THE King’s coronation will be held on Saturday, May 6 next year, with the Queen Consort being crowned alongside Charles, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The deeply religious affair will take place in Westminster Abbey, eight months after the monarch’s accession and the death of the Queen.
The Palace said the ceremony will be “rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry” but also “reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future”.
Charles III will be anointed with holy oil, receive the orb, coronation ring and sceptre, be crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown and blessed during the historic ceremony.
Camilla will also be anointed with holy oil and crowned, just like the Queen Mother was when she was crowned Queen in 1937.
Guest lists have yet to be confirmed for the spectacle, including whether or not Harry and Meghan will be invited or be able to travel from California to attend.
The date was also the wedding anniversary of the late Queen’s sister Princess Margaret, while the King’s grandfather George VI held his coronation in the month of May.
The Palace said: “Buckingham Palace is pleased to announce that the coronation of His Majesty The King will take place on Saturday 6th May 2023.
“The coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey, London, and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“The ceremony will see His Majesty King Charles III crowned alongside the Queen Consort.
“The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.”
It is understood that the ceremony will include the same core elements of the traditional service, which has retained a similar structure for more than 1000 years.
Charles’s coronation is expected to be on a smaller scale and shorter, with suggestions that it could last just one hour rather than over three.
It is expected to be more inclusive of multi-faith Britain than past coronations but will be an Anglican service.
Guest numbers will be reduced from 8000 to around 2000, with peers expected to wear suits and dresses instead of ceremonial robes, and a number of rituals, such as the presentation of gold ingots, axed.
Coronations have not traditionally been held on a weekend, with the late Queen’s taking place on a Tuesday. It has not yet been confirmed whether there will be any arrangements for a bank holiday.
Further details are due to be released in due course.
The King will be anointed, blessed and consecrated by the Archbishop.
Charles is expected to sign a proclamation formally declaring the date of the coronation at a meeting of the Privy Council later this year.
The King acceded to the throne on September 8, immediately on the death of his mother, Elizabeth II – the nation’s longest-reigning monarch.
Plans for the major event are known by the codename Operation Golden Orb, which sets out the blueprint for the service and the pageantry surrounding it.
Charles will be anointed by the Archbishop and take his oath to “maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine worship, discipline, and government thereof, as the law established in England”.
The Queen Consort will be crowned and take her place on a throne.
The wife of a king automatically becomes a Queen and only a change in legislation would prevent her from doing so but there had been much controversy over whether Camilla would use the title, being Charles’s former mistress who became his spouse.
The royal website used to declare: “A Queen Consort is crowned with the King, in a similar but simpler ceremony.”
But, following Charles’s marriage to Camilla, it added the get-out clause “unless decided otherwise”.
The Duke of Norfolk, who organised the Queen’s funeral, also has the role of staging the coronation.
He was recently banned from driving for six months after pleading guilty to using his mobile phone behind the wheel – despite claiming he needed his licence to arrange the forthcoming ceremony.
