King Charles III
In this very first article, we will focus on a relevant topic at the time of writing this article, and that is the coronation of King Charles III. This article has not used AI to help write it, but we hope that will come in future articles where we can hopefully see if they can write articles better than this one.
King Charles III was born on 14 November 1948, and is the oldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. King Charles full name is Charles Philip Arthur George. After the Queen sadly passed away in September 2022, Charles became King. The Coronation for King Charles III happened on 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey in London.
Before Charles became King, he had held the title of being the Prince of Wales since 1969, a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the British throne. Charles has learnt the language of the welsh people. Charles studied at Cambridge University from 1967 until 1970 and studied history.
In 1981 he married Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he has two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 and then in August 1997 Princess Diana died in a car accident, in Paris.
Charles served in the military in both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy as a helicopter pilot and jet pilot between 1971 and 1976 and is also an excellent diver. Upon joining the RAF Charles trained as a jet pilot. He then attended the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and later served on a guided-missile destroyer, HMS Norfolk, and a frigate, HMS Minerva.
Training as a helicopter pilot Charles joined the Royal Navy’s 845 Naval Air Squadron, where he served on board HMS Hermes. During his military career he participated in deployments in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and the Falkland Islands, although he did not participate in active warfare, his military service primarily focused on training exercises, and ceremonial duties associated with his royal role.
Charles is very passionate about the environment, youth development, education and heritage preservation and has spoken out about climate change for many years, and has founded many charities over the years raising money for good causes.
For instance, The Prince’s Trust, founded in 1976 aims to support vulnerable young people by providing them with training, mentoring, and financial assistance to help them develop skills, find employment, or start their own businesses.
As the Prince of Wales, he has appeared on TV for shows such as Coronation Street, and appeared presenting the weather on the BBC.
The next in line to the throne is his eldest son Prince William, who is now the new Prince of Wales following Charles becoming King. After Prince William, his son Prince George is next in line to the throne.
King Charles is the oldest British monarch to take the throne at the age of 74. His wife Queen Consort Camilla was also crowned during the coronation on 6 May 2023.
Charles’s grandson, Prince George also had an important role during the coronation as one of the pages of honour.
The Coronation
The event was broadcast around the world, and the events of the day started with the King and Queen Consort leaving Buckingham Palace in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, towards Westminster Abbey. Many invited guests by this time had already arrived to take their seats in Westminster Abbey ready for the arrival of the King.
During the coronation a number of rituals took place which included the Recognition, presenting of the Holy Bible, the Anointing, the Oaths, the Homage, and of course the Crowning.
After the Coronation in Westminster Abbey concluded, the newly crowned King and Queen where then taken back to Buckingham Palace in the more traditional Gold State Coach. This Coach was commissioned by King George III in 1760 and has been used at every coronation since William IV’s coronation in 1831. The Coach is apparently not very comfortable and so would explain why a different coach was used earlier in the day.
Shortly after arriving at Buckingham palace, something that is not normally done in the Gardens was that all the troops lined up to salute the newly crowned King and Queen. Approximately 4000 on parade on the day stood before the King and Queen. The national anthem was played before a quite emotional call out for 3 cheers by the troops. Hip, Hip, Hooray could be heard all around the area before the pipes and drums played a song called King Charles III.
Along with tradition, a little while later the King, Queen and other working members of the Royal party came out onto the balcony at the front of Buckingham Palace to greet the awaiting public who by now had gathered. The weather on the day was quite rainy, and as a result a number of flypast plans where cancelled. The only flypast on the day was some helicopters and the red arrows.
The plans for the rest of that extended bank holiday weekend were street parties all around the country, along with a concert held at Windsor Castle on the Sunday evening.
