the tinny instincts of a self-serving small-town mayor rather than royalty. And I think you can bet your last golden guinea that his mother would never have forgotten those who were staunch friends in her support of the Crown and her family.
She would have put Lady P at the top of the guest list. For Queen Elizabeth II understood the folly of throwing old friends under the bus in a hurry to seek the fashionable approval of new friends.
Also that the monarchy is not a meritocracy – and only a very stupid man would claim the opposite.