I have seen many, many thousands of words written and probably as many tweets about the Coronation of their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6 May 2023. These have been in the range of stupid, nasty, ill-informed, to oaky, to complete "royalist", and those who are making political points. None of these views expressed have as yet (as far as I have seen) made the point that we are able to make these, because we live in a democracy and if we were to live else where we would not have been able to have done so.
Some have made the point about spending so much money on the coronation at a time of inflation and the current term emotional term "crisis". In 1953, for people in Britain things weren't much better and the nation was still recovering from the war which had only ended 8 years before. There was also a Conservative Government, so there is a symmetry here. The greatest differences since then have really been in technology which means most, if not all people now have a television which is in colour and they can watch it the coronation easily which was not the case back then. Another thing that would have been impossible back then is that this coronation could be seen by billions across the world live, when in 1953 they would have only seen it when the news reels got to them, days or even weeks later. Technology has also made it possible for people to comment instantly one way or another.
Although I have only seen the news reports I believe there were protests against the Coronation and that the Police may have acted very harshly to those making the protests. If, this is the case and I have no reason (at this time) to believe otherwise then this needs to be investigated fully and the Police need to explain things. I have no other view on this other to say I that I believe that it is correct that peaceful demonstrations should be allowed at all times in a democracy and I stress PEACEFUL here.
I have seen comments about Penny Mordaunt who is a Conservative MP and who carried the Sword of State and then the Sword of Offering during the coronation. She was doing this not as a member of a poltical party but in her role as Lord President of the Privy Seal and yes she looked nice and did her duties very well. On the Isle of Man the Sword of State is carried on our national day so it was a familiar thing for us.
I have also seen comments about the Conservative Prime Minister who read, what was confusingly called a lesson and whose religion is not the same as the "Church of England". As far as I understand the Prime Minster at the time of the coronation of the monarch has a role in it so that was not unusual either.
Queen Camilla
From what we know, the Queen as she is now known never believed she would be Queen and even less than 25 years ago perhaps no one would have wanted her to be. Some people have made comments about her smiling through out, looking at her I thought she was calm, but nervous and thought that the smile was an outer reflection of the inner nerves. Further to this, if you look up Wikipedia you will see just how much she does for charities that goes un-noticed. I further looked back at the last time there was a Queen to a King, that was the King's grand mother and it is very clear that they both played a supporting role, not a major role in the coronation.
King Charles
The King came to be our King at the death of his mother our Queen Elizabeth 2, during the months since then his every move has been analysed and commented upon. Comments have been made about his facial expression and about him seemingly being ill at ease and grumpy. I looked and compared this with the Queen during her coronation 70 years ago, she had the same expression on her face. I thought the King was wonderful through-out the whole thing and I really don't know how he could have done any better. His vow to serve, not be served was something his mother did and he was carrying on that tradition.
The Service
I was fascinated by the service and how closely it resembled the "coronations" of the rulers of Ancient Egypt, although the historical record from those times isn't that clear about any coronation, yet the ruler made vows to The Holy Greatest Father Amun Ra to up hold maat and to serve the people. They were given the symbols of statehood which are shown on the thousands of statues through out Egypt as it is now known and accepted their role was as being both head of state and of the theocracy as well.
I did find the service over long and boring and thought the head priest took a greater prominence than they should have done and I thought a few times, they are making it about them not the King and Queen. I didn't see the need for the inclusion of another service (mass?) within the coronation as this could have been done privately or at a later time. I thought the additional asking for everyone to swear allegiance to the king unnecessary.
The Coronation
I again was struck as to how similar this was to all coronations throughout history. I did understand the symbolism of the robes and everything during it. To me the King acted with humility and great dignity throughout. I did have a tear in my eye when I saw the actual moment of the placing of the crown on the head of the King as this really marked the end of the Second Elizabethan age and the start of the new Carolean age. Another emotional moment for me was when the Prince of Wales then came and swore to allegiance to the king and then kissed the King in a moment of tenderness and the thank you from the king to his son was perhaps the most wonderful part of the whole thing.
The coronation of the Queen was a far shorter and simpler moment of history as befitted her role. I thought once more she acted with great dignity knowing at that moment her life was changed forever and her name would go down in history.
Overall
This was the first Coronation that I have seen, I doubt that I shall see another. It was a moment of history, not only for the nation (Isle of Man) and for me/us on a very personal level. It is a requirement of maat that we accept the head of state, not without question and only as long as they act with maat. I believe that the King will do so. Apart from the very confusing religious parts which dragged on, I was quite spell bound by what I saw.
Having watched the inaugurations of Presidents of both the USA and France I was struck on how similar they were to the Coronation, with their pomp and everything else.
Honestly, I never thought I would have ever found it such an emotional experience to watch and that I would only view it as history. It was an emotional experience, which I can not fully explain and I am sure I am not the only one who felt that.
I have just written this from a personal view point not from any other. I am glad I watched it along side my wife as we both had a similar experience.
YOUR MAJESTY KING CHARLES
YOUR MAJESTY QUEEN CAMILLA
LORD AND LADY OF MAN
With humility we acknowledge you as head of state on the Horus Throne
No comments:
Post a Comment