LONDON: Great Britain King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in London next May in a ceremony that will follow the traditional pageantry used to anoint monarchs for the past 1,000 years, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday.
Charles, 73, automatically became king when his mother Queen Elizabeth died last month, but the grand coronation ceremony for him and his wife Camilla, who will be crowned queen, will now take place on Saturday May 6.
“The coronation will reflect the role of the monarch today and look to the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” the palace said in a statement.
The ceremony, a solemn and religious event which will be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, usually takes place several months after the new monarch is sworn in.
The kings and queens of England, then of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, have been crowned at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066. Charles is the 41st monarch in a line whose origins can be traced to William, and he will be the oldest monarch to be crowned.
His mother, who died aged 96 at her Scottish holiday home, holds the record for the longest reign at 70.
British media reported that Charles wanted to scale back some of the usual grandeur around the coronation, aware it would come as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis.
The palace said it would maintain the “essential elements” of the traditional ceremony “while recognizing the spirit of our times”.
Elizabeth’s coronation as Queen on June 2, 1953 was the first to be televised and was seen as a milestone in the modernization of the monarchy, a move her husband Prince Philip would have pushed hard.
The abbey, which has extensive royal connections, was the setting for Elizabeth’s funeral service and is also where Charles’s son and now heir, Prince William, married his wife Kate.
Charles is king and head of state not only of the United Kingdom, but of 14 other kingdoms, including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Charles, 73, automatically became king when his mother Queen Elizabeth died last month, but the grand coronation ceremony for him and his wife Camilla, who will be crowned queen, will now take place on Saturday May 6.
“The coronation will reflect the role of the monarch today and look to the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” the palace said in a statement.
The ceremony, a solemn and religious event which will be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, usually takes place several months after the new monarch is sworn in.
The kings and queens of England, then of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, have been crowned at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066. Charles is the 41st monarch in a line whose origins can be traced to William, and he will be the oldest monarch to be crowned.
His mother, who died aged 96 at her Scottish holiday home, holds the record for the longest reign at 70.
British media reported that Charles wanted to scale back some of the usual grandeur around the coronation, aware it would come as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis.
The palace said it would maintain the “essential elements” of the traditional ceremony “while recognizing the spirit of our times”.
Elizabeth’s coronation as Queen on June 2, 1953 was the first to be televised and was seen as a milestone in the modernization of the monarchy, a move her husband Prince Philip would have pushed hard.
The abbey, which has extensive royal connections, was the setting for Elizabeth’s funeral service and is also where Charles’s son and now heir, Prince William, married his wife Kate.
Charles is king and head of state not only of the United Kingdom, but of 14 other kingdoms, including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
