Portsmouth MP gets role in coronation ceremony
Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt will play a prominent role in the Coronation of King Charles III next weekend.
The Leader of the House of Commons, who is Lord President of the Council, will carry the Sword of State into Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6.
Buckingham Palace has officially confirmed a Lincolnshirefarmerwillperform the ancient duty of acting as the King’s champion during the coronation.
Francis Dymoke will not have to throw his gauntlet downandseeifanyoneaccepts his challenge, but instead will carry the Royal Standard during the ceremony.
Baroness Floella Benjamin, the former children’s TV presenter, and now an author and peer, who chaired the Windrush Commemoration Committee, will carry
Charles’s sceptre, traditionally known as the Rod Of Equity And Mercy, which represents his spiritual role.
Mr Dymoke, a former accountantturnedfarmer,isthe 34th generation of his family to run the Scrivelsby country estate in Lincolnshire – with the role of King’s champion unusually attached to the land rather than his family.
The office of King’s Champion began in the reign of William the Conqueror and it was the warrior’s role to ride a horse into Westminster Hall during the coronation banquet and challenge anyone who denied the sovereign’s right to the throne to combat.
Queen Victoria dispensed with the custom at her coronation, and Henry Dymoke – Queen’sChampionatthetime –wasmadeabaronetbywayof compensation.
The first processions into the Abbey will be made up of faith leaders and representatives.
They will be followed by governors-general and prime ministers from each of the 15 realms, including the UK, wheretheKingisheadofstate, as well as their flagbearers, although some of the countries, including Belize and Jamaica, have indicated they will move to become a republic.
Bearing the flag of the UK aheadofPrimeMinisterRishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty will be Cadet Warrant Officer Elliott Tyson-Lee.
Royal Navy Petty Officer Amy Taylor will be the first womantobeartheKing’sJewelled Sword Of Offering into the abbey.