From Bad Timing to Banished Queen

When King Charles III leaves Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey on Might 6 alongside Queen Camilla for his coronation, he’ll seemingly be hoping to keep away from the disasters which have befallen a number of of his predecessors on their huge days.

Charles will grow to be the fortieth sovereign topped on the abbey in what would be the first coronation of a king and queen consort in Britain for 86 years. Although the service is predicted to adapt to this system set out by the late Anglo-Saxon kings, Charles’ ceremony might be altered to replicate modern-day Britain and the Commonwealth.

Whereas a lot of rehearsals have taken place, the crown jewels being ready to depart their fortress on the Tower of London, and one of many largest scale safety operations ever seen being deployed, the stage is about for the final word instance of British pomp and pageantry…however there’s all the time room for the sudden.

Right here, Newsweek takes a take a look at among the British monarchy’s coronation day disasters, from a banished queen to a king who was doubtlessly topped backward and the mysterious theft of abbey rest room paper.

Banished Queen

In 1821, King George IV attended his lavish coronation, organized together with his well-known eye for aesthetics in thoughts, reviving medieval costumes and pageantry.

Having dominated as Prince Regent for his mentally ailing father since 1811, George’s coronation was a reaffirming measure that he was now king in his personal proper. The ceremony had been deliberate to happen in 1820, nevertheless, owing to a authorized battle together with his estranged spouse, Caroline of Brunswick, this was deserted.

When her husband acceded to the throne Caroline legally turned George’s queen consort, regardless of the couple being estranged and having developed an intense disliking for each other.

This being the case, Caroline was not despatched an invite to the coronation. When she confirmed up on the abbey in any case, she was unceremoniously barred from coming into regardless of making a number of makes an attempt at totally different doorways.

The embarrassing scene threatened to overshadow the occasion and the queen ultimately gave up and returned to her residence. She died two weeks later.

Ring Hassle

Queen Victoria’s coronation befell on June 28, 1838, when she was simply 19 years previous.

The ceremony lasted 5 hours and was undertaken with out intensive rehearsals which means there have been a lot of points that arose all through the day. A major drawback occurred when the Archbishop of Canterbury put the coronation ring on the queen’s finger.

She wrote afterward in her diary: “The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the flawed finger, and the consequence was that I had the best problem to take it off once more, which I ultimately did with nice ache.”

Along with the difficulty with the ring, the queen was offered with a golden orb throughout the ceremony, regardless of having already taken it throughout an earlier a part of the ceremony, and an aged member of the courtroom fell down the steps whereas climbing to kiss the monarch’s hand.

“Poor previous Lord Rolle who’s 82, and dreadfully infirm, in making an attempt to ascend the steps, fell and rolled fairly down,” she wrote. “However was not the least harm; when he tried to re-ascend them, I bought up and superior to the top of the steps, in an effort to forestall one other fall.”

Regardless of the catalog of errors, the queen described the day because the “proudest” of her life and one she would “ever bear in mind.”

Medical Postponement

When Queen Victoria died after reigning for practically 64 years, her eldest son, Albert Edward, assumed the throne beneath the regal title of King Edward VII.

Having been over six many years for the reason that final coronation there have been few individuals nonetheless alive who remembered what had taken place at Queen Victoria’s. The monarch’s aged cousin, the Grand Duchess of Strelitz, was referred to as on to supply an account of the day she attended as a younger girl. She had additionally attended the coronation of William IV as a baby.

The coronation of Edward and his consort, Queen Alexandra was deliberate to happen on June 26, 1902. Nevertheless, three days earlier than the occasion the monarch fell acutely ailing with appendicitis requiring a harmful emergency operation.

Although reluctant to take action, the king was compelled to postpone the coronation till later in the summertime, which means all of the friends who had traveled to Britain for it needed to return residence once more.

Edward and Alexandra have been ultimately topped on August 9, 1902.

Dropping the Thread

King Charles’ grandfather, King George VI’s coronation befell beneath the shadow of the abdication of his older brother King Edward VIII who moved into exile to marry Wallis Simpson, later the Duchess of Windsor.

On the time of his abdication in December 1936, Edward’s coronation was already deliberate to happen on Might 12 of the next yr. As an alternative of suspending, it was determined that George could be topped on that day as an alternative with the preparations that have been already in motion.

On the night earlier than the coronation, George’s huge day was threatened with being overshadowed when his brother introduced to the world that he and Wallis have been engaged. The couple’s biographer, Andrew Lownie wrote in his ebook Traitor King, that this was a “gesture suspected of being an try and upstage the occasion.”

The ceremony nonetheless went forward with the king’s spouse, Queen Elizabeth, being topped alongside him. The couple’s two daughters, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret have been additionally on the abbey to witness the spectacle.

Regardless of the day being properly deliberate for, a coronation mishap did happen when a bit of purple thread that the king had positioned on the entrance of the St Edward’s Crown went lacking. This meant that the Archbishop of Canterbury couldn’t see which aspect of the crown was the entrance and which was the again (them being practically equivalent).

In a 2018 documentary about her personal coronation, Queen Elizabeth II confirmed that her father by no means did know whether or not he’d been topped again to entrance and that he wasn’t too happy with the prospect.

Rest room Paper Theft

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation went extra easily than most due to intensive rehearsals and over a yr of preparations.

Regardless of this, there have been nonetheless some hiccups on the large day. In keeping with paperwork within the Nationwide Archives in Britain, there was an embarrassing amenities catastrophe that warranted noting down to make sure it did not occur once more.

An official account of the procedural elements of the day states, per the Every day Telegraph: “It was discovered, early on Coronation day, that a lot of the rest room paper had been eliminated [from Westminster Abbey]…in future will probably be essential to take particular steps to stop this.”

The problem was fortuitously resolved and the file of the occasion offers a helpful archival warning to the organizers hoping to welcome the two,000 invited friends to King Charles’ occasion on Might 6.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter based mostly in London. You’ll find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and skim his tales on Newsweek’s The Royals Fb web page.

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