King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort, arrive at a reception at Station Square, the Victoria & Albert Halls, in Ballater, Scotland, on Oct. 11.ANDREW MILLIGAN/AFP/Getty Images
The coronation of King Charles III will take place on May 6, 2023, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The ceremony will be held at Westminster Abbey and conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Charles will officially be crowned alongside the Queen Consort, Camilla.
“The Coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in long-standing traditions and pageantry,” the palace said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles, 73, ascended to the throne the moment his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died at 3:10 p.m. on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle. The coronation service, which traditionally takes place months after the ascension, is an ancient religious ceremony dating back almost 1,000 years.
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Since 1066, beginning with the coronation of William the Conqueror, the service has almost always been conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and held at Westminster Abbey, officials said. During the ceremony, the sovereign is anointed, blessed and consecrated. The King also takes an oath and is asked if he will govern the United Kingdom and other nations of the Commonwealth.
Further details about the ceremony and the guest list will be announced at a later date, the palace said.
Media reports in Britain have indicated that Charles wants to modernize the service by making it shorter and dispensing with some elements, such as the presentation of gold ingots. He is also expected to include representations of different faiths and limit the guest list to 2,000.
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The last coronation was held 70 years ago, when Queen Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953, at the age of 27. That service was held more than a year after her father, George VI, died on Feb. 6, 1952.
About 8,000 people from more than 120 countries attended the Queen’s coronation, which was also a national holiday. It’s unclear whether Charles’s coronation will also be a day off.
More than 2,000 guests attended the state funeral for Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden. The funeral was held at the end of a 10-day period of mourning for the Queen.