Prince George Will Be a Main Focus at King Charles’ Upcoming Coronation
The King is keen to put a spotlight on his heirs, Prince William and Prince George.
With just around 70 days to go until the first U.K. Coronation in 70 years, more details are emerging, including that Prince George—eldest son of the Prince and Princess of Wales and second in line to the throne—will be a focus at the event, The Daily Mail reports.
Dr. Tessa Dunlop tells “Palace Confidential” that the immediate line of succession—specifically King Charles’ two heirs, son Prince William and grandson George—will be made very visible on May 6, the day of the Coronation at Westminster Abbey. Although many working members of the royal family will appear in the procession, the emphasis will be on William and George.
“[They] want to keep it focused on that line of succession,” Dunlop says. “So we’re going to see a lot of camera shots of Charles, of William, of George.”
At the last Coronation in June 1953, Charles—then just four years old—was himself placed in the spotlight as his mother, Queen Elizabeth, was crowned. He was seated in between the Queen Mother and his aunt, Princess Margaret, in order to make the then-heir as visible as possible.
While this Coronation is “all about King Charles,” The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden adds, “We will see other working members of the royal family taking prominent roles. We’ll see them in the procession to Westminster Abbey. They won’t be taking part in the ceremony, as such, but what you will see is a program of events around the country involving all the working royals. So that all the different parts of the United Kingdom feel part of the Coronation and of course, [we’ll] see them on the Buckingham Palace balcony, where it’ll be all the working royals together.”
According to The Daily Mail, “King Charles is understood to want his Coronation to set the tone for a streamlined and modern monarchy, while retaining some of the pomp and majesty that stunned the world during the Queen’s lying-in-state and funeral ceremonies” back in September of last year.
The ceremony on May 6 will begin with the crowning of Camilla, Queen Consort, before Charles is officially named King when the St. Edward’s Crown is placed on his head by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A procession will then lead the newly-crowned King past thousands of onlookers to Buckingham Palace, where he and other working members of the royal family will take to the balcony, as is tradition, to wave and acknowledge the crowds assembled below.
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The weekend will continue on Sunday, May 7 with a concert at Windsor Castle, and Monday will see a bank holiday in the U.K., where millions of people will get a day off of work.
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.