King Charles will receive the Honours of Scotland today in a traditional ceremony to mark his crowning north of the border, but critics have questioned its relevance.
King Charles is set for a coronation of sorts today, as he will be presented with the Honours of Scotland—the Scottish Crown Jewels—at a National Service of Thanksgiving later today.
The service will be held at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh and the special occasion will be marked with a host of festivities, including a People’s Procession, a Royal Procession, a 21-gun salute and an RAF flypast
But not everyone will be celebrating today, as the Scottish Greens will be staging a protest outside Holyrood, and a historian has criticized the proceedings as a “poor man’s re-enactment” of the lavish Coronation hosted at Westminster Abbey in May.
Especially as the event has been significantly pared back, it is likely to keep criticism of hosting another large-scale event during cost of living pressures at bay. Queen Elizabeth II held her Scottish Coronation on June 24, 1953, and tens of thousands of people packed the streets of Edinburgh to send their well-wishes to the newly crowned monarch.
For the Royal Procession, she traveled in an open Landau carriage drawn by four Windsor greys and wore striking ceremonial robes.
But today’s event will be scaled back. The King will travel on a much shorter procession route and has ditched the carriage, instead opting to travel in the enclosed State Bentley.
Professor Anne Whitelock, director of the Center for the Study of Modern Monarchy, has described the event as a “reduced, imitation coronation”.
She told the BBC: “[It is] a poor man’s re-enactment, where no one actually gets to wear the crown. You’re kind of shadowboxing with the past.”
The reason monarchs celebrate their coronations separately in Scotland is to mark the fact that he is not only the King of England but also the King of Great Britain, following the Union of the Crowns in 1603.
The first repeat Coronation took place after King Charles I’s crowning at Westminster Abbey in 1625. The Scottish Parliament requested that the monarch also be crowned north of the border. The King took his time, however, with the second Coronation taking place in 1633 at Holyrood.
The tradition was paused after the coronation of King George IV in 1822 until Queen Elizabeth II resumed it in 1953.But the event, which culminates in a National Service of Thanksgiving at 2:15 p.m., where the King will be presented with the Honours of Scotland, appears to have lost its relevance, and many are criticizing it.
The co-leaders of the Scottish Greens have said they will not be attending the service, and Patrick Harvie said he will instead speak at a rally outside Holyrood organized by the anti-monarchy group Our Republic.Confirming her intention not to attend Wednesday’s ceremony, Lorna Slater said, “In 21st-century Scotland, the monarchy is nothing to celebrate.”
She added, “It is an out-of-date and undemocratic institution. How can we justify a system that allows one family to enjoy so much unearned wealth and privilege at a time when millions of people have so little?”
