Buckingham Palace has announced King Charles the Third will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6th.

There is speculation the coronation will be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed his mother Elizabeth in 1953.Camilla, the queen consort, will be crowned alongside her husband. Charles will be anointed with holy oil before receiving the orb, sceptre and coronation ring. Camilla will also be anointed with holy oil and crowned, as was Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Royal historian Robert Lacey thinks organizers should be shooting for a ceremony that’s about an hour long, in line with last month’s immensely moving funeral for the queen. Most of coronation ceremony, which has changed little in the past one-thousand years, is expected to remain intact.

But some of the more fussy trappings of pomp and circumstance may be trimmed as Britain struggles with soaring inflation and the fallout from the war in Ukraine.Charles is expected to sign a proclamation formally declaring the date of the ceremony at a meeting of the Privy Council, later this year.

(The Canadian Press)