The coronation of Charles III will be all the closer as the new King will be publicly acclaimed in the absence of a ballot.
Saturday’s coronation and the scale of public turnout outside Westminster Abbey will be the popular first marker of King Charlesreign. With people camping days in advance to secure positions where parades will pass and 65,000 events planned across the UK on Sunday, the weekend celebrations are expected to provide a much needed show of support.
“If you stage a coronation and no one comes to cheer for it, it’s like a defeat… If the streets are overflowing and people are watching it, that’s crucial popular approval,” said Robert Lacey, royal biographer and consulting historian for the Netflix series. THE Crown.
At first glance, the monarchy in the transition from Queen Elizabeth II to his son provides the stability and continuity he is meant to represent.
“I think it went a lot better than expected. People love King Charles III a lot more than they did Prince Charles… People were happy to give in and pass the gravity on to him. who was accompanying her mother,” Lacey said.
Yet in the seven months since Charles’s accession to the throne, there has been a change both in the way the new king conducts himself and in his dealings with the public.
“I think the real difference is that Charles is going to be held accountable in a way that the Queen never has been,” said a former royal household employee who asked not to be named. “She was untouchable. She was almost deified. Let’s go.
Opinion polls carried out in the run-up to the coronation reveal a mixed picture. Charles’s approval ratings have jumped to 55%, still well below Queen Elizabeth’s a year ago at 75%, but a five percentage point improvement on when he was a prince.
However, this coincides with a drop in overall support for the monarchy. Each year the National Center for Social Research collected data on British social attitudes, a majority of the public supported the institution. But those who consider it “very important” have dropped this year to its lowest point at 29%. One in four Britons identify as a Republican.
This data has also translated into a shift in people’s willingness to speak out about the need for change since the Queen’s death. Republicans, carrying the slogan “Not my king”, regularly appeared when King Charles went out in public. Among 73% of those polled for a poll in the royalist Daily Mail newspaper this week, it was expected that Charles would have to modernize the monarchy if it is to survive.
Royal watchers say Charles navigated the traps relatively easily during his first months as king. He proved a “healing force” in relations with Europe, Lacey said, making a successful trip to Germany. He has been more careful about expressing his personal opinions than he was as a prince, adopting a more regal persona, but still discusses topics close to his heart, such as the environment.
In one of his first moves, Charles called for profits from the wind farm deals, which would have generated a multi-million pound increase in royal revenue in the coming years, to be redirected to the “wider public good”. “.
“He showed that a national figurehead can be forceful and make strong, valid points without stepping outside the bounds of impartiality,” Lacey said.
But against this, there were wounds in his family. “You still have the scandals simmering – Prince Andrew, Harry and Meghan. Much of this is potentially very detrimental to her in a way that the Queen has managed to overcome,” the former Royal Household employee said.
There was also a misstep ahead of Saturday’s coronation.
In the past, only peers swore allegiance to the monarch. This time, audience members were also asked to shout their own. While supporters believe it was meant to be an inclusive gesture, it was also seen as tone-deaf.
“Whether it’s monarchist, republican or don’t care, you recognize the coronation as a national cultural moment,” said Richard Huntington, chief strategy officer at ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi, when freshly asked about the state. of the nation after an exhaustive analysis. UK tour. “But we want the monarchy to swear allegiance to us – not the other way around,” he said.
It speaks to the change Charles should bring to the institution and the clear public demand for more transparency, fewer tax and other exemptions and reduced running costs for the Royal Family.
“There are people who still see the monarchy as untouchable. But many more people understand that this is part and parcel of what needs to change,” said Labor MP Clive Lewis.
“What the head of state is allowed to do and what he is not allowed to do and the people around him play a huge role in determining what we as a society think is acceptable and which it isn’t,” he said.
While Charles promised to lighten and modernize the monarchy, this work has barely begun.
“The main change in the monarchy is that it is no longer a mystical and magical institution,” said Sir Vernon Bogdanor, professor of history at King’s College London. “It is a public service institution. It will now be assessed in terms of public service.
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