There are things that one sees, and if you are lucky, only once in your life. A multi-colored aurora borealis, as if it were a painter's palette, a total solar eclipse, a ring of fire in the sky when the moon stands between the Earth and the sun... The total conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn occurred last time four hundred years ago. Halley's Comet is only visible every three-quarters of a century. And the most recent coronation of an English monarch was celebrated seven decades ago.
Halley's comet is not expected until 2062, but hundreds of millions of people around the planet have been able to follow the coronation of Carlos III today, the first monarch not only post-imperial (Isabel II already was) but also post-colonial of the United Kingdom, an anachronistic, feudal ceremony, with liturgy and rituals more than a millennium old, dating back to the time of the medieval King Edgar. But at the same time the greatest show in the world, an opportunity, for many people, to enter a kind of fairy tale, escape from reality and be an extra for a few hours in a prince and princess movie, peek through the crack from the door to a fantastic world of horse-drawn carriages, golden robes, diamond crowns, oaths, swords, sceptres, sacred oils, cloaks of the best silks... Or like visiting a zoo and suddenly encountering a Tyrannosaurus Rex. A trip in the tunnel of time, and perhaps of memories. And in the end to murmur, even if you are not a fervent monarchist, a timid God save the king.
Seventy years, the ones that have passed from coronation to coronation, is a long time, and today a Great Britain in crisis has winked at its past and its history, hoping that it will be returned, or at least deserve a smile. It is at times like this when it is easy to realize how the country has changed. From that of 1953 fresh out of the war, with rubble still in the streets, with hardly any televisions, with an empire where the sun did not set and that had just conquered the top of Everest, very little remains. The accession to the throne of the young Elizabeth II was a catharsis, bringing down the curtain on an era and entering into a new act full of optimism. But the blows would not be long in coming, the Suez debacle, the cold war and the dropper loss, decade by decade, of the colonies (in East Africa, Ceylon, Pakistan...), until all that remained of the Empire were the bones and the sun, more than not setting, what happened is that it did not rise.
Britain has gone through many ups and downs since that cool, rainy day in June 1953 (not unlike today) when Elizabeth II was crowned. The great social conflicts of the sixties and seventies, the death of Churchill, the arrival and fall of Thatcherism, Tony Blair and his third way, the authoritarian populism of Boris Johnson, the entry and exit of the European Union, Brexit... The nexus What is common is the slow evolution from one of the winning powers of World War II to a major but rundown country, with nuclear weapons, a powerful army and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the sixth largest economy in the world. in gross domestic product, with weight but declining influence, and a currency that is no longer what it was. Seven decades ago, Stalin was about to die and the structure of DNA was discovered, quite a revolution. Today Putin dawns on Europe, the whole world is glued to a mobile phone, the sustainability of the planet is questionable and artificial intelligence threatens to gobble up jobs and dehumanize society.
Carlos III has been crowned monarch today of a United Kingdom that is going through a depression and an existential crisis, in full psychological debate between imperial fiction and the reality of modern Great Britain, which signed up for Brexit to reissue unrealistic dreams of supremacy and she has woken up abruptly, drenched in sweat, with no money to pay for the welfare state despite the highest tax burden since Elizabeth came to the throne, with public services overwhelmed, healthcare destroyed, strikes by nurses, doctors, train drivers and customs officials that have lasted for months and with no prospect of resolution. Half of Scots wanting independence, Ireland considering reunification, the twilight of thirteen years of Conservative governments, one in five Britons officially poor, and an increase in the cost of living that has sent the price of bread and mortgages skyrocketing. , and led many to rely on food banks. Speculation has meant that housing, both owned and rented, is only available to the privileged. "Goodbye pride, pomp and circumstance of a glorious war...", says Shakespeare's Othello nostalgically
Pomp and circumstance have not been lacking precisely since at 10:20 in the morning Carlos and Camila got into a carriage drawn by six horses at Buckingham Palace (which is not their habitual residence), and toured a Mall decorated with Union Jack flags, through the Admiralty Arch, down the south side of Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Downing Street and the Parliament buildings, all the way to Westminster Abbey, cheered by tens of thousands of people (heartfelt royalists , tourists, curious…), many of whom had arrived at dawn to find a good place, or even spent the night outdoors. A typical spring day, changeable, gray, with some light rain from time to time and temperatures of fourteen degrees, did not hinder the festive atmosphere.
In the sky, drones flew over the area; on the roofs of the tallest buildings, snipers peered through the sights of their semi-automatic rifles; in the crowd, undercover agents searched for suspicious objects and behaviour; streets closed to traffic, closed metro stations and fences everywhere, within the Orbe de Oro security operation, which for the first time has used facial recognition techniques and applied a controversial law that facilitates arrests for disturbance of public order. Even before the ceremony began, several Republic militants, including its leader Graham Smith, were arrested. Dressed in bright yellow, they carried banners with inscriptions such as "not my king", "who voted for him" or "let's privatize the Windsors".
