• King Charles III will be crowned on May 6, Buckingham Palace announces.
• The coronation follows the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last month.
• Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will “anoint, bless, and consecrate” him during the rite.

Following a long tradition that dates back more than 900 years, King Charles III, 73, will be solemnly crowned in London’s Westminster Abbey.

The palace announced that 75-year-old Queen Consort Camilla, the monarch’s wife, will also be crowned.

Archie, the son of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, celebrates his fourth birthday on May 6. He is Charles’ grandchild.

“The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” royal officials said in a short statement.

Just over a month after the passing of Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and amid much-anticipated rumours regarding the ceremony’s timing, the date has finally been confirmed.

When Elizabeth died on September 8, Charles immediately ascended to the throne. In addition, he became the new head of state for 14 Commonwealth nations, among them Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

After a year of deteriorating health, the 96-year-old queen passed away in her isolated Scottish home Balmoral. She ruled for a record-breaking 70 years.

Prior to her burial at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, she had a state funeral at Westminster Abbey attended by world leaders.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets to observe, and a similar number stood in line for four days straight to pay their respects as her casket lay in state.

Similar throngs are anticipated for the first coronation since 1953 and the highly organised pomp and grandeur that will go with it.

The coronation of a British king or queen is both a solemn religious ceremony and a reason to celebrate.

The centrepiece is the priceless Crown Jewels, which represent the illustrious history and dominance of the British monarchy throughout the ages.

Later this year, Charles is anticipated to issue a proclamation officially announcing the date of the coronation at a meeting of the formal advisory group known as the Privy Council.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest-ranking clergyman in the Church of England who has crowned the monarch since 1066, will “anoint, bless, and consecrate” him during the rite.

Justin Welby, the current occupant, is the 105th cleric to hold the position.

After a time of intense planning and national and royal sorrow, the coronation usually occurs a few months after a new sovereign assumes the throne.

The first significant international event to be shown on television was Elizabeth II’s coronation in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, just 16 months after she became queen.

Charles, who was four years old at the time, remembered in 2006 that the night before, he had been kept awake by people outside Buckingham Palace yelling, “We want the Queen.”

More over half of the population at the time, or 27 million people, watched it on television, with many of them watching TV for the first time.

8,251 official guests crowded into prefabricated tiers attended the nearly three-hour long ceremony, together with representatives from 129 countries and territories.

In recent days, British media has suggested that Charles wants a more condensed ceremony because he is aware that a protracted display of wealth could not sit well in a nation that is experiencing a crisis related to the cost of living.

The only word made by Buckingham Palace about the coronation’s precise structure or guest list was, “Further details will be announced in due course.”

The question of whether Charles, who waited almost his entire life to succeed his mother, can play the same uniting role his mother played following World War II, has been a point of contention since the beginning of his reign.

She took over a more uniform nation that was nonetheless mostly socially conservative, predominantly white, and Christian.

Since then, there have been significant socioeconomic changes brought about by successive waves of immigration, mainly from the Commonwealth and former British colonies.

With one in seven persons born outside of Britain, more people today identify as British Asian, Black British, or of Mixed Heritage.

In his first full day as king, Charles declared that while he was a “committed Anglican Christian,” he saw Britain as “a community of communities” because of how multifaith and multicultural it has become.

“That has led me to understand that the sovereign has an additional duty… to protect the diversity of our country, including by protecting the space for faith itself,” he told faith leaders.

Charles has often pledged to preserve all faiths as king, despite the British monarch’s official title as “Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England”…AFP

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