King Charles is set to be officially crowned in the Coronation today and millions of people are expected to watch it across the globe.
The King and Queen Consort will travel from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which will be pulled by six Windsor Grey horses. Thousands of people are expected to line the route in order to catch a glimpse of the King and Queen on their way to the historic occasion.
Here's everything you need to know about the route they will take, who will be attending the Coronation and what we can expect the service to look like.
READ MORE: King Charles to give half a million people gift for Coronation
Coronation Procession route to Westminster Abbey
6:00am
Viewing areas along the Mall open at 6am and will be on a first come first serve basis. When these areas are full people will be told to go to Hyde Park, Green Park and St James's park where the Coronation will be screened.
Around 200 members of the armed forces who will be taking part in the procession to Westminster Abbey will start to gather on Saturday morning. An extra 1,000 members of the forces will line the route.
10:20am
Their Majesties will travel from Buckingham Palace in The King’s Procession to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach. Created for Queen Elizabeth II to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Her late Majesty’s reign in 2012. The coach will be drawn by six Windsor Greys.
The King’s Procession, accompanied by The Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, will depart Buckingham Palace through the Centre Gate, and proceed down The Mall, passing through Admiralty Arch and south of King Charles I Island, down Whitehall and along Parliament Street.
The King’s Procession will travel around the east and south sides of Parliament Square to Broad Sanctuary to arrive at the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, where the Coronation Service will begin at 11 o’clock.
11:00am
The procession will arrive at the abbey just before 11am. King Charles will enter through the Great West Door and proceed through the nave until he reaches the central space in the abbey.
Coronation Guestlist
More than 2,200 people will attend the Coronation service at Westminster Abbey.
Guests attending will include Members of the Royal Family, as well as international representatives from 203 countries, including approximately 100 Heads of State, alongside community and charity champions.
Prince Harry will attend the Coronation but his wife Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will not be at the ceremony and will stay at home in America.
Celebrities such as Ant and Dec, Lionel Richie and Repair Shop's Jay Blades will also be attending the Coronation because of their work with the Prince's Trust.
The congregation will include:
- Members of the Royal Family
- Family members and friends of Their Majesties
- Members of Foreign Royal Families
- Heads of State and Foreign Ministers
- Governors-General and Realm Prime Ministers
- Members of the Government, Parliament and Devolved Administrations, including former Prime Ministers
- Lord-Lieutenants and Lord Provosts
- Representatives from the Church and other faiths
- Representatives from the Defence Services, including serving and former Armed Forces personnel
- Representatives from The King’s patronages, including The Prince’s Trust and The Prince’s Foundation
- Members of the Diplomatic Corps
- Public Service organisations and the emergency services
- Representatives from The Queen Consort’s patronages
- Representatives from the Law
- Nobel Prize Winners
- British Empire Medal recipients
- Representatives from the Realms nominated by the High Commissions
In addition to the guests seated in the Abbey, 400 young people representing charitable organisations nominated by The King and Queen and the UK Government, will have the opportunity to watch the Coronation Service and Processions from inside St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
Coronation service
King Charles will enter through the Great West Door and proceed through the nave until he reaches the central space in the abbey. He will be preceded by processions of faith leaders, representatives of Commonwealth countries, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who will also give a reading at the service.
The two hour ceremony will start at 11am and will be filled with music selected by the king, including Greek Orthodox music in memory of his father Prince Philip. The King's grandson, Prince George, will be among the pages at Westminster Abbey, alongside Camilla's grandchildren, Lola, Eliza, Gus, Louis and Freddy.
The service will have several stages, including the oath, the anointing of the king, the investiture aka the "crowning moment" when the King will wear St Edward's Crown for the only time in his life. When the Archbishop places the crown on the King's head abbey bells will ring for two minutes, trumpets will sound and gun salutes will be fired across the UK.
The King will then take the throne and Prince William, the heir to the throne, will kneel and pay homage to his father. He will say: "I, William, Prince of Wales, pledge my loyalty to you and faith and truth I will bear unto you, as your liege man of life and limb. So help me God."
For the first time, the public will then be invited to pledge their allegiance to the King in a part of the service organisers are calling the "chorus of millions".
After this Queen Camilla will be anointed, crowned and enthroned in a simpler ceremony - although she will not have to take an oath. The royal couple will then take communion, before joining the procession out of the abbey as the national anthem is played.
The entire running order for the service can be found here.
Coronation Procession route to Buckingham Palace
1:00pm
The procession from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace will be much larger in scale, taking the same route in reverse. The Coronation Procession will include Armed Forces from across the Commonwealth and the British Overseas Territories, and all Services of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, alongside The Sovereign’s Bodyguard and Royal Watermen.
Their Majesties will travel in the Gold State Coach. The coach, last seen during the Pageant of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022, was commissioned in 1760 and was first used by King George III, to travel to the State Opening of Parliament in 1762. The coach has been used at every Coronation since that of William IV in 1831. The coach will be drawn by eight Windsor Greys and, due to its weight of four tonnes, will travel at walking pace.
Reports suggest the Prince of Wales' three children, princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, will join the procession with their parents, in a carriage behind the Gold State Coach.
Upon returning to Buckingham Palace following the Coronation Service, Their Majesties will receive a Royal Salute from the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Armed Forces who have been on parade that day. The Royal Salute will be followed by three cheers from the assembled service personnel, as a tribute from the Armed Forces on parade to The King and The Queen Consort on the day of Their Majesties’ Coronation.
Buckingham Palace fly-past
2:30pm
King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to greet the crowds on The Mall from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, before watching the spectacular RAF fly-past. It's expected that the Royal Family will join the King on the Balcony, but it has not been confirmed which members of the family will be present
More than 60 military aircraft will form a flypast on May 6, 2023 and restrictions will be in place on the airspace above the North Sea, East Anglia and London.
The six-minute flypast for the King's Coronation will include the world-famous Red Arrows, 16 helicopters, the historic Spitfires of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAF's brand-new P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. Joint RAF and RN crewed F-35B Lightning II jets and transport aircraft from the RAF's Air Mobility Force. It will be the first flypast involvement of the RAF's new Envoy IV CC1 aircraft.
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