Amid the pomp and pageantry, coronations court controversy, too

Ahead of Saturday’s coronation of King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, controversy has surrounded everything from those who will attend whether the jewel will – or will not – feature in her crown.

Finally there was a coronation – for Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, in rainy London in June 1953 – the elaborate ceremony was a beautiful representation of pageantry and royal precision.

But another attempt to put a British ruler on the throne did not go so smoothly. The crown jewels have been lost in the swamp, the coronation ring stuck on one finger of the unhappy and displeased King and Queen Consort, and they hit the door of Westminster Abbey to enter their husband’s ceremony.

Such a spectacle is unlikely at this time – Charles will, for example, acknowledge the ring but not have it placed on his finger by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But some of what has happened in recent months has precedent.

For example, attention is focused on whether the son of Charles, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, Princess of Sussex, will attend, due to their relationship with the royal family, especially after the Netflix documentaries and documentaries. the publication of his memoirs, sparein January.

This is an issue that observers see as potentially overshadowing the coronation. However, the media focus has waned somewhat since the announcement Harry would attend himselfas Meghan stays with her children at home in California.

WATCH | Speculation swirls about Prince Harry and Meghan’s attendance at the coronation:

But it is hardly the first time there has been interest in whether some members of the royal family will attend the coronation.

“There’s been a lot of research about Harry and Meghan as if before there was no conflict in the royal family,” Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based author and royal historian, said in an interview.

“But there’s a lot of discussion and disagreement about who’s going to come.”

Not at his brother’s coronation

Take, for example, the coronation of King George VI in 1937, a ceremony that occurred due to the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, who was then known as the Duke of Windsor.

“The Duke of Windsor is not only absent, he is not mentioned anywhere in the program, despite his new title, Duke of Windsor,” Harris said. “It’s like it’s gone.”

As royal ceremonies – weddings, funerals and coronations – are known for their elaborate planning and focus on precise execution, this is not always the case.

“Often changes in government take place during political upheavals and this has a strong impact on coronation ceremonies,” said Harris, referring to his experience when William the Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day in 1066 and riots broke out. between the guards and the community.

A particularly unseemly spectacle as the crowned king played out in 1821.

“One of the most embarrassing coronations in many ways was the coronation of George IV,” Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwest England, said in an interview.

“The real problem besides his unpopularity is his relative popularity … his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick …. The King has tried to divorce him, tried to deprive him of his title, tried to deprive him of his income, all kinds of things. other things like that.”

At the same time, George VI had planned a lavish coronation and decided to keep Caroline out of the wedding, instructing her guards not to let her into Westminster Abbey.

Finally, he came to knock on the door, but was ultimately denied.

Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838 had its own problems, many due to lack of rehearsal. Some had a direct influence on the young king.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury was old and a bit blind, so he put his coronation ring on the wrong finger, didn’t see that he had put it on the wrong finger and hit the house,” Rowbotham said.

“By all accounts, Victoria’s fingers began to swell. She must have said so in her diary [that] when he got home… taking it was very difficult and caused him a lot of pain.

The next two coronations – for King Edward VII in 1902 and King George V in 1911 – were considered to have gone smoothly, although Edward was delayed for three months after he contracted appendicitis.

When it came time for the next coronation, that of George VI, Rowbotham said there was some “real fear” because of the new King’s stammer, but the speech training he had received came through.

“So there it is again…no chaos in sight.”

For Queen Elizabeth in 1953, the decision to televise the event caused confusion and anxiety for some.

“There was a lot of concern about things going wrong in front of the camera,” said Harris, who noted that everything went smoothly on camera, “although some people are feeling nervous now. .”

The protocol for the ceremony was extended to the second time.

‘A genius for pageantry’

“The English have a genius for pageants, and I mean genius,” wrote Beverley Baxter in the CBC’s guide to coronation broadcasts in the CBC Times of May 31-June 6, 1953. there are signs pointing to it.”

Of course, there are some moments that are poorly written.

Prince Charles, a restless 4½-year-old, drew attention in the abbey gallery as he rummaged through the purse of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Now, 70 years later, some of the public discourse and controversies that preceded his coronation are raising more questions.

“What’s emerging here is a discussion and debate about whether coronations are relevant in the 21st century,” Harris said, noting other European monarchies no longer hold coronation ceremonies.

The monarchs, he said, “experienced something similar to the inauguration of a secular head of state” with the old coronation regalia sometimes displayed, but no crown or anointing.

Will the community participate?

There is also, Harris noted, some discussion and debate about whether coronation is “still a ceremony that people will do in the 21st century,” along with debate and discussion in some of the Commonwealth’s 14 territories about whether they will transition to a republic.

A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute found that while a majority of Canadians who responded to the survey (59 per cent) said they would pay attention to the coronation, only nine per cent said they were looking forward to it. . One in five (20 percent) said they could adjust to some of it, while 29 percent said they could read about it, but really weren’t that interested.

More broadly, there is also talk about what kind of royal ceremonies will continue to be held in the future.

“Prince William has not yet had an investiture as Prince of Wales,” Harris said. “So William V, perhaps … may not be interested in a lavish coronation ceremony when he succeeds to the throne.”