Charles' 'Slimmed Down' Coronation Will Balance 'Tradition and Modernity'

King Charles III's coronation will be "considerably slimmed down" compared to the one staged for his mother in 1953, but the event will still be a "magnificent spectacle," a leading royal expert has told Newsweek.

An announcement from Buckingham Palace on Tuesday confirmed that the king's coronation ceremony will take place on May 6, 2023. The date will not come without controversy as it also marks the monarch's grandson, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor's, fourth birthday.

Relations between Archie's parents, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, and King Charles are strained following the couple's decision to step down from their working roles within the royal family and move to the U.S. in 2020.

During this period, Harry later commented, Charles "stopped taking my calls," but relations between father and son are reported to have thawed in recent months with the new king expressing his "love" for the Sussexes in his first address to the nation.

Alongside the announcement that the coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey—performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury—and that Queen Camilla will be crowned alongside her husband, the Buckingham Palace statement included the line:

"The Coronation will reflect the monarch's role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry."

This comes as discussions over the form of the coronation have been raised in the U.K. press, speculating that the ceremony, which was nearly 3 hours in length during the ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II, would be cut down.

"It was widely expected that the Coronation would take place next May or June," royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Newsweek. "Obviously time is needed for planning and the summer will hopefully bring good weather too. This was famously not the case in June 1953 when it rained."

"The statement has a balance between tradition and modernity. The Coronation in 1953 was one of the most spectacular events in royal history. The Service was 3 hours long, there were 8,000 guests and some 45,000 troops were involved. It launched television and this will be a wonderful opportunity, 70 years later, for the ceremony to be seen worldwide."

On any modernizing alterations to the form of coronation service which exists, with minor alterations, in the same form used by the latter Anglo-Saxon kings, Fitzwilliams said this would not detract from the magnificence of the occasion.

"Clearly it will be considerably slimmed down," he said, "but Britain is the last major country in Europe to have a coronation. It has considerable expertise in ceremonial and expect a moving ceremony and a magnificent spectacle."

Many of Europe's monarchies, aside from Britain, either have never held coronations for their kings and queens, or have replaced the tradition with a simpler accession ceremony in which the new monarch swears oaths of allegiance in front of parliament and dignitaries.

The coronation in Britain is a religious ceremony where, as supreme head of the Church of England, the monarch swears to uphold the law and the church, as well as being anointed with holy oil and invested with the regalia of the crown.

"The solemnity of the service and its religious core when the monarch will be 'anointed, blessed and consecrated' by the Archbishop of Canterbury, is naturally included," Fitzwilliams said. "The fact that it goes back a millennium shows that the monarchy has very deep roots in our DNA. "

One speculated coronation concession is that the form of dress for the ceremony will be relaxed, with attendees potentially given permission to wear lounge suits instead of the ceremonial garb required at Elizabeth II's crowning.

This relaxation in dress code may also extend to the king. When King George VI was crowned in 1937 he wore the traditional white knee breeches and silk stocking with the order of the garter worn on his left leg.

For the event Charles may opt to wear one of his military uniforms, though is still expected to wear the St Edward and Imperial State Crowns and velvet robes of state.

Alongside support for the coronation comes questions over the suitability of hosting such a largescale piece of pageantry as Britain experiences a cost of living crisis and increased levels of inflation.

Prominent British author Jeffrey Archer previously told Newsweek that one had to be "practical and sensible about these things," while also understanding: "In 1953 we were in far more austere circumstances than we are now and the coronation lifted the nation, unquestionably."

"If it's done properly it will be a benefit rather than a hindrance," he said. "Not only done properly but done in a way that other people watching think; 'Only the British could do that.'"

No formal information on the guestlist for the coronation have yet been released. Buckingham Palace said that "further details will be announced in due course."

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.