A coronation is not what makes someone king. The monarch succeeds the instant their predecessor dies — “the King is dead, long live the King” is a statement of constitutional fact, not sentiment. The coronation is the religious confirmation of an accession that has already happened, which is why it can take place more than a year later.
Where and how
Every English and British coronation since 1066 has taken place at Westminster Abbey. The monarch sits in St Edward’s Chair, made in 1300 and used at nearly every coronation since — a battered oak throne carved with the graffiti of centuries of choirboys and visitors, which nobody has ever quite dared to sand off.
The four parts
- The Recognition. The monarch is presented to the four sides of the abbey and the congregation acclaims them.
- The Oath. A sworn promise to govern according to law and to maintain the Protestant Reformed religion and the Church of England.
- The Anointing. The heart of the ceremony. The Archbishop of Canterbury anoints the monarch with consecrated oil on the hands, breast and head. Screens are drawn around them and the broadcast cameras turn away — this moment is held to be between the sovereign and God, and it is the one part never televised.
- The Investiture and Crowning. The monarch receives the orb, sceptre and ring, and St Edward’s Crown is placed on their head, at which point the congregation cries “God Save the King” and the abbey bells ring.
Charles III, 2023
The coronation on 6 May 2023 was consciously shorter and smaller than his mother’s — about an hour, with 2,300 guests rather than 8,000. Leaders of other faiths took an active part for the first time, and the Homage of Peers was replaced with an invitation for the public watching at home to swear allegiance, which proved the most debated change of the day.
The anointing oil was made without the traditional animal ingredients, and was consecrated in Jerusalem. Camilla was crowned Queen alongside him.
The Stone of Scone
Beneath the seat of St Edward’s Chair sits the Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were once crowned. Edward I took it in 1296 as a trophy of conquest, and it stayed in London for seven centuries — apart from Christmas Day 1950, when four Scottish students stole it and drove it back to Scotland, breaking it in two on the way. It was returned to Scotland permanently in 1996, and now travels to London only for coronations.