What will happen at King Charles’s coronation?
The coronation of King Charles III will take place on 6 May 2023.
Like his mother, the King will be crowned at Westminster Abbey, in the presence of faith leaders, peers, MPs, and foreign heads of state.
While official details of the day’s events are yet to be released, here Sky News looks at what we can expect in the ceremony conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The gold state coach was used for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation
What will happen on the day?
The Queen’s coronation took place at 11.15am on 2 June 1953.
Timings for the latest coronation have not been revealed, but it is likely to be in the morning as well.
On the day, King Charles will travel from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey with his Queen Consort, Camilla.
Like his mother and father, they are likely to be taken in the gold state coach, which is reserved for coronations and jubilees.
Up to a million people travelled to London to watch the coach along the Mall in 1953.
Crowds in Trafalgar Square on the day of the Queen’s coronation
The ceremony will be broadcast live on television, but the number of guests who attend in person is expected to be cut from 8,000 to 2,000.
It is thought it will be shorter than the previous one – lasting just over an hour instead of three.
Peers will wear suits and formal dresses as opposed to ceremonial robes and many of the traditional rituals, including the presentation of gold ingots, will not feature this time.
In its statement, Buckingham Palace said: “The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.”
Experts have speculated that the current cost of living crisis and the King’s desire for a slimmed down monarchy are behind the decision for a more muted ceremony.
The Queen and Prince Philip ride in the gold state coach to Westminster Abbey
Bob Morris, a senior research associate at University College London’s Constitution Unit, added: “We are led to believe that he’s very sensitive to the present economic situation for example.
“I think when you look at what the last coronation was, it was an enormous undertaking – 8,250 people were crammed into Westminster Abbey, some of the rows of seating reached 11 tiers high in the nave.
“And I think he must be sensitive to the view that in retrospect we can see the whole business of 1953 as the last imperial hurrah.”
After the ceremony, the King and Queen Consort are likely to appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, as the Queen and Prince Philip did in 1953.
The Queen and Prince Philip on the Buckingham Palace balcony after her coronation
Six-part ceremony
There are six parts to the coronation – the recognition, oath, anointing, investiture, enthronement and homage.
The recognition sees the monarch stand in the theatre – the central part of the Abbey – and turn to the north, south, east and west to ‘show himself unto the people’.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will then declare him the ‘undoubted King’.
This ritual dates back to Anglo-Saxon times.
The Queen’s funeral was held at Westminster Abbey
Second is the coronation oath, which will see the King promise to reign according to law, exercise justice with mercy and maintain the Church of England.
He will then be presented with the Sword of State and declare at the altar: “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform, and keep. So help me God,” before kissing the Bible and signing the oath.
The third part – the anointing – follows, which is the process of blessing and consecrating the new monarch with holy oil – the central act of the religious ceremony. The King will remove his crimson robe and sit in King Edward’s Chair.
Fourthly, the investiture is the official crowning.
It will see the King dressed in special robes and presented with the orb, coronation ring, sceptre and rod.
Sitting in King Edward’s Chair, he will be crowned with St Edward’s Crown before the congregation shouts out ‘God Save the King’.
The Queen carries the orb and sceptre during her coronation ceremony in 1953
This is followed by the enthroning, which will see the monarch lifted onto a different throne by archbishops, bishops and “other peers of the kingdom”.
The final stage of the King’s coronation is known as homage.
It sees the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prince of Wales and other royal blood princes paying tribute to the King by placing their hands between his and kissing his right hand.
Queen Elizabeth II wears St Edward’s Crown
Camilla to be crowned
The Queen Consort will then also be crowned.
Unlike the wives of Kings, the husbands of Queens do not become King Consorts and are therefore not crowned.
But ahead of her Platinum Jubilee, the Queen announced Camilla would be known as Queen Consort on King Charles’s accession.
Instead the Duke of Edinburgh ‘paid homage’ to Queen Elizabeth II immediately after the formal coronation – as Prince William and other princes are likely to do this time.
The Queen Mother was anointed and crowned during her husband’s coronation in 1937.
According to the Royal Family’s website: “A Queen consort is crowned with the King, in a similar but simpler ceremony.”
Will it be a bank holiday?
Coronations have traditionally fallen on weekdays, which have been declared bank holidays to allow the public to get involved by either watching on TV or crowding the streets in London.
King Charles’s coronation will fall on a Saturday. It is not yet known if the proceeding Friday or following Monday will be made a bank holiday.
It is taking place eight months after Charles officially became King – when his mother died and he was sworn in as monarch by a meeting of the Accession Council.
The gap between the Queen’s accession and her coronation was twice as long.
It had been rumoured King Charles would be crowned on the same date as his mother – 2 June.
The confirmed date, 6 May, is the same as the first-ever Silver Jubilee when King George V celebrated 25 years on the throne in 1935.
It is also the date the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, married her husband the Earl of Snowdon, Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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