The Palace is reportedly planning for Charles to have a much smaller coronation than the Queen did in 1953, with the guest list understood to be less than half the size.
When Elizabeth was crowned, stands were erected in Westminster Abbey to allow 8,000 people to attend the service, which lasted almost three hours. This time, there will be no stands or scaffolding and the event will last about half as long as last time, according to sources in Parliament.
However, capacity in the Abbey will be boosted from the 2,200 people it can usually hold, with more seats put in the medieval galleries, about 52ft above the floor, the Express reports. The reduced size of the event, on Saturday, May 6, has reportedly left senior figures in Parliament worrying about how many politicians will be able to attend.
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They are concerned it will be difficult to accommodate many of the 650 MPs and 800 peers, a lot of whom will be vying for a seat. Other guests will include Commonwealth leaders, the extended British Royal Family, foreign royalty, dignitaries and charity heads.
A Parliamentary source said: “We’re waiting for details but have been told to expect around 3,000. So nothing like the 8,000 last time, when scaffolding and all sorts was put up to accommodate the numbers.
“It will mean far fewer people, so they will have to think about who does and does not get an invite. And there will be a lot of disappointed people.”
Officials had a similar headache for the Queen's funeral in September. In November, Cabinet minister Sir Gavin Williamson was forced to resign after he was accused of bullying Chief Whip Wendy Morton over text, berating her for failing to get him invited to the state funeral.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the coronation will be “a unique moment for the country” and promised it will showcase Britain. There will be pomp and pageantry, according to Palace officials, but the event will also be organised with the cost-of-living crisis “very much in mind”.
The Queen's coronation cost £1.57 million, equivalent to £56 million today. So far, Government officials have declined to say whether a budget has been set for the coronation this year, with the total costs – split across the Royal Household, various Government departments, and the police – only likely to be revealed after the event.
According to some royal insiders, the event will be less lavish than the last coronation and more on the level of a royal wedding or funeral. Those occaisions have generally cost the taxpayer around £8 million.
But others disagree, with Catherine Pepinster, author of Defenders of the Faith: the British Monarchy, Religion, and the next Coronation, predicting a bigger ceremony than some expect.
The King decided this week to redirect a £1 billion of profits from a Crown Estate windfarm to the “public good”, rather than using the money to fund the monarchy. And Ms Pepinster believes this could pave the way for a larger spectacle.
She said: “This will make a show-stopper Coronation, funded by the public purse, much more palatable.
“The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations showed that you can have a tremendously impressive event watched on TV right across the world without having 8,000 guests inside Westminster Abbey.”
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