King Charles’ coronation blends splendour and intimacy inside Westminster Abbey By Reuters

(Corrects spelling of Westminster Abbey in dateline)

By Rachel Armstrong

WESTMINSTER ABBEY, London (Reuters) – The explosive crescendo of “Zadok the Priest”, Handel’s hovering anthem composed almost 300 years in the past for the crowning of King George III, marked probably the most sacred second of Charles’ coronation on Saturday.

Inside Westminster Abbey, the place kings and queens have been topped since 1066, round 2,200 folks had been there to witness Charles’s gown of state be eliminated, earlier than he was shielded and anointed with holy oil, then re-emerging because the choir sang “Might the king stay for ever”.

Minutes later, after Charles was topped and enthroned, the congregation loudly repeated the identical phrases on the finish of a pledge of allegiance to the brand new monarch, with the chorus echoing around the medieval constructing earlier than a rousing brass fanfare started.

Till the crowning in 1953 of Charles’s mom, Queen Elizabeth II, the coronations of kings and queens had been seen solely by these within the abbey.

Elizabeth’s coronation was the primary to be televised, and 70 years later video know-how meant folks watching on tv and on-line around the globe had higher close-up views than nearly everybody there in individual.

But parts of the ceremony, which was a largely solemn and ritualistic service with simply dashes of modernity, remained distinctly intimate for these contained in the abbey.

The music, a combination of centuries-old anthems written for Charles’s ancestors and items commissioned for the event, ranged between unrestrained pomp to quieter choral works that reverberated across the abbey’s vaulted ceilings.

Charles himself appeared often meek, as when he knelt earlier than the altar with 4 members of the clergy surrounding him. The king’s son, William, kissed his father after swearing allegiance to him.

The king, 74, additionally appeared generally barely drained and beneath pressure.

But there was a snatched smile between Charles and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby because the clergyman momentarily struggled to make sure the 360-year-old St Edward’s Crown was securely on the king’s head.

His 9-year-old grandson Prince George sparked muffled laughter as he was proven on screens pulling humorous faces shortly after his grandfather was topped.

STATE AND CHURCH

Earlier than Charles’s arrival, representatives of 9 non-Christian religion teams processed by the abbey, in step with the king’s dedication to safeguarding non secular freedom.

However the ceremony itself was deeply Christian, centred on Charles’s oath to serve God in addition to the folks of Britain and 14 Commonwealth realms the place he’s head of state.

He was flanked at each second by senior members of the clergy, whereas every stage of the service confirmed simply how intently Britain’s monarchy is sure and underpinned by the Church of England.

“The load of the duty given to you right now, your majesties, is barely bearable by the Spirit of God,” Welby stated in his sermon as he addressed Charles and the brand new Queen Camilla.

Some historians could query whether or not future coronations can retain the identical deep Christian construction as church attendance in Britain continues to say no.

However the sense of event and historic rituals that – as a result of the final coronation was 70 years in the past – few folks in Britain have witnessed earlier than had been doubtless sufficient to captivate nearly all those that watched it.

(This story has been refiled to appropriate the spelling of Westminster Abbey within the dateline)