OPINION: High spirits and high security marked Charles’ crowning moment
Jewish News' historian Derek Taylor reflects on how every person who worked on plans for the King's coronation will be breathing an enormous sigh of relief after a triumphant occasion.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the organisers of the coronation are all nursing nervous breakdowns. From early morning until the afternoon, it was a question of whether there would be some disruptive incident.
There were plenty of potential candidates; the Russians, Al Quaeda, anti-monarchists, terrorists and nutters to mention just a few. To stop them we had 11,500 members of an organisation which had recently been denounced as institutionally racist.
Funny though, isn’t it. We are told that 40% of Londoners don’t trust the police, but if they want protection, all of a sudden the men in their Victorian helmets become saviours.
The King arrived in the royal coach and I was disappointed to be told that it was made of wood with a thin covering of gold leaf. What I wanted was a solid gold coach; expensive, perhaps, but it would have been paid by some Georgian King in centuries past, so it wouldn’t increase the national debt.
The uniforms were spectacular; the Horseguards – the Household Division – the Brigade of Guards, a positive sea of Busby’s.
These are 45 centimetres tall and weigh 680 grams. They are made from the skin of Canadian black bears, no alternative source having been found over the years.
You could add the RSPCA to the list of potential demonstrators.
The police arrested 50 people who were potentially going to be disruptive. Now a number of MPs are complaining that free speech is being undermined. Can’t we have free speech except on important national occasions like coronations.
The 1351 Treason Act is designed to protect the King and who knows what nutters want to hurt him. Admittedly, nobody has fired at the monarch at the Trooping of the Colour since 1981 but Princess Anne was shot at in 1974, so it can happen.
Now the coronation is over, concerns about security might seem exaggerated, but they certainly weren’t on Saturday.
The uniforms in the Abbey were spectacular. Even the male choristers were in full evening dress, though I thought the long black dresses of the female choristers were designed to be be used for state funerals as well. Full evening dress is very elegant and morning dress is just as smart and traditional.
I don’t know why it is necessary to associate it with the Conservative Party, but Labour politicians, like Gordon Brown and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wore ordinary suits.
The 1351 Treason Act is designed to protect the King and who knows what nutters want to hurt him. Admittedly, nobody has fired at the monarch at the Trooping of the Colour since 1981 but Princess Anne was shot at in 1974, so it can happen.
Now Sadiq Khan gets a salary of £152,000 a year, so he could have afforded the cost of hiring a morning suit if he hadn’t his got one. It wasn’t just anti-monarchists who took the opportunity of making a political statement.
The Chief Rabbi had a very long day.
First, he had to be at the early service specially arranged at the Marble Arch Synagogue for six o’clock in the morning. Walking from Clarence House to the Synagogue must take half an hour, so that means getting up at about five o’clock.
The Archbishop’s blessing of the King was, word for word, the same as a Jewish father gives his children on Friday night.
They did the same for Edward VII’s coronation in 1901, but at the Western Synagogue. Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler then had a police escort then as he walked to Westminster Abbey. When Chief Rabbi Mirvis arrived at the Abbey he didn’t appear to have security men with him.
The coronation service goes back 3,000 years to the crowning of King Saul in the Old Testament. It is, appropriately, a Christian service today, but the Archbishop’s blessing of the King was, word for word, the same as a Jewish father gives his children on Friday night. Jesus was a Jew, the Last Supper was seder night.
We were there first.
It was a long service in the Abbey and the King is 73. It would have been embarrassing if he had stumbled and with a large crown to carry on his head, there must have been a lot of people holding their breath. As the oldest Prince of Wales to be crowned it was a fine effort on his part.
Well, with luck, we won’t have another coronation for many years. God save the King.
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