The king will wear two crowns, two scepters, and an orb, but perhaps you did not know that a spoon and a 152-kilo stone also play an important role in the coronation ceremony of Carlos III.
The so-called coronation jewels will play a central role in the enthronement ceremony of Carlos III, as they did in that of his mother, Isabel II. The king will wear two crowns and will appear before his subjects and the guests who will come on May 6 with the two scepters and the orb that represent his earthly and religious power.
Carlos has devised a more modest ceremony than his mother's, adapted to a modern monarchy. But the traditions will be scrupulously respected. We review some of the lesser-known details that will be part of the ceremony.
The coronation spoon is part of the coronation jewels, although little is said about it. However, it is the oldest object of all those involved in the ceremony. It dates from the 12th century, it is made of gold and pearls, which is why historians believe that it was a gift from King Henry II or King Richard I. While the rest of the elements -the crown of Saint Edward, the scepters and the orb- were cast after the English civil wars, which took place between 1642 and 1651, and which gave rise to the Republic of the Commonwealth headed by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, until 1660.
All these objects were very important symbols. Why did the spoon survive? It seems that nobody quite understood what it was for and, for this reason, a man named Clement Kynnersley, in charge of the wardrobe of King Carlos I (beheaded in 1649) bought it and resold it, in exchange for a substantial profit, to Carlos II. , when the monarchy was reinstated, in 1660.
The spoon and the coronation amphora
The coronation spoon is used in the most important part of the coronation ceremony - the anointing, which emphasizes the spiritual side of the monarch, who until the 17th century was believed to be directly appointed by God. So this was a crucial moment. The golden eagle-shaped amphora that belongs to the coronation trousseau, and which opens at the neck, is filled with sacred oil from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Both objects are small in size but play an essential role. With the spoon, a small amount of oil is removed, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury will moisten two fingers and mark a cross on the king's hands, his chest, and his forehead. This moment is an exchange between the king and his people in the eyes of God. That is why it takes place under a golden canopy.
What is the destiny stone and what is it for?
The coronation chair is the central element in the scenography of the ceremony and is the same one that has been used for the last 700 years. Carlos will also sit in it when he is crowned. It dates from 1301 and was commissioned by King Edward I. It was decorated with drawings of birds, foliage, and animals in gold leaf. On the back is the image of a king, perhaps Edward the Confessor or Edward I. It is one of the most important symbols of the monarchy, but it was also used by the dictator Oliver Cromwell.
This chair keeps a secret: it was built to house a very precious object, the so-called stone of Fate or Coronation (stone of Scone, in English). It is a very old stone, weighing 152 kilos, a symbol of the Scottish monarchs, and was stolen by King Edward I, in 1296, from Scone Abbey, as part of the loot in one of the many clashes between the English and Scots. Kings sat directly on this stone until a wooden seat was built in the 17th century. Legend has it that it is the same stone on which Jacob, the father of Israel, rested his head when he dreamed that he reached heaven with a ladder.
Although the stone was reunited with the Scottish monarchy in 1603 when James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of England, it has been the subject of controversy through the centuries. On Christmas Day 1950, four Scottish students from the University of Glasgow broke into Westminster Abbey and tried to rob it, causing the border between Scotland and England to be closed for the first time in 400 years. The stone was officially returned to Scotland in 1996 and is kept in Edinburgh Castle, but will be sent to London for the coronation ceremony, before returning to Scotland again.
The coronation room
Westminster Abbey in London has been the place where every English king has been crowned since 1066. It has also been the scene of 16 royal weddings. Before the construction of the abbey, coronations took place where it best suited the future sovereign, in Bath, Oxford, or Canterbury.
The first coronation occurred on Christmas Day 1066 and was that of William the Conqueror, who had invaded England two months earlier, and so it was important to him to be recognized as the legitimate successor to Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, also known as Saint Edward. That is why Guillermo chose Westminster, which had been built by Eduardo, who is buried in front of the high altar.
But the construction that we know is not the original, but a compendium of constructions from between the 13th and 16th centuries. At this time, a special place was set up for the coronation ceremony, the Coronation room, located between the main altar and the choir. It is decorated with a mosaic known as the Cosmati paving, which dates from 1268 and was built at the request of Henry III by craftsmen who came expressly from Italy. It is extremely beautiful, made with hundreds of brightly colored glass fragments. There the coronation chair is placed.
St Edward's Crown
Not one, but two crowns are used for the ceremony. The most important is the crown of San Eduardo. It is with it that kings are crowned, and Carlos will be too, although this will be the only time he uses it in his entire life. It was created in 1661 for the coronation of King Carlos II, to replace an old medieval crown that was cast by members of Parliament in 1649, after the execution of Carlos I, during the Civil War. The original crown is believed to have dated from the 11th century and was commissioned by Edward the Confessor, which is why it is called the Crown of Saint Edward.
It weighs almost two and a half kilos and is made of solid gold and decorated with 444 precious stones. It is made up of four crosses at the base of two interlocking arches, decorated, in turn, with four fleurs-de-lys. The stones used to be replaced at each coronation, until George V, Queen Elizabeth's grandfather, permanently decorated it with rubies, amethysts, sapphires, topaz, and tourmalines. The crown is endowed with a purple velvet hood and topped with a band of ermine fur. In the center of the arches are the orb and the cross, which represent the universal Christian faith. It is part of the coronation jewels, usually kept in the Tower of London.
For the opening of Parliament ceremonies and other appearances by the crowned king or queen, such as the Buckingham Palace balcony salute, the so-called Imperial State Crown is used. It is this crown that the monarch wears when he leaves Westminster Abbey. It has 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and four rubies. In the center is the Saint Edward's sapphire, which the king supposedly wore set in a ring. This crown was made expressly by the jeweler Garrard for King George VI, father of Elizabeth II, in 1937, and replaced the one made for Queen Victoria in 1838.
