Although the king wanted a more modern and straightforward ceremony than his mother’s, three crowns set with diamonds were used at the coronation: one for Camila and two for Carlos III.
Eight months after taking the throne after the death of Elizabeth II, Charles III was solemnly crowned on Saturday along with his wife Camila in a lavish ceremony, unique in Europe, that the United Kingdom He had not lived for 70 years.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Church Church of England, placed on the head of the 74-year-old monarch St Edward’s Crown, which had not been worn since the 1953 coronation of his mother, who died in September.
Queen Camilla was crowned immediately after, in a similar but simpler ritual.
Seated in the front row of the imposing Westminster Abbey, the heirs to the crown William and Catherine followed the religious ceremony, punctuated with songs and readings from the Gospel, conceived according to a pompous rite practically immutable for a thousand years.
They were accompanied by some 2,300 guests, including figures such as US First Lady Jill Biden, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, King Felipe VI, and King Letizia of Spain, as well as hundreds of British civil society representatives.
Prince Harry, Charles’ youngest son with tense relations with the royal family, sat with his cousins in the third row, without his wife Meghan Markle, who stayed in California with their two children.
“God save King Charles!”, shouted the attendees opening the ceremony with this recognition, accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets, after Carlos III and Camila, 75, entered dressed in ceremonial capes after a short procession by float from Buckingham Palace.
With his hand on the Bible, the king took an oath. Then, in what is considered the most sacred part of the ceremony, Archbishop Welby anointed the hands, chest, and head of the monarch, hidden from all view by a screen.
Replacing the traditional homage of the aristocrats, the priest then invited everyone, from wherever they were watching or listening to the coronation, to swear allegiance to the new king, a historical first that sought to democratize the ceremony, but which provoked strong criticism from the anti-monarchists.
