THE Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and a Chaplain to HM The King, goes to put the kettle on. Through the windows of his sitting room I can see a magnolia tree in a walled garden, where a narrow lawn occupies a space where the chapel…
How many monarchs have been crowned at Westminster Abbey? Is it 38 or 39? Intriguingly, the history of the Coronation does not reveal the answer. William the Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day in 1066 but it’s possible that Harold Godwinson, the Saxon king who got an arrow in his…
As HM King Charles III’s 2023 Coronation procession clatters, creaks, clanks and stamps its way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and back on 6 May, the world will gaze at Great Britain PLC doing something at which it is still world-beating: looking magnificent on parade. But behind the gleam,…
The Coronation of HM The King will be marked in manner of ways but few are as enjoyable or inclusive as a street party. This very British tradition is thought to have begun after the First World War when people got together to enjoy ‘peace teas’. More recently Royal occasions…