From early in the morning the guests began to arrive at the Abbey -who have had to spend five hours in their seats-, dressed in the most diverse ways, some with colorful African clothing, others as if they were going to a fancy wedding, the Ascot horse races or the Oscars gala. Politicians, aristocrats, foreign dignitaries, members of other Royal Houses, diplomats and celebrities such as the actress Emma Thompson and the singers Lionel Ritchie and Nick Cave. If it hadn't been for the vestments, the rest of the ceremony would have been like a trip to the Middle Ages, to a feudal, sacred and divine ritual aimed at presenting the monarchy as something almost supernatural.
The most imposing coronation was that of George IV, to surpass Napoleon in brilliance and show British supremacy. Carlos III wanted a more modest one (which even so has cost 125 million euros to a country in a serious economic crisis that does not even have the money to finance its public health and pay a decent salary to nurses). He proclaimed himself Defender of the Anglican Protestant Faith to a secular and largely agnostic people, where only half of the believers are Christians, with the small ecumenical concession of giving a cameo appearance to representatives of the Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim religions. In the abbey were the British, Irish and Scottish premiers (Rishi Sunak, Leo Varadkar and Humza Yousaf), the first two of Indian origin and the third Pakistani, like the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, exponents of a totally multicultural society.
In a modernizing gesture, Carlos wanted the oath of allegiance not to be sworn by the nobles, as is tradition, but by the entire town, a "choir of millions", beginning with the guests at the Abbey, followed by the people who were in the adjacent streets, and ending with the subjects in their homes, on the other side of the televisions. But in a nation that, although it is essentially monarchical, is above all individualist, paying homage to the king in the 21st century did not please everyone. If there were many enthusiastic people along the route of the procession, it is also true that millions have escaped the coronation by disconnecting their mobile phones or taking the opportunity to spend the weekend (Monday is a holiday) in the countryside or abroad. Even the BBC offered a guide on "how to escape."
Once the ceremony began, it was indeed a journey back in time, especially the moment of the anointing of Carlos III as king, behind a screen to preserve the magic of the moment, its theological aspect. He took off his military uniform, the gold “Supertunica” and the “imperial mantle” inherited from George VI, he was left in his shirtsleeves and the Archbishop of Canterbury applied an organic and vegan consecrated oil to his hands, face and chest , brought expressly from Jerusalem. All this on a medieval throne supported by the so-called "stone of destiny", which dates back to the coronation of Edward I in 1296, and in 1950 it was stolen by some Scottish nationalist students, causing the temporary closure of the border between the two countries. . Then the king appeared, he put on the crown of Saint Edward, solid gold encrusted with precious stones (amethysts, sapphires, rubies, topazes and tourmalines), he received bracelets, swords, rings, a glove, the scepter as a symbol of his power and the orb to represent that his authority comes directly from God, and trumpets, cannons and bells sounded. God Save the King!
Not only Carlos III has been crowned, but also what is now officially Queen Camila, her final victory over Diana and Diana's ghost, something that would have been unthinkable when the "People's Princess" died in 1997. With her own crown and many family jewels, but not the famous Koh-i-noor diamond, claimed by several countries and with huge imperial and colonial connotations that the new monarch wants to combat, amid controversy over whether British royalty should apologize for the way in that he encouraged and benefited from slavery. The English king is today the head of state of fourteen other countries, but it is very likely that soon there will be a few fewer. Jamaica and Belize have already announced plans to break that link and elect a president, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has indicated that Australia may go the same way to end an anachronism.
Carlos III is already crowned, feeding the privileged place of the monarchy in the national imagination, his role (which not everyone shares, there are 25% Republicans) as a counterweight to the innate turbulence of a parliamentary democracy, in a nation that murdered a king but in general, throughout his history, he has preferred evolution to revolution. Its challenge, in the secular, multi-ethnic and digital society of the 21st century, is to demonstrate that it is still useful, that it offers a unique service, that it has added value and that the euro and fifty cents that each citizen costs each year is a good investment. To do this you will probably have to make her lose weight, reduce staff and perhaps get rid of some castles and residences. Isabel II had already begun the process of creating a hard core of the royal family, with Guillermo, Catalina and her children as well as Carlos and Camila, relegating the remaining royals to increasingly secondary roles. For that, and for many other things, Enrique and Meghan "abdicated" and went to California. Yesterday she wasn't even there, he was, but without attracting much attention and not in the front rows.
There are almost forty years left for Halley's comet to make its appearance again, and it is not even known how many for the next total conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the firmament. What is certain is that the next coronation of a British king will not take seven decades, but the country and the world will have changed a lot. Perhaps artificial intelligence will organize the ceremony and draw up the guest list…
