Britain crowns Charles III its new king

ON May 6th, in London, a man will be given a hat. He has never seemed that keen on this hat. At the age of 20, King Charles III described the realisation he would be king as dawning upon him “with the most ghastly inexorable sense”. His predecessors were little keener. King Edward VIII described kingship as “an occupation of considerable drudgery”; King George VI awoke on the morning of his coronation with “a sinking feeling”. Britons themselves seem similarly nonplussed. According to YouGov, a pollster, almost half say they are unlikely to watch the coronation, yet everyone has been talking about it for weeks.

The coronation, as the royal website explains, is “a solemn religious ceremony”. The reminder is needed, for the list of those participating this weekend includes people with such titles as the Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, the Rouge Croix Pursuivant and the Portcullis Pursuivant. It involves a Garter King of Arms and people with titles so antique that their adjectives appear to be on back-to-front (the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this realm). It involves beadles, heralds, princesses, kings, queens and His Most Godly Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine. There are “Game of Thrones” episodes with more sober cast lists.