Cut-price coronation plan for King Charles

CAMILLA will be crowned alongside Charles in a streamlined coronation in plans being drawn up codenamed Operation Golden Orb, it is believed.

The Duchess of Cornwall will become Queen Consort when Charles accedes to the throne as per the Queen’s wishes, announced earlier this month.

A coronation service at Westminster Abbey is now expected to be much shorter and cheaper than in the past, with Charles looking to modernise the monarchy.

It is likely to be significantly different to the Queen’s 1953 celebration, and will feature the first crowning of a Queen Consort since the Queen Mother alongside her husband King George VI in 1937.

unlike the Queen’s ceremony, where 8,000 dignitaries were transported to Westminster Abbey and a parade involved more than 40,000 troops, Prince Charles’s guests will be limited to 2,000. A source told The Mail on Sunday the ceremony would be ‘shorter, sooner, smaller, less expensive and more representative of different community groups and faiths’.

The Operation Golden Orb plans detail that it will take place within a year of Charles’ accession, with a planning committee now meeting as often as monthly, it is believed.

While aspects will be overhauled to reflect a ‘modern-day Britain’, it will remain an Anglican service with the vows not expected to change. However a source said that Charles will ensure the ceremony has a strong ‘inter-faith dialogue’. The source added that there is also an expectation that fewer members of the Royal Famunlike ily will attend, adding: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised to see just Charles and Camilla, Kate and William and their children on the Buckingham Palace balcony afterwards.’

a Royal Wedding, where security costs are met by taxpayers and the cost of the ceremony is met by the Royal Family, a coronation is funded by the Government. It is estimated that the 1953 Coronation cost £1.57million – the equivalent of £46million today.

However Charles is said to favour a far cheaper ceremony which will represent ‘good value’. He is also thought to be favouring a return to the ‘Tudor Crown’ insignia, replacing the St Edward’s Crown design, which would mean changes to the likes of post boxes and police officers’ uniforms. The Daily Mail revealed last week that Prince Charles had changed his coronation vows several years ago to reference ‘Queen Camilla’ with the blessing of his mother. It came after the Queen revealed her wish for Camilla to become Queen Consort when, ‘in the fullness of time’, Charles becomes King.

On Operation Golden Orb, a Clarence House spokesman said: ‘The detailed planning for a Coronation begins at the point of accession. So there are no plans of this nature at this stage.’

‘Representative of different faiths’