Waiting for King Charles, here’s behind the scenes of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation

While, between gossip and family plots, the world prepares at the coronation of King Charles to be held on May 6, the deep connection of the British with the queen has not yet dissolved. And so the second holds the court memoir of Lady Anne Glenconner which, just released today, enter the young woman’s private rooms Elizabeth of 1953, the year of his coronation. Because Lady Anne, who is now 90 years old, was one of the six bridesmaids chosen for the coronation of the queen, and was an exceptional witness of the preparations and behind the scenes. And she now describes the iron and imperturbable sovereign as a “vulnerable” young woman.

To anticipate the contents of the book is the weekly People. When the 25-year-old Queen arrived in the Gold State Coach, she appeared to be in complete control of herself. “She was very, very calm,” says Lady Anne, and she “said nothing to us.” “The tail of her dress rippled in our hands. She then she turned around and she said to us, ‘Ready, girls’. And we left.” When Elizabeth and her bridesmaids entered Westminster Abbey, “wonderful music” began to play, adding that the scene resembled “a medieval tapestry, with all the subjects of the Commonwealth dressed in their traditional dress and all the peers of England in finery.’ But there was also “a strong smell of camphor, because those clothes hadn’t been taken out of the closets since before the war”.

Apparently calm and composed, however, according to what the magazine reconstructs the monarch was actually quite nervous, especially due to the presence of cameras in what were the early days of television. «Churchill – recalls Lady Anne – had told her that there would be cameras, and that everything would be seen. But she replied: ‘The cameras must be turned off when I am anointed.’ A sign, according to her maid, of the queen’s sensitivity for what was a religious moment, the heart of the event.

At that point the fabulous coronation dress, and all the jewels and accessories were removed, and Elizabeth was left in a simple white dress. “The queen was in this white linen gown—remember her maid in her book—and she looked so young and vulnerable. And at that moment he was dedicating his life to Great Britain and the Commonwealth.’ And to hide the sovereign from the eye of the television, a canopy was built near the altar. “It was really just the six of us and the bishops, while the queen was being anointed. It was a moving moment.”

The queen’s composure, adds Lady Anne, however, was given by the fact that it was not a ceremony unknown to her. “The thing people forget is that the queen had seen her father crowned. She probably helped her because she was in complete control and she was calm, and that made us very, very calm as well.” King Charles, however, he attended his mother’s coronation when he was only 4 years old. “He was just above me, being brought in for the coronation. We were below him, and he was up there with Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother. I could hear him talking about her, asking what was going on.’

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Now that it’s his turn, according to Lady Anne, the ceremony for Charles will be less important than the one for his mother’s coronation: only 2,000 guests will be present in Westminster Abbey compared to the 8,000 who were with Elizabeth, and “many peers will have to draw lots for the post: there will be many disappointed people”. This ceremony “will be smaller, more inclusive, and I think there will be many more religions represented. This will play an important role.”