Charles III Is Crowned King of Britain

Charles, Britain’s first new monarch in 70 years, was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London during an ancient ceremony that incorporated some modern touches. “I come not to be served, but to serve,” he said.              Britain’s Charles III was crowned king on Saturday, 6 May 2023, during an eighth-century ritual in a 21st-century metropolis with a handful of concessions to the modern age but the unabashed pageantry of a fairy tale, unseen since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, his mother, in 1953.

“I come not to be served, but to serve,” Charles said in his first remarks of the ceremony, setting the theme for the intimate yet grand proceedings.                The king, 74, was anointed with holy oil, symbolizing the sacred nature of his rule. He was vested with an imperial mantle, and the archbishop of Canterbury placed the ancient crown of St. Edward onto his head.

Tens of thousands of people crowded into central London, despite rain, for a glimpse of the king and queen, who traveled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, escorted by four divisions of the Household Mounted Cavalry regiment.

A smattering of anti-monarchy protests also marked the day. London’s Metropolitan Police said they arrested 52 people on Saturday, most for offenses that appeared connected to the coronation of Charles III, including affray, public order offenses, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. Protesters and rights groups denounced the arrests.

The coronation events:

Even in a country accustomed to royal spectacle, the procession after the coronation on Saturday beggared description: 19 military bands and 4,000 troops, stretching a mile from the palace gates. The king and his family appeared on the balcony as aircraft — fighter jets and helicopters — roared overhead in a display that is, by custom, the grand finale of a royal celebration.   During the service, Charles swore to uphold the Church of England, although the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, encouraged the king to “foster an environment in which people of all faiths and beliefs can live freely.” It was one of several modifications to the liturgy, as the church and Buckingham Palace sought to adapt a 1,000-year-old service to today’s pluralistic world.

The approximately 2,300 people attending the ceremony included new faces, old lineages, world leaders, pop music icons and others — a coterie that spoke to Charles’s efforts to embrace a modern, multicultural Britain, but also to the monarchy’s dynastic identity.

After years of family tensions, Prince Harry attended his father’s coronation alone. Harry’s wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, stayed at home in California with the couple’s children, Prince Archie, who turns 4 on Saturday, and 1-year-old Princess Lilibet.