Good Morning,
It was a heck of a parade and show, as King Charles was formally crowned, with glittering diamonds, and lots of raised swords in salute, and throne chairs, and golden carriages and soldiers everywhere.
Solid gold moments, with everything included from our childhood stories of Kings and Queens and regal moments of blessings and crowns on heads, except dragons of course.
For most of us, if we were anywhere near a TV on a rainy day in London, it was a superb spectacle including thousands of troops marching in and out of Buckingham Palace.
My wife and I walked over to Hyde Park to see some horses and the thousands of people who watched the ceremony on big screen TV’s all over the Royal Parks. It was a picnic atmosphere and an excuse to have a Pimms or ‘gin in a tin’ or a glass of champagne.
But honestly, it seemed like a relic of the past, unlike what some broadcasters claimed is a Coronation ushering in a new age of Royals.
How can it be a new era or age when King Charles at 74, is the oldest new monarch in British history? And his Queen Camilla equally is 75, and a woman Princess Diana called “the Rottweiler” blaming her for breaking up her marriage, and Queen Elizabeth only wanted titled Queen consort, not a Queen.
The world knows the new King as someone with a sense of humour and pro environment views, but he’s not about to change much of anything is he?
So what are we left to think about this royal pageant that was without a doubt impressive but about what exactly?
Charles was already King the moment the Queen died in September. So did anything change for us yesterday or for you how you personally view the Royals?
It may have been an attempt for Charles to cement his place in history with a grand ceremony, that the TV networks gladly aired because of promises of good ratings.
But the fact is young people including my own kids could careless about the King and what he does or doesn’t stand for. In fact they wanted nothing to do with the parades or watching it on TV.
So it was a grand spectacle, that I enjoyed seeing, but didn’t feel any more deeply I think than most people.
Brits say it was a celebration of being English, and of all the wonderful things about the Country. Fair enough, because it is terrific for tourism and the event was organized without a hitch.
There were protests and arrests of people holding “Not My King” banners.
But what is the point of a new King reigning over a country that is apathetic towards the whole affair, and not really sure why they continue to fund the family known as “The Firm” because of it’s hundreds of millions in real estate and business holdings.
King Charles is thought to be worth somewhere in the range of 2 billion dollars, while most of his British subjects are struggling to pay the heating bill.
So I suspect the question of why a Coronation and new King, despite our appreciation of marching soldiers in red tunics, and pretty horses, won’t go away but will keep pressing the public.
Not only here in the UK are there serious doubts about having a King but perhaps even more so in the other 14 countries of which Charles is now their King, including my home country of Canada, and others like New Zealand, Australia, and even Jamaica.
Saturday the King got his crown, and TV networks their ratings moments, and for now we can enjoy the cakes and picnics and celebrate a long weekend in the UK.
And the question of the King and I/we can linger largely unanswered because the parade was terrific. But the reign of King Charles and Queen Camilla will be quite another affair.