Royal Family Friend Who Was at Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Reveals How Then-Prince Charles Acted in Church
As the U.K. gears up for King Charles III‘s coronation on May 6, one person who attended Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 is sharing how then-Prince Charles acted during the ceremony for his mother all those years ago.
Charles was just four years old when his mom became queen. While his sibling, Princess Anne, was deemed too young to attend the ceremony, Charles was present for the crowning and seated between the queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, and The Queen Mother.
Lady Anne Glenconner was a maid of honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation
Upon the death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952, then-Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation ceremony took place on June 2 the following year at Westminster Abbey in front of more than 8,000 guests. The event was the first to ever be televised and watched by millions of people around the world.
Lady Anne Glenconner, who is the daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, was close friends with Princess Margaret and became a lady-in-waiting to the countess from 1971 till her death in 2002. She also served as one of the six maids of honor at the queen’s coronation.
How then-Prince Charles behaved during the ceremony
Glenconner remembered seeing then-Prince Charles and recalled how he behaved while witnessing his mother’s crowning when he was a 4-year-old child.
She said that she could hear him chatting and asking his grandmother about some of the different things he didn’t understand.
“He was just above me — he was brought in for the crowning,” Glenconner told People. “We were standing below him, and he was up there with the Queen Mother. I could hear him talking, asking her what was what.”
King Charles’s coronation will be quite different from his mother’s
Glenconner noted that the king’s coronation will be different than the one she took part in seven decades ago.
“This one is going to be smaller,” she said. “It’s going to be more inclusive. I think with many more religions represented.”
According to the Constitution Unit’s website, “The coronation will continue to be an Anglican service, but finding a place for other Christian denominations and other religions, as happened at [Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s] royal wedding. Such people may be invited to give readings; and religious leaders other than Anglicans are likely to be seated prominently, as happened at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee service at St. Paul’s in 2012.”
A statement from Buckingham Palace said: “The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry. The coronation is a solemn religious service, together with an occasion for celebration and pageantry.”
