On Saturday 6 May, King Charles III will be crowned in Westminster Abbey, 70 years after the last time the ceremony was conducted for his mother. Witnessed by millions even in 1953, thanks to television and cinema, this central ritual of the British monarchy nevertheless contains much that is not readily understood.
The coronation matters. How it is conducted will set the symbolic tone for the British state in the twenty-first century. As in 1953, it will also help shape an indelible image and memory for the many millions watching worldwide.
The 1953 coronation came at the endpoint of a millennium of tradition while managing to be a finely-honed modern ceremony. It was the second to be broadcast, and the first to be televised. It was a magnificent set piece that laid the foundation for a monarchy on the cusp of the modern media age.
But this central act of constitutional ceremony is also a
