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| Emblem for the Coronation of King Charles III |
The passing of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022 marked the end of an era – the Second Elizabethan Era, personified by her grace, dignity, and commitment to duty and service, especially with being from the Greatest Generation that served in World War II.
In a letter I sent to the Queen on September 3rd, I conveyed my congratulations on her Platinum Jubilee, as well as my admiration and respect for her decades of service to the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and beyond. Furthermore, I also wrote:
“While Your Majesty may not be seen as much in public as in the past, that is quite understandable, and indeed, Your Majesty does deserve to relax and be at ease after more than 70 years of being steadfast to the promise Your Majesty made at age 21 to devote Your Majesty’s life, “whether it be long or short”, to the service of Your Majesty’s people, and therein lies something to which all of us should look to as a model for our own lives.
Even in the depths of a once-in-a-century pandemic, Your Majesty’s dedication was quite admirable, and if I may say so, your speech in the early days of the pandemic, with its reference to Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again”, was comforting and resonating at that particularly bleak time. Your continued dedication to service via virtual means is a remarkable testament to the technological advances that have taken place over the course of Your Majesty’s remarkable reign and lifetime.”
With much regret, that letter did not arrive in time before the Queen’s passing. Now, with the accession of King Charles III – whose apprenticeship as his mother’s heir-apparent and Prince of Wales was the longest in British history – we are now in a new Carolean Age. With that has come changes in iconography, currency, post/pillar boxes, and gender designations from female to male. These changes will take time getting used to, thanks to the Queen’s 70-year reign, which made her the only British monarch most of us had ever known.
Among the new icons unveiled in this new Carolean Era is the emblem for the King’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023. It unifies the floral emblems of the four home nations of the United Kingdom; the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and the shamrock of Northern Ireland. They pay tribute to the King’s love of the natural world and together, they create the shape of St. Edward’s Crown, with which Charles III will be crowned during the coronation service.
As a person for whom the unity of the United Kingdom has been important, this emblem for the coronation is particularly meaningful. It is a demonstration to the world and perhaps even to people in the UK itself that the UK is not, and has never been, just England, and that the UK has always been the sum of its constituent parts through a complex web of history, individual contributions, collective sacrifice, and shared experiences that are as interwoven as the coronation emblem itself. Indeed, there is something quite special about this diversity, which has become richer through immigration from the Commonwealth and other places, and the King himself has spoken repeatedly about Britain’s many communities and their respective importance to British national life.
The monarchy itself has been at the heart of national life for over a thousand years. It is therefore an ancient institution that represents the good, the bad, the ugly, the truth of what Britain is, and can be, as a nation. It is the connection between Britain’s past and present, and therefore has an obligation to constructively bring all Britons together in a shared future that is sure to be more complex. Whilst representing tradition, it also weaves a delicate balance with modernity as British society evolves and changes. This penchant for flexibility and adaptation has been a hallmark of the monarchy, and the King is expected to continue in this tradition.
In this light, the coronation emblem – designed using the red, white, and blue of the Union Flag – is rooted in ancient iconography for a new era in which the religious, social, cultural, and ethnic diversity of the United Kingdom may be effectively acknowledged and celebrated within the context of great British traditions, such as the coronation itself. Indeed, the coronation service, whilst still an Anglican service at its heart, is supposed to reflect the nature of the UK in 2023 with the incorporation of diverse elements of modern British society. This is consistent with the King in his role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, but also showing respect toward other faiths. Additionally, there are other events meant to bring people and communities together throughout the country for this historic occasion in a display of unity which the monarchy is supposed to inculcate.
Over the course of her 70-year reign, the Queen strived to represent such unity and she gained the admiration and respect of many people, including those who are indifferent or otherwise against the monarchy as an institution. The great test going forward will be to transfer that admiration and respect to her heirs and successors, so that a vast cross-section of the UK will continue to see the monarchy as worth maintaining, as well as relevant to their present and future.
This may prove deeply challenging due to the current state of affairs in the UK, namely the fractures and controversies within the Royal Family and throughout British society more broadly, with the social, political, and economic dislocations of recent years that have brought fresh scrutiny unto many aspects of British life, including the monarchy itself, particularly among younger Britons. The colonial legacy, out of which were born the Empire and Commonwealth, is another issue which must be robustly addressed going forward by the monarchy, given its role – direct and indirect – in said legacy. Furthermore, whereas the Queen came to the throne at 25 years old and remained much of an enigma to the end, her son is 74 and a lot is known about him, with perceptions of him being firmly established among most of the public for better or worse.
This is not to say that it’s all doom and gloom for the monarchy, if for no other reason than the institution has been here before, with questions about its fitness and future amid societal, political, and economic shifts. However, the increasingly multi-ethnic, multi-faith, and secular composition of the UK makes the situation more complicated, and the monarchy will have to balance the needs of multiple constituencies that are as intertwined as the components of the coronation emblem to create something that is the total sum of the United Kingdom.
Therefore, this ancient institution and the embodiment of Britishness is facing a major test of its penchant for flexibility and adaptability in the 21st Century without the much-beloved Elizabeth II at the helm. One can only hope with utmost sincerity that Charles III – trained to the hilt over seven decades and with well-established capabilities – will rise to the occasion and that the unity expressed symbolically in this coronation emblem will become realized in due time, during the coronation weekend and beyond. In summation, it does represent the complexities of the past and the hope for the future.
