Royal children’s starring roles in King’s coronation procession
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will be in the limelight together again for their grandfather's historic day. See who else will have a starring role.
Prince Louis won himself a legion of fans with his goofy expressions and mischievous behaviour at Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee concert.
Come May 6, he will be on show again, alongside his brother and sister for his grandfather’s Coronation.
Louis, George and Charlotte have been given starring roles in the procession from Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace and are said to be “excited” to be written into the annals of British history.
The three children, who will be aged nine, eight and five by the time of the ceremony, have been rehearsing for the event, which will be attended by around 2000 dignitaries.
Before the procession, George has been tasked with the added role of carrying the King’s robes, as one of eight Pages of Honour.
The page boys — four for the King and four for Queen Consort Camilla — will form part of the procession through the Nave of Westminster Abbey.
George will be accompanied by three sons of His Majesty’s friends — schoolboys Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, 13, Nicholas Barclay, 13, and Ralph Tollemache, 12.
The Queen Consort’s Pages of Honour will be her grandsons twins Gus and Louis Lopes, 13,
and Freddy Parker Bowles, 13, as well as her great-nephew Arthur Elliot, 11.
It is a break with royal tradition that her grandsons have been allowed official duties at the ceremony.
After the service, all eyes will be on the Wales’s brood as they ride, with their parents the Prince and Princess of Wales, in a carriage following the King and Queen Consort’s Gold State Coach.
“Louis just always wants to have fun and is quite excited by it, they all are, he’s been giggling with his brother and sister, he finds it all very amusing,” a source close to the royal family said.
Louis’s cousins Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are not included in the plans thus far, although their parents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are cited in the abbey and dinner seating arrangements.
“It’s assumed that they’re coming – better to prepare as if they are than to leave them out and rearrange everything last minute,” a palace insider said.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been in “email correspondence” with the King’s office over whether they will attend, but relations have been frosty following the publication of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare.
A Sussex spokesman said: “An immediate decision on whether the Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time.”
May 6 is also Prince Archie’s fourth birthday.
Kensington Palace is unlikely to formally confirm the royal children attending until the day of the Coronation.
The King’s nieces Princess Beatrice and her sister Eugenie have posted their “yes” replies to attend but will not have a prominent role in the coronation procession.
It is not known if Zara and Mike Tindall’s children Mia, Lena and Lucas will be involved in the coronation ceremony.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’s children Lady Louise Windsor and her brother James, Viscount Severn are attending.
When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 when Prince Charles was four, he was brought out by his nanny for only a short period to watch the three-hour service, sitting between the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.
The Coronation procession will be significantly scaled back compared to the late Queen’s with only mounted escort by the Household Cavalry taking a more direct route and with fewer participants.
This Sovereign’s Escort will be provided by The Life Guards, the most senior regiment of the British Army, notable for their scarlet tunics and metal helmets with white plumes.
The monarch has chosen not to replicate his late mother’s five-mile journey along Regent Street, Oxford Street and Park Lane and will instead return to the palace via Whitehall, Admiralty Arch and The Mall.
Apart from the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, the only other royals in the procession out of the abbey will be the Princess Royal and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the newly-minted Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duke of Kent and his sister Princess Alexandra.
An estimated 4000 military personnel will take part.
The Gold State Coach, which was built in 1762 and has been used in every coronation since 1821, will be accompanied by representatives from the armed forces of the King’s other realms, which add up to 14 outside the UK after Barbados left.
In 1953 there were ten Commonwealth prime ministers in open-top carriages, but this year no foreign leaders will take part in the procession. Three carriages bearing members of the royal family will follow the Sovereign’s Escort.
Ten bands are expected to take part in the procession, rather than the 24 that were there in 1953.
SEARCH FOR BELLRINGERS GOES INTO OVERDRIVE
A shortage of bellringers in the United Kingdom could leave many churches silent on Coronation day.
With four weeks to go before King Charles III is crowned at Westminster Abbey, a frenzied drive to recruit and train 8000 bellringers has fallen on deaf ears.
Traditionally 38,000 church bells across the country ring out to mark the crowning of a new monarch – just as they did for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
However, the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR) has warned that there are only 30,000 trained bellringers in the UK. Its recruitment drive “Ring for the King” has solicited 1500 inquiries.
CCCBR spokeswoman Vicki Chapman said the actual number to have been trained is much lower.
“Bellringing requires a level of commitment. You need 15 to 20 hours’ one-to-one tuition and practise in a group. It’s going to be very difficult to get the numbers at this late stage.”
The CCCBR recently met officials from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Lambeth Palace to go through government guidance to churches on services for the coronation.
They also discussed getting bellringers across the country to collaborate to ensure the bells of every church are rung over the three-day Coronation weekend.
“Bellringing teams need to arrange a time and day to ring the bells. They need to work with neighbouring towers to say, ‘We are a couple of people short’, and fill the holes,” said Ms Chapman.
Church bellringing is part of the traditional soundscape of Britain. The British style is characterised by carefully tuned bells rung in tight sequences. British bell towers have a more engineered system of ropes and wheels, capable of manoeuvring the bells 360 degrees to create more complicated sound patterns, unlike church bells around Europe.
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Originally published as Royal children’s starring roles in King’s coronation procession
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