Hall: Taking coronation in stride

Last year, at 73, Britain’s King Charles III got the job he waited for his whole life when he succeeded to the throne upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. On Saturday, Charles, now 74, finally received his coronation and the accompanying fanfare. (The Brits spend a respectful period mourning a dead sovereign before celebrating the successor.)

He was 4 when he watched his mother go through this ritual, Elizabeth was 25 when she became queen (and 27 when she was crowned). She holds the record for the longest reign as a British monarch — 70 years — and Charles holds the record as the longest waiting heir to the British monarchy. It’s unclear if he will ever match his mother’s popularity.

She was beloved from the get-go, allowed to grow into the job and pivot from whatever mistakes she made along the way. Charles, on the other hand, experienced his entire life, achievements and failures in public — the world traveler, the environmentalist, the patron of charities, husband to the charismatic Lady Diana Spencer, father, philanderer, divorced man, then husband again, grandfather — before he finally became king. Some of his missteps — his involvement with Camilla during his marriage to Diana — are still held against him even as public opinion has gradually warmed to now-Queen Camilla.

But he’s tried to be a progressive king-in-waiting. He was born at home — that being Buckingham Palace — in 1948, an era when royals didn’t do anything as public as go to a hospital to give birth. But he is the first monarch to attend university. He was dedicated to sustainable farming and protecting the environment decades before climate change was in everyone’s consciousness.

The palace has made some efforts to scale back the pageantry for the 21st century. His mother had 8,251 guests at her coronation; Charles hosted a sparse 2,200.

There’s not much separation of church and state in a coronation — Charles commits to maintain “the Protestant reformed religion established by law” — but to make it look more diverse, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders, among others, were invited to participate.

Recycled and history

In a nod to sustainability, according to the palace, Charles is reusing the white leather coronation glove made in 1937 for his grandfather, George VI. He’s also reusing a scepter and vestments worn in coronations back in the 1800s.

Arguably everything about the ceremony was recycled. There’s not much of a line between recycled and history.

The nearly five-pound St. Edward’s crown placed on his head dates back to 1661. The jewel-studded gold orb dates to the same year. The chair dates back to 1300. All this takes place in Westminster Abbey, the same cathedral used for coronations since the time of the Norman conquest. As spectacles go, nothing would seem to be less connected to the citizens of Britain and the rest of the world.

Yet, Charles walked into 1,000-plus years of history with this ceremony, and for that reason alone it’s captivating. And also, a little horrifying: The Archbishop of Canterbury invited the public across the British realm to proclaim: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.”

Yikes. I know it’s just a costume drama, and here’s a point where the audience gets to play along. At previous coronations, only the nobility was invited to do this. But if I were a Brit, I’d pass on the pledge of allegiance.

Carla Hall is an editorial board member for the Los Angeles Times.