King Charles To Opt For Shorter & Less Opulent Coronation With Just 2,000 Guests

Oct 17, 2022 by apost team

In line with his mission to streamline the monarchy and lessen the burden on taxpayers, King Charles III is set to slim down the invite list for his coronation and cut its running time from four hours to a more manageable one.

King Charles acceded the British throne on Sept. 8, 2022, the same day his mother, Queen Elizabeth passed in Balmoral. While it is not necessary for a monarch to be crowned in order to become king, the ceremony is a formality and a state occasion. This means that while Charles may offer his views, at the end of the day, full control of the guest list and other details are with the government as it is footing the bill.

The last time a coronation took place was Elizabeth’s on June 2, 1953, at Westminster Abbey, the setting for every coronation since 1066. It was also the first time the ceremony had ever been televised. An estimated 27 million people in the United Kingdom and millions more around the world watched as the sixth queen of England was crowned. She and her husband, Prince Philip, rode the exquisitely decorated Gold State Coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey pulled by eight grey gelding horses.

Elizabeth donned an intricately designed gown embroidered with the emblems of the UK and the Commonwealth in gold and silver thread for the ceremony that lasted almost three hours. The event comprised six parts: the recognition, the oath, the anointing, the investiture and crowning, the enthronement and the homage. The affair was witnessed first-hand by 8,251 guests, including a young Charles.

While Charles is looking to rein in expenses for the ceremony, he will likely do so without compromising all the pomp and pageantry the public expects. Read on to find out more about Charles’s plans.

Since the royal palace announced that King Charles’s coronation will take place on May 6, 2023, speculation on how the ceremony will proceed has gone into overdrive. Buckingham Palace’s assurance that the ceremony would be “rooted in longstanding traditions” but will also “reflect the monarch's role today and look towards the future,” has intensified talk that Charles will make some substantial changes to better reflect a modern monarchy.

Among the most considerable changes will be the guest list. According to Mail Online, unlike Elizabeth’s 8,000-strong guest list, Charles will likely cut this down to about 2,000 guests and dignitaries. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Mather, who began initial arrangements for the coronation, told the outlet: “There are about 700 peers, well they won’t all be there. The same with MPs: they won’t all be present because he’s not being crowned for them. He’s being crowned for the people.”

Another tradition set to be axed is the presentation of gold — such as “an ingot or wedge of gold of a pound weight” — to the monarch. A source told the publication, “In an age where people are feeling the pinch, this is not going to happen.”

The dress code will also be relaxed, Mail Online added, with the possibility of lounge suits replacing ceremonial or coronation robes, or crimson cloaks lined with fur. Also, velvet-lined chairs used during the 1953 ceremony will likely be replaced with standard seating. A source close to the royal household told Mail Online all these changes make sense for the king to implement in this day and age. “The king has stripped back a lot of the coronation in recognition that the world has changed in the past 70 years.”

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Many traditions will also be maintained for the 2023 ceremony. Among them is the use of the Gold State Coach, which was extensively refurbished for the queen's Platinum Jubilee in early 2022 and has been used in every coronation since George IV’s in 1821. The elaborate horse-drawn carriage boasts intricate gilded carvings of cherubs and tritons, painted panels, and an interior lined with velvet and satin. The coach is so heavy it has to be pulled by at least eight horses, and even then, only at the pace of a walk.

While the language used during the ceremony may be adapted to better suit a more modern audience, what will remain is the monarch’s oath to be the “defender of the faith.” This followed Charles’s own statement on Sept. 16, 2022, to faith leaders at Buckingham Palace that he was “a committed Anglican Christian, and at my coronation, I will take an oath relating to the settlement of the Church of England. At my accession, I have already solemnly given … an oath, which pledges to maintain and preserve the Protestant faith in Scotland.”

As is tradition, the Duke of Norfolk, currently Edward Fitzalan-Howard, is responsible for organizing the coronation, which will also see Charles’s wife, Camilla, crowned queen consort. He is tasked with ensuring that Charles’s hopes for a shorter, simpler and more diverse ceremony take place. Prince William is believed to also be involved in its planning.

Royal historian Robert Lacey told the BBC he believed the coronation would be smaller in scale and shorter. He said, “Coronations, like all rituals, are tailored to fit the times.”

“King Charles has a very difficult balancing act. What to keep, what to abolish, what to alter in a modern way” in order to remain sensitive to the cost-of-living pressures facing the people, he added.

What are your thoughts on King Charles’s plans to downsize the coronation? Do you think he really needs to? Let us know and don’t forget to pass this on to friends and family you know will be eager to watch the spectacle come May 2023!