The eyes of the world will be on King Charles III and Queen Camilla next spring when, on 6 May 2023, the monarch and his consort are crowned at Westminster Abbey.
This historic ceremony will become as major moment in the reign of King Charles III. Past coronations have shown splendour and tradition at their finest and produced many happy moments. But some have also given us controversial and even funny times. Here are five noteworthy moments from coronations past.
GEORGE IV LOCKS OUT HIS QUEEN
Only once in British history has the queen consort been locked out of Westminster Abbey to prevent her from attending her husband’s coronation.
Caroline of Brunswick’s marriage to George IV was acrimonious at best and cruel at worst. Married because George IV required a wife and legitimate heir (and because he wanted to settle his overwhelming debts), the two despised each other almost from the moment they met and only had one child, Princess Charlotte (who later died in childbirth in 1817), before permanently separating the year after they married.
From then on, George IV devoted his time to finding a way to divorce his wife. The couple lived apart, but the press and public sympathy were with the Princess of Wales. In 1806, a secret commission was set up to investigate claims that Caroline had committed infidelity and had a child out of wedlock, but no evidence was found to support these claims.
Her movements and life restricted by George IV, she would eventually leave the country in 1814 in exchange for an annual allowance. However, rumours of infidelity continued to make their way to George, who gathered evidence but could never formally divorce Caroline; he didn’t even inform her of their daughter’s death in 1817. Instead, she found out indirectly from a letter meant for the Pope.
By the time George IV was crowned in 1821, another commission had been set up to find a way for the couple to divorce, but negotiations stalled with the death of George III in 1820. Caroline was now, in name anyway, Queen Caroline. But another commission was formed and a bill introduced, the Pains and Penalties Bill 1820, which would dissolve the marriage of George and Caroline and bar her from using the title queen consort.
The House of Lords debated the bill, and it passed by slim margins. However, it was widely unpopular, and it was withdrawn before a second debate could take place in the House of Commons.
On 19 July 1821, Caroline arrived at Westminster Abbey for her husband’s coronation despite being told to stay away. The Deputy Earl Marshall wrote to Caroline’s Lord Chamberlain with the line: “It was not His Majesty’s pleasure to comply with the application.”
The crowds gathered were in support of Caroline and watched as she was barred entry from the West Cloister and the East Cloister, then through Westminster Hall, and then through Poets Corner before she was encouraged to leave. By this point, even the crowd turned against her, and they jeered as her carriage drove away.
Two weeks later, Caroline was dead.
GEORGE II USHERS IN NEW CORONATION ANTHEMS
George II wanted to be a different monarch from his father, who was never widely accepted in England during his reign. For his coronation ceremony in 1727, when he was crowned alongside his wife, Caroline of Ansbach, George Frideric Handel, the noted composer, was tasked with writing four new coronation anthems.
‘Let thy hand be strengthened’ was the first coronation anthem played for King George II and Queen Caroline at Westminster Abbey, followed by ‘Zadok the Priest’ and ‘The King Shall Rejoice.’ When Queen Caroline was crowned, ‘My heart is inditing’ was played.
These four anthems have attained legendary status and are still performed in modern coronation ceremonies and at other royal events both in the United Kingdom and around the world.
MARY I ORDERS NEW ANOINTING OIL
Queen Mary I introduced changes to her coronation service because of her perception that her late brother, Edward VI, had ‘tainted’ several aspects of the ceremony.
According to Westminster Abbey, Queen Mary had new coronation oil sent from the Catholic Bishop of Arras because her Protestant brother had tainted the existing coronation oil. She also refused to sit in the ancient coronation chair because she felt her brother’s Protestantism had tainted the seat. The chair Mary used was reportedly sent to her by the Pope, but sources do not know what eventually came of this chair.
Why all the angst? Mary was staunchly Catholic despite her father’s break with Rome so he could divorce her mother, and Edward, her younger brother, was fervently Protestant. Her reign is controversial for her attempts to suppress Protestantism, and she earned the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ for her proclivity to burning Protestants at stake.
VICTORIA’S ‘BOTCHED’ CORONATION
Historians, both contemporaneous and modern, have written about Queen Victoria’s coronation being under-rehearsed and under-prepared: it lasted five hours, and the key players had no idea how things were supposed to go.
Only Queen Victoria and the Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey were prepped in advance of the ceremony on 28 June 1838, but even this is disputed. During the ceremony itself, an elderly peer fell down the stairs on his way to pay homage to the queen, the coronation ring was forcefully shoved onto the wrong finger (causing Queen Victoria great pain), and at one point, a bishop told her the service was over when it was still ongoing, and she had to be brought back to continue the service.
Needless to say, it was the talk of the town, and when it came time for the next coronation in 1902, Victoria’s son, Edward VII, fared better with careful preparation. But despite the confusion, Queen Victoria wrote fondly of her coronation in her journal, calling it the proudest day of her life.
RICHARD II INTRODUCES THE CORONATION PROCESSION
Ascending to the throne at the young age of ten, Richard II reigned from 1377 until his deposition in 1399. His coronation ceremony featured the first-ever procession when he rode on horseback from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey and back amidst the cheering crowds while pageants and banners and tapestries were set out around the celebrations.
One of a handful of monarchs who came to their thrones underage, Richard II was governed by a regency council led by his paternal uncles, but his reign, even after he attained his majority, was unpopular, and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 marked a cornerstone. He believed strongly in his own royal prerogative, which ultimately led to his downfall in 1399 when he was deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who later became Henry IV.
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