Coronation: Aussie peer Simon Abney-Hastings ‘could claim the throne’

The coronation will be a big day for Simon Abney-Hastings, Earl of Loudon, but some historians say he should be on the throne instead of Charles.

Simon Abney-Hastings.

The only Australian to play an ­official role in the coronation of King Charles III is said to be too busy in London preparing his morning suit and rehearsing to be interviewed ahead of the big day.

Days don’t get much bigger than this for Simon Abney-­Hastings, the 15th Earl of Loudon who is one of just 13 people appointed to play a ceremonial role in Saturday’s ceremony.

A businessman from the Victorian country town of Wanga­ratta known to his mates as Simon, Abney-Hastings will be the Bearer of the Great Golden Spurs.

This is a medieval part of the coronation rites that has involved Abney-Hastings’s family since the coronation of Richard the Lionheart in 1189.

It involves carrying a pair of heavy golden spurs, which are meant to ­symbolise the monarch’s “knightly values and virtues”, into Westminster Abbey behind the King.

“He’ll be walking just behind Charles III among other people who are bearers of different other regalia,” Abney-Hastings’s private secretary, Terence Guthridge, says.

“He will have a cushion and the golden spurs will be placed on that and he will carry them to the Lord Chamberlain, who will then take them and touch the heels of the monarch with them.”

Although it will be a big day for the 48-year-old Abney-Hastings, it could – and some historians say should – have been a much bigger one.

In theory, some say, it should have been Abney-Hastings sitting on the throne instead of Charles.

Abney-Hastings, a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III, is a direct descendant of George Plantagenet, the brother of Edward IV and Richard III. Historians, in a 2004 Channel 4 documentary, claimed that Edward was illegitimate and George, as the eldest son, should have inherited the throne.

This would have made Michael Abney-Hastings, Simon’s father, the rightful king of England.

Michael Abney-Hasting, who moved from England to Australia when he was 18 to work as a jackaroo, was unaware of his possible claim to the throne until he was told about it 19 years ago.

According to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, when Abney-Hastings was told he might have been king, he replied ‘Strewth … It’s bad enough being a Pom over here, let alone being a bloody titled one.”

Michael Abney-Hastings, who died in 2012, never pursued his entitlement to be an earl but son Simon did.

With the assistance of Guthridge, he persuaded British auth­orities that he was indeed the 15th Earl of Loudon.

Guthridge believes the argument that Abney-Hastings should be king has merit, but his boss would never pursue the claim.

“Some historians say he should be the rightful king,” Guthridge says.

“I think it’s got lots of substance but he will not buy into that at all – he is a complete royalist and he wants to express his loyalty ­completely to Charles III and Camilla.

“He is delighted to be involved in the ceremony.

“It’s a part of his heritage and Simon’s view is he wants to maintain that heritage.”

Abney-Hastings, who swaps Christmas cards with King Charles, keeps a low profile in Wangaratta, a city of just 30,000 people.

The mayor of the town, Dean Rees, says he learned only recently that Wangaratta was home to an earl.

“We certainly did not know we had an earl – what is he, the 15th Earl of Loudon?” Rees told Guardian Australia.

“He keeps a very low profile.”

Guthridge said the ceremony involving the Great Golden Spurs had changed over the centuries.

“In medieval times, the Great Golden Spurs were originally fastened on the feet of the new monarch at coronation.

“At recent coronations, the Great Golden Spurs have just ­ceremoniously touched the heels of the monarch, and they have then been placed on the altar,” he says.

“The spurs were made in 1661 for Charles II and were updated in 1820 for George IV by adding new textiles, buckles and straps.”

Some 20 years ago, Michael Jones, a medieval historian, uncovered a document in Rouen Cath­edral that he claimed proved Edward IV was illegitimate and so not the rightful heir to the throne.

He unearthed records of the 100 Years’ War in France that show Richard, Duke of York, could not have sired Edward because he was 180km away from his wife, Cecily Neville, the Duchess of York, during the five weeks of her possible conception.

The 15th Earl of Loudon once said he would prefer “bourbon and coke and a barbie” over tea and scones served on silver trays.

He is emphatic that he has no royal ambitions.

“It’s always been a matter for the historians,” he said. “I’m really not buying into it.”