It’s been a generation game for the Coronation in recent days as thoughts turn to the role the grandchildren of King Charles III and of Queen Camilla might play on the big day itself, May 6th 2023. There are reports that Prince George, second in line to the throne, will take part in the ceremony and discussion, too, on the possibility that Queen Camilla’s grandchildren could hold the canopy during her anointing.
There’s no defined role for the second generation in this ancient ceremony – perhaps not surprising given that many British monarchs took the throne before they were even parents let alone grandparents. Just a handful have been old enough to have grandchildren on the day they were crowned. King Charles and Queen Camilla join a rather exclusive club as they work out how to include their grandchildren in the Coronation.
GRANDPAPA ENGLAND
Charles III’s own great, great grandfather, Edward VII, was crowned in front of three of his grandchildren on August 9th 1902. Several of their faces can be seen looking on through the gloom of the Abbey in a famous painting by John Singer Sargent.
Edward VII’s eldest granddaughter, Lady Alexandra Duff, was present at his Coronation. She was 11 at the time and had a younger sister, Lady Maud, who was 9. Their mother was the new king and queen’s eldest daughter, Princess Louise.
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra’s second son, George, was heir to the throne and a father of four by time of the coronation. His eldest sons, eight year old Prince Edward and six year old Prince Albert, were both present. Their younger siblings, five year old Princess Mary and Prince Henry, aged two, stayed away.
A GAGGLE OF ROYAL GRANDCHILDREN
The monarch with easily the most grandchildren at the time of his coronation was King William IV. He was crowned on September 8th 1831, having succeeded his brother, King George IV, in 1830. Both men had enjoyed colourful private lives but while George had shied away from recognising any illegitimate children he had had, William had openly raised a family of ten with his long time partner, Dorothea Jordan. They’d parted company before her death in 1816 and William was crowned alongside his wife, Queen Adelaide, who he had married in 1818. And by then, he had at least a dozen people who called him grandpapa.
His eldest son, George, had four children by 1831 – Adelaide, Augusta, William and Frederick FitzClarence. His brother, Frederick, also had a little girl who also bore the name Augusta FitzClarence.
Three of William’s daughters with Dorothea Jordan also had children by the time their father was crowned. His eldest daughter, Sophia, was the mother of Adelaide, Ernestine and Philip Sidney by 1831. Her sister, Elizabeth, also had three children – Ida, Agnes and William Hay. Another of William’s daughters, Augusta, was mother to William, Augusta and Wilhelmina Kennedy-Erskine. Her younger daughter had been born the day before William became king. She would later carve a career as a novelist, writing under the name of Mina Kennedy-Erstkine.
However, this gaggle of grandchildren’s involvement in the coronation of William IV was confined to private celebrations.
GRANDPAPA OVERSEAS
George I had lived his whole life in Hanover before succeeding to the British throne on August 1st 1714 on the death of Queen Anne. He arrived, with his heir, soon afterwards and his coronation took place on October 20th 1714. However, his seven grandchildren were still in Germany.
The new first in line to the throne, another George, had left his four children behind in Hanover. The eldest of them was Frederick Louis, born in January 1707, and now number two in the succession. With him in the abandoned nursery were three sisters – Anne (born 1709), Amelia (born 1711) and Caroline (born 1713).
George I also had a daughter, Sophia Dorothea, who had become Queen of Prussia the year before her father became King of Great Britain. She had also become a mother again just a month before George’s coronation and had more than enough to keep her busy without travelling to London. By 1714, she was the mother of two daughters, Frederike Wilhelmine, born in 1709, and Frederike Luise, born in September 1714. She also had a surviving son, Frederick, born in 1712. However, despite the similarity of his name to that of his sisters, he would go on to make his own mark. History would remember him as Frederick the Great.
THE CONTROVERSIAL KING
James II was already a controversial king by the time he succeeded his brother, Charles II, on February 6th 1685. His Catholic faith was of deep suspicion to many in the ruling classes while his own headstrong behaviour won him few friends. He had also had a rather eventful private life which had often spilled over into the public. And by the time he was crowned, on April 23rd 1685, the 51 year old was already a grandfather.
James had had a string of children in extramarital affairs through his youth and had married several of them very well before becoming king. A famous relationship with Arabella Churchill had produced four children and then eldest of them, Henrietta FitzJames, had a family of her own by the time her father was crowned king. She married Henry Waldegrave in 1683 and their son, James, was born in 1684. He was far too young to go anywhere near his grandfather’s coronation.
THE 21ST CENTURY CORONATION
The first coronation of the 21st century in Britain will see both the King and Queen as grandparents. Although no role has yet been confirmed for any of them, Charles III and Camilla each have five grandchildren.
King Charles is ‘Grandpapa’ to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis as well as Archie and Lili Mountbatten-Windsor. Queen Camilla’s grandchildren are Lola and Freddy Parker Bowles and Eliza, Louis and Gus Lopes.
How they are woven into this ancient ceremony remains to be seen. But what is certain is that grandchildren at a coronation remains a royal rarity in Britain.
