A RIGHT ROYAL rumpus

By: Christine Farrington

King Charles III’s coronation will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey in London. During the ceremony, the King will be crowned alongside Queen Camilla. The coronation will be rooted in the long-standing traditions, pomp and ceremony that the British do so well.

A coronation is both the symbolic religious ceremony during which a sovereign is crowned through the physical act of placing a crown on a monarch’s head. It formalises the monarch’s role as the head of the Church of England and marks the transfer of their title and powers. Buckingham Palace has said that the coronation will “reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future.”

The King and Queen will travel to Westminster Abbey in the King’s procession, and return to Buckingham Palace in a larger procession, where they will be joined by other members of the Royal Family for a glittering appearance on the Palace Balcony. The King will be crowned with the solid gold, 17th Century, St Edward’s Crown (Edward the Confessor), which is exceptionally heavy and only used at the moment of Coronation.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has reignited the debate about how some royal gemstones were obtained by the British Empire and should be returned to their country of origin. Much of the controversy centres around the diamonds found in the crown jewels. One is the Imperial State Crown, which the Monarch will put on towards the end of the coronation ceremony, and wear in the procession back to Buckingham Palace.

The crown contains the Cullinan II diamond. The Cullinan I diamond is mounted in the Royal Sceptre and is also known as “The Star of Africa”. These stones were cut from the largest diamond ever discovered at the Premier (Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company, South Africa. The stone which weighed 3,106 carats, was named after the mine’s Chairman, Sir Thomas Cullinan, whose great granddaughter lives here in the village of Stanford and has perfect glass replicas of all the stones cut from that one original Cullinan diamond which today remains the largest diamond crystal ever found.

Although the Cullinan remained the wonder of the London diamond market for two years, no-one wanted to buy it. In the end it was bought by the Transvaal government, at the suggestion of General Louis Botha, the Prime Minister, for £150,000 and presented to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday on 9 November 1907. Today the Cullinan, one of the most magnificent and expensive diamonds in the world, has an estimated value of $400 million in the current market.

I wonder if the newly crowned King Charles III in this “right royal rumpus,” will be “looking to the future” and think about those two Cullinan Diamonds, the ever-present showpieces at his Coronation, knowing they are in his possession purely as a result of colonial tenacities that suffocated natives in South Africa and return them.

Stanford’s Queen Victoria Street was named after King Charles III’s great, great, great grandmother; and Linda Swart, the great granddaughter of Sir Thomas Cullinan, is a Stanfordian. Therefore, Stanford is well-heralded in this coronation - a proud occasion for our heritage village.