It’s been reported that King Charles III will be crowned on June 3 2023 in Westminster Abbey.
Bloomberg News has said the date has been fixed although no formal announcement has been made and Buckingham Palace has made no comment.
It had already been widely speculated that The King might be crowned on June 2 2023, the 70th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
However, the date of June 3rd has a special significance in royal history all of its own. For June 3rd is the anniversary of the birth of the man who created the House of Windsor, King George V.
George V, Charles III’s great grandfather, was born on June 3 1865 at Marlborough House in London. He was the second son of Edward Albert and Alexandra, later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. At birth, he was third in line to the throne behind his older brother, Albert Victor. However, Albert Victor died in 1892 and George took his place in the succession. He became King in 1910 on the death of Edward VII.
When George ascended the throne, it was as a King of the House of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha. The dynasty took its name from the royal house of George’s grandfather, Prince Albert. But the outbreak of World War One changed everything. As anti German sentiment grew as the war progressed, and thrones across Europe found themselves threated by the conflict and the rapid social change it initiated, George made a decisive move.
On July 17th 1917, he changed the name of his royal house from the very German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the very British ‘Windsor’. He, and all his relatives, also gave up their German titles. The House of Windsor had been created.
George was the founding father of the modern Royal Family in more ways than one. His strong sense of the public mood led to a softening of appearances and a move towards more public facing engagements. He also showed a deep understanding of the mood of his country following the war. George V walked behind the coffin of the Unnamed Warrior as it was borne to Westminster Abbey for burial. The sight of a King and Emperor acting as chief mourner for a soldier resonated deeply.
Choosing the anniversary of his great grandfather’s birth for his Coronation would provide a link between Charles III, the UK’s first king in seven decades, and the man who founded his royal dynasty. Whether a new chapter of Windsor history is to be written on June 3rd remains to be seen.
"; n.innerHTML = "window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'thumbnails-a', container:'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement:'Below Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix'});"; insertAfter(t, e); insertAfter(n, t) }injectWidgetByMarker('tbmarker');
