Unlike some British royal rituals, which may be no more than a few centuries old, the coronation is genuinely very ancient, still following the structure of the ceremony used to crown kings of England before 1066.
For that reason, many of the highly symbolic elements of the ceremony are very old – and, to contemporary viewers, very strange.
Here is a guide to some of the objects, symbols and preposterously valuable treasures that will be used in King Charles’s crowning ceremony.
Highly recognisable from its use as a royal emblem – it’s on almost every postbox in England – this crown is worn only once in a monarch’s lifetime, at the moment of their crowning. On most state occasions (and as he leaves the ceremony) the king will wear the even more blingy imperial state crown, which the royals entertainingly refer to as the “working crown” – their equivalent of a pair of workaday overalls.
Elizabeth II said the St Edward’s crown “weighs a ton” (it is actually 2.25kg), which is unsurprising as it is made of solid gold. It is almost identical front and back, which led to her father, George VI, never being sure if he had been crowned wearing it the wrong way round.
A controversial inclusion in the coronation ceremony for more than 700 years, the stone on which Scottish kings had been crowned for centuries was seized from Scone Abbey by the English king Edward I in 1296. He commissioned a wooden coronation chair to enclose it; Charles III will become the 27th monarch to sit on it.
The 150kg block of red sandstone was bombed by suffragettes in 1914 and briefly captured by Scottish nationalists in 1950, but it wasn’t until 1996 that it was finally returned to Edinburgh. This time, the coronation liturgy pointedly states, it has been “lent … with the consent of the Scottish government and people”.
The chrism oil
The most sacred religious aspect of the ceremony is the anointing or “unction” of the monarch with holy oil, which was consciously adopted by English monarchs more than a millennium ago to emulate the kings of the Old Testament.
For the first time, the oil – scented with sesame, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, benzoin, amber and orange blossom – has been blessed in Jerusalem in tribute to the king’s paternal grandmother, the mother of Prince Philip, who is buried nearby.
Keep an eye out for the coronation spoon, used for the anointing. It is the only ancient survivor of the medieval coronation regalia, which dates from the 12th century.
The sceptre
The sovereign’s sceptre with cross, a gold rod made in three sections, is included to symbolise the monarch’s temporal power and is “associated with good governance”, according to the Royal Collection Trust.
Its symbolism is somewhat outshone by the boggling 530-carat diamond set in one end, though. Cullinan I is the largest of a number of outrageous jewels struck from a vast South African gem, the largest rough diamond ever found, that was presented to Edward VII in 1907. Extra points for spotting Cullinan II (317 carats) in the Imperial State crown, and numbers III, IV and V (a mere 94, 64 and 19 carats) in the crown worn during the ceremony by Queen Camilla – her official title after the coronation.
The king’s regalia also includes another sceptre, the sovereign’s sceptre with dove (to be carried by the former children’s TV presenter Floella Benjamin); two will also be carried for the queen.
A hollowed gold ball topped with a cross and decorated with “clusters of emeralds, rubies and sapphires, rose-cut diamonds in a champleve enamel mount, single rows of pearls … an octagonal step-cut amethyst … rose-cut diamonds … a table-cut sapphire and an emerald”.
It symbolises the Christian world.
The swords
How many swords does one king need? For the purposes of a coronation ceremony, the answer is five – including the swords of state (symbolising royal authority), mercy (which has a blunted tip), spiritual justice and temporal justice.
The fifth is called the jewelled sword of offering (it has many jewels); it will be blessed by the archbishop and clipped on to the king, then unclipped and laid on the altar, before it is “bought” back with a symbolic payment of 100 shillings. This reflects a tradition in early coronations where monarchs donated a sword to the abbey; the Royal Collection Trust understandably wants to keep this one.
“Swords in this context are not used as violent weapons,” notes the order of service, in case of ambiguity.
Gold spurs, part of the coronation regalia since 1189, are used to symbolise knightly values such as honour and courage. Amended wording for this ceremony chooses to interpret this as the king being “a brave advocate for those in need”.
With their presence based on the ceremony for creating knights, the spurs were once buckled on to the legs of the monarch, but even by the Restoration this was judged a bit much. They are now tapped against the monarch’s ankles.
Also known as the armills, their “exact purpose … during the coronation has become unclear”, admits the Royal Collection Trust, which hasn’t stopped them being part of the ceremony.
Referred to as the bracelets of sincerity and wisdom, they are presented to the monarch, who “acknowledges” them, before they are put back on the altar.
The screen
The anointing of the monarch with oil is traditionally performed out of the public gaze; for Elizabeth II’s coronation that meant erecting a gold canopy over her head. Here, too, Charles will be hidden from the congregation and the cameras by a newly commissioned screen.
With the screen measuring 2.6 metres wide and 2.2 metres high, the king will be well hidden behind an embroidered tree surrounded by leaves bearing the names of the (currently) 56 Commonwealth nations.
Officials will be hoping to avoid a re-run of Charles II’s 1661 coronation, when the barons of the Cinque Ports, who were holding a silk canopy above the king’s head, got into a squabble with his footmen over their right to chop up a bit of the canopy and keep a piece – the barons won.
No new coronation clothes for this new king. “In the interests of sustainability and efficiency” he will make do with some of the ornate gold garments created for previous coronations.
After the moment of coronation, Charles will put on a plain white linen shift tunic called the colobium sindonis (this one worn by George VI in 1937); over it will be placed George V’s supertunica, a dazzling full-length, sleeved gold coat, which is fastened with the coronation sword belt. It is covered, finally, by the imperial mantle, made of cloth of gold and woven with a pattern of roses, thistles, shamrocks, crowns, eagles and fleurs-de-lis.
He also has a single coronation glove, which is put on at one point and then taken off again.
