There is not much time left: next Saturday (May 6th) King Charles III. (74) officially crowned. To ensure that everything runs smoothly during the solemn and magnificent ceremony, preparations and rehearsals have been taking place behind the scenes for weeks. In the meantime, they have moved to the actual place of action, as the “Daily Mail” reports: In the famous church of Westminster Abbey in the heart of London, where the new British monarch has been crowned for over 1,000 years.
According to the report, in addition to King Charles III. the most important members of the royal family gathered on site. In addition to heir to the throne Prince William (40), these were his wife Princess Kate (41) and their three children George (9), Charlotte (8) and Louis (5). Charles’ sister Princess Anne (72) and his wife Camilla (75) greeted the Dean of Westminster and other church officials, as pictures on the site show, before also entering the church. The incumbent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (42) also attended the rehearsals in Westminster Abbey.
It is not surprising that no pictures of the actual coronation rehearsals were made public. Late active Londoners were treated to a big spectacle on Wednesday night (May 3rd): At around 12:20 a.m., hundreds of soldiers in yellow and red military uniforms paraded through the parade on the Mall in the dark and marched along the approximately two-kilometer long parade Route from Buckingham Palace, past Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, towards Westminster Abbey. The rehearsal parade was led by a brass band; in the midst of the parade drove the coronation carriage “Gold State Coach” and the “Diamond Jubilee State Coach”, accompanied by several soldiers on horseback.
The first big midnight rehearsal for the big event had already taken place in mid-April. According to the BBC, more than 6,000 British military personnel will be involved in the coronation next Saturday, plus 400 more from Commonwealth countries.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla are scheduled to travel from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach at around 10:20am on Saturday. The coronation ceremony begins there at eleven o’clock. Around 1 p.m. the coronation procession leads back to Buckingham Palace – Charles and Camilla then sit in the festive “Gold State Coach”. At around 2:15 p.m., the royal family will appear on the palace balcony.
