The United Kingdom crowns Carlos and Camila before the eyes of half the world

The six black components — three men and three women — of the Choir of the Ascension, standing in a beautiful circle of dance and rhythm before the altar of Westminster Abbey, sang a Gospel Hallelujah on Saturday in honor of Carlos III.

But soon after, when the Archbishop of Canterbury anointed the new monarch with sacred oil on his chest, head and hands, a curtain hid the most intimate moment of the ceremony from the cameras and guests.

began to resound between the walls of the temple

, the hymn composed by Handel in 1727 for the coronation of George II.

There is no other composition that is more identified with the majesty attributed to royalty.

Modernity, in moderate doses, mixed with pomp and tradition.

Carlos of England did not wait 74 years to end up turning the long-awaited moment of his coronation into a civil event.

The duration, or the numbers of participants, have been less than those of his mother, Elizabeth II, in 1953. But Operation Golden

, the device prepared by the Government, the royal house, the BBC and the main British institutions has It has been an effort, crowned with success, to try to show the rest of the world that the United Kingdom continues to be an actor to be reckoned with, and that its monarchy is an integral part of its very essence.

As the rain.

That has not been missing in any of the last four coronations.

And there was no shortage this Saturday in London, where thousands of citizens had waited patiently for hours to see for just a few seconds the carriage that transferred King Charles and Queen Camila from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

But above all to say, later on, "I was there."

More soldiers—six thousand—than those who paraded for Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965. A total of 23,000 police officers deployed throughout the British capital.

drones.

Surveillance Camera.

Face recognition technology.

A search in the previous days, by MI5 -the intelligence service for internal security- of those individuals suspected of causing disturbances.

And, above all, no scruples when it comes to avoiding supposed shocks.

By the early hours of the morning, the London Metropolitan Police were making half a dozen arrests.

Among those arrested, Graham Smith, the founder and director of the

organization .

He had spent months preparing the protests in the street to alter the ceremony, under the slogan

(Not My King).

He had rallied two thousand followers under the statue of Charles I (the king beheaded in 1649 for betraying Parliament), in Trafalgar Square, where he was to pass the royal carriage.

Rishi Sunak's government, to the suspicion of many activists, had managed to pass new legislation this week to toughen the police response to protests, after a year of street riots by organizations such as Just Stop Oil

He has not hesitated to apply it rigorously.

Police

He accused those arrested of handling wire ropes and belts that they could use later to tie themselves to street furniture and disturb the procession.

the westminster ceremony

Most of the 2,200 guests at the Abbey had entered the temple hours before the ceremony began, at eleven in the morning (noon in Spanish peninsular time).

Almost half of them - doctors, nurses, volunteers, social workers... - were part of a diverse United Kingdom that Carlos III wanted to represent in his coronation.

Although also unlike his mother, the new monarch has wanted to incorporate representatives of other nations and other royalties into the event.

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, together with his wife Brigitte;

the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel;

the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden;

or the kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia.

King Charles III arrives in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to receive the salute from members of the army, after his coronation on May 6, 2023 in London.

Peter Byrne (Getty Images)

Except for the boos heard in the street when Prince Andrew of England, condemned to social ostracism for his relationship with the American pedophile millionaire, Jeffrey Epstein, left Buckingham Palace for the abbey in an official vehicle, the worries and misgivings of a royal family always on the verge of a new crisis have been saved this time in a drawer.

Prince Enrique arrived alone —Meghan Markle has stayed in the United States, with the excuse that her son Archie turned four this Saturday—, he entered the religious compound discreetly, and took his position in the third row.

At the other end, her uncle Andrés hers.

A couple of rows ahead sat the heir to the throne, William, Prince of Wales, and his wife Catherine, dressed in formal robes.

Guillermo, as his grandfather Felipe of Edinburgh did 70 years ago before Elizabeth II, has knelt before his father to swear loyalty with his own life.

And then kiss him on the cheek.

The rites and symbols of power

The crown of Saint Edward and the Imperial crown;

orbs, scepters and swords;

a Throne built centuries ago with the sole purpose of establishing England's dominance over Scotland;

a Stone of Destiny on which Charles III, like his mother before him, had it carried from Edinburgh to London so that he could fit it into the hole provided under Edward's Chair.

And oaths.

And liturgy.

Declarations of loyalty to the laws of the realm and to the Anglican Church, of which the monarch is Supreme Governor.

"I, Carlos, solemnly and sincerely profess and declare in the presence of God that I am a faithful Protestant, and that, in accordance with the laws that ensure a Protestant succession to the throne, I will defend and maintain those laws," the king said with his hand. in the Bible.

That was the limit of Carlos III's commitment to integrate the various religious beliefs that coexist in the United Kingdom.

Representatives of Islam, Hinduism or Judaism have been present in the abbey, and the crowned king had a few words with them once crowned, when he was already leaving the temple to begin the Coronation procession.

Queen Camilla's Triumph

Few Britons would have imagined, barely twenty years ago, that the most hated woman in the United Kingdom, the woman who got in the way of that ill-fated fairy tale that was the marriage of Charles of England and Diana Spencer, would end up receiving it on her head, before the altar of the abbey, the same crown that Queen Mary, the wife of George V, used for her coronation.

Few have escaped the complicit glances shared at that moment by a couple who have starred in the most interesting story of resurrection and triumph of the United Kingdom in recent decades.

Witnesses of the moment were popular characters from the arts and entertainment, who were also guests, such as singers Nick Cave and Kate Perry, or actor Stephen Fry.

Quite a barely concealed slap in the face to the tabloids that for years made populist derision of romance.

That by chance of fate and political circumstances, the prime minister in charge of reading a passage from the New Testament during the ceremony was Rishi Sunak, a man of Indian descent and Hindu religion, and not Boris Johnson, the papier-mâché Churchill he faced among themselves to the British, had almost Shakespearean resonances:

That Ends Well.

A veil of correction... or censorship

Nobody wanted to talk about censorship, but the opponents of the monarchy were still in Trafalgar Square, drenched in the rain, when the Golden State Coach carrying the crowned kings left the abbey to take them back to Buckingham Palace.

“Intimidating letters, accelerated anti-protest laws, facial recognition technology used with millions of people.

And this morning, people arrested before the protests, despite having police authorization," the Liberty Human Rights organization denounced in a statement.

"This is a dangerous and troubling precedent for our democratic nation."

The BBC cameras did not show images of the protest at any time, and its place -minority, it must be said- in this story will be recorded on thousands of mobile phones, but not in the files of the public corporation whose mission, among others , is to preserve the institutionality of the United Kingdom.

Half the world looks at the balcony

Thousands of people have flooded

, the avenue that connects Trafalgar Square with Buckingham, like a great red carpet, to go to the great square in front of the palace.

The iconic moment.

The greeting of the royal family from the balcony.

With the traditional mystery game about absences and presences.

The kings went out to the balcony accompanied by their grandchildren.

Shortly after, the princes of Wales, William and Catherine, joined.

And Carlos' siblings, Eduardo and Ana. On this occasion, however, for many generations, the change has been spectacular.

At the center was no longer that woman with whom they shared decades in which they came to think that she would always be there —Queen Elizabeth II—, but Carlos III and Camila, the most unexpected royal couple for the United Kingdom of the 21st century.

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