A stunning day of splendour and sacrament
THE organisers of the Coronation said it would be an “unforgettable spectacle”. This pledge was gloriously fulfilled on a day that mixed splendour and sacrament. From the start of the King’s procession to Westminster Abbey to the Red Arrows flypast over Buckingham Palace, the entire occasion was a model of precision, discipline and grandeur. Those in the congregation, in the crowds along the route and in the vast global television audience were witnesses to a unique moment in history.
The superbly executed pomp and pageantry demonstrated once again that Britain does ceremonial events better than any other nation on Earth.there could not have been a more powerful riposte to the fashionable belief that ours is a country in decline, irrelevant to the modern world.
On the contrary, the Coronation was an inspiring showcase of our enduring greatness, full of striking imagery, potent symbolism and heart-stirring sounds that resonated far beyond our kingdom.
“We need a bit of beauty in our lives,” said one royal fan who had travelled on a 22-hour flight all the way to London from her native Melbourne in Australia.
That is exactly what this memorable event provided. Beauty was captured in the moving, timeless liturgy of the service, in the pitch-perfect voices of the choirs, in the glistening helmets and breastplates of the Household Cavalry, and in the hallowed architecture of Westminster Abbey.
Neither the dampness over London nor a gaggle of Republican protesters in nearby
‘Excellence prevailed in every element’
Trafalgar Square could detract from the Coronation’s dazzling success. Indeed, the colour of military uniforms, the brilliance of the Crown jewels and the gold of the King’s robes reflected in the vestments of the priesthood was only emphasised by the grey skies above, just as the small number of anti-monarchist demonstrators highlighted how the overwhelming majority of British people still support the Crown.
It had also been planned, in a clumsy attempt at modernisation, to call on their public to express their homage to the King.
At previous coronations, this act of homage had been confined to the peers, but after an outcry, the new, demotic version was significantly toned so congregants and viewers at home were merely invited to give their allegiance to the sovereign.
This was the 40th coronation to be held at Westminster, since the first in 1066 when William the Conqueror was crowned after his victory at the Battle of Hastings.
Several previous ceremonies have been marred by glaring errors, like that of Queen Victoria in 1837, when one elderly peer fell down the steps at the altar while the presiding bishop accidentally turned over two pages and missed a crucial part of the service.
At the Coronation of King Charles’s grandfather George VI, St Edward’s Crown was placed on his head the wrong way round. But there were no mishaps at Saturday’s event. Excellence prevailed in every element. One participant had earlier explained that, at the first rehearsal, a host of problems had arisen. “It is all very frantic, chaos in fact. There is a plan which is supposed to be a blueprint of how the day should go, but things are changing which is causing massive headaches.”
But intensive rehearsals – some of them held in a mocked-up replica of the Abbey built in the interior of Buckingham Palace – along with respect for the solemnity of the rituals, ensured proceedings went smoothly. Nothing epitomised that brilliance more graphically than the incredible dexterity of the mounted musicians of the Household Cavalry, who managed to play their instruments while controlling their horses. They were part of a huge effort by the Armed Forces, the clergy, the police and support staff that was epic in scale and determined in purpose. More than 4,000 military personnel took part in the procession, the biggest deployment for a national ceremonial event since the state funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965. Their number included 400 troops from the Commonwealth, among whom were soldiers from the Francophone West African countries of Togo and Gabon.
These nations only joined the Commonwealth last year, but their membership is another tribute to how the Royal Family has nurtured this international body.
There were also 11,500 police officers on duty, the biggest peacetime security operation in British history, which was codenamed Golden Orb. Buttressed by the latest surveillance technology, new laws that crack down on agitators, and reinforcements from as far away as Northern Ireland and Devon, this vast force ensured that there was no trouble in central London.
But just as vital was the army of cleaners and maintenance workers who kept the streets of the capital clean and the crowds comfortable. They not only laid 30 tons of sand on the route to absorb horse droppings