Queen Elizabeth, who died last September aged 96 after 70 years on the throne, had become UK’s monarch in 1952 following the death of her father. Her son King Charles III’s coronation ceremony is expected to be modest and considerably shorter. The celebration will include “key elements associated with the hallowed religious service” and reflect King Charles’ vision of a trimmed-down modern monarchy, the Buckingham Palace said.
The ceremony at Westminster Abbey where Charles and his wife will be crowned will last just one hour while when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953, the service lasted more than three hours. An estimated 27 million people in Britain tuned in to watch the late Queen’s coronation ceremony on TV and a further 11 million listened on the radio.
The late Queen’s coronation was the first coronation to ever be televised but she was anointed in private. King Charles may choose to follow his mother’s example, however, there is speculation that the monarch might break with that tradition, The Telegraph reported.
After the Abbey service, the 1953 coronation procession took Queen Elizabeth on a 5-mile journey through London back to Buckingham Palace. However, Charles and Camilla’s coronation procession will be a fraction of the length- just 1.3 miles.
Charles’ coronation is also expected to be significantly less expensive than his mother’s. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation cost British taxpayers an estimated $2.9 million in 1953- about $92 million in today’s money. But King Charles is aiming to curtail the expenses, it has been reported as only 2,000 guests have been invited to the ceremony as compared to Queen Elizabeth’s coronation’s whopping 8,250 dignitaries.
Source- Hindustan Times.
