King Charles wants a ‘chorus of millions’ to pledge true allegiance at the Chubbly
Here is the latest cover of the New Yorker, featuring artwork of King Charles. Ouch. I can’t wait for the British media to blame this cover on the Duchess of Sussex and Joe Biden! Anyway, you remember how King Charles openly briefed the British media about how he didn’t want his Black daughter-in-law to come to his coronation, and that he was pleased that she was staying in California? He also made a point of NOT inviting his mixed-race grandchildren to his coronation. Now the palace is making a big deal about how the Chubbly will be so “diverse,” and how they invited people of all faiths. They’re making Richi Sunak (a Hindu) read from the Bible. They’re singing hymns in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish. And they’re asking every British subject and every Commonwealth subject to publicly recite their allegiance to the king.
Coronation organizers will ask millions of King Charles III’s new subjects to cry out their allegiance to the monarch in unison from wherever they are watching the service, according to newly released plans for the ceremony. Anyone watching, streaming or listening to Saturday’s service will be invited to recite a new “homage of the people,” sounding what organizers hope will form a “chorus of millions” from across the royal realm to mark the symbolic accession of Britain’s new king.
“I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God,” states the pledge that the public will be invited to recite.
It is the first time in history that all royal subjects have been invited to formally participate in a coronation service in such a way, something its organizers called an innovation made possible by modern technology. The oath replaces a traditional allegiance pledged by hereditary peers, who would line up to kneel before the monarch in Westminster Abbey, according to details of the service released by the archbishop of Canterbury.
According to newly published guidance, the archbishop will call upon “all persons of goodwill” from across the realm “to make their homage, in heart and voice, to their undoubted King, defender of all.” Participation in the oath — which will be followed by a musical fanfare — is encouraged but voluntary, organizers said.
“The Homage of the People is particularly exciting because that’s brand new,” said a spokesman for Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s official London residence. “Our hope is at that point, when the archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home on their own, watching the telly, will say it out loud — this sense of a great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the King.”
The reaction to the news was probably not what the palace was expecting. Not to defend Charles or anything (y’all know how I feel), but I can actually see how this kind of addition came about. Charles clearly wants to marginalize the aristocracy’s role in the coronation, given the fact that he has barely invited a quarter of Debrett’s Peerage. He doesn’t want the Earl of Lambchop or the Duke of Pussnboots to swear allegiance to him, he wants to make the ceremony feel more democratized. The problem is that he’s still a f–king hereditary king, not a democratically elected head of state. So no, people are not going to pledge allegiance to him from the discomfort of the homes they can’t afford to heat.
Additionally, these two portraits were just released. The Palace really overdid the airbrushing. They both look like they’ve been Yassified.
Photos courtesy of Buckingham Palace, cover courtesy of The New Yorker.
