While there were more kilts this time around, the Edinburgh ceremony, like its London predecessor, included a procession through the streets and a presentation of sparkly crown jewels, these also with their own fascinating history. The Stone of Destiny, a hard-to-miss 330-pound block of pinkish sandstone, was also present.
The ceremony wasn’t quite as lavish as the coronation held in May, when 2,000 guests packed into Westminster Abbey to watch the moment when Charles was crowned. And since he was already King of Great Britain, the Scottish crown was not placed on his head but instead handed to him.
Nonetheless, it is a hugely important ceremony for the royal family. After Queen Elizabeth II died, Charles took part in a four-nation tour of the United Kingdom, and the ceremony was seen as a part of the process of cementing ties to Scotland and preserving the union.
Scots, after all, are known to be less enthusiastic about the monarchy than their English neighbors, with just under half voting for independence a little while ago.
George Gross, an expert in coronations at King’s College London, said the royal family faced “an intricate task” as it navigated its historic role with a nation that is led by the pro-independence Scottish National Party.
“The monarchy must as always stand above politics, all the more so in an era of devolution and with the SNP in charge of government at Holyrood,” he said, referring to the Scottish seat of government.
Scotland’s crown jewels are even older than those of England used in the May ceremony, thanks to some very prudent moves during the turbulent anti-monarchical period of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century.
Known as the “Honours of Scotland” and consisting of sword, a scepter and a crown dating to 1540, they are an important part of Scotland’s national identity. The fact that they are still around is a remarkable story of skulduggery and derring-do.
They were first used as coronation regalia for Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543 when she was just 9 months old. They were also used for the coronations of James VI — the future James I of England — as well as Charles I and Charles II, whose 1651 coronation was the last such one in Scotland.
When Britain became a protectorate under Cromwell, England’s crown jewels dating to medieval times were melted down along with other royal regalia. In Scotland, however, the crown jewels were hidden away so carefully that they were rediscovered only a century and a half later in 1818, when novelist Walter Scott found them in an oak chest in Edinburgh Castle.
The coronation procession in Scotland began with a pony — a Shetland pony to be precise, named Cpl. Cruachan IV, mascot of the Royal Regiment of Scotland — who led the assembled royals, bagpipers and mounted guards in gleaming armor from Edinburgh Castle to St Giles’ Cathedral, where the ceremony was held.
Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were there, but because this was Scotland, they were referred to by their Scottish titles, the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay. Prince Harry, who was at his father’s coronation in May, was not in attendance.
The sword presented to Charles in the ceremony wasn’t the more than 500-year-old Sword of State, which was deemed too fragile, but rather the newly forged Elizabeth Sword, which clocks in at five feet long and weighs an impressive 36 pounds — it was carried by Olympic rower Katherine Grainger.
The ceremony was not for everyone, however, with anti-monarchy protesters on the streets holding aloft yellow signs that read “Not My King.”
The ceremony comes during “royal week,” or “Holyrood Week,” an annual event that sees the British monarch traveling around Scotland, celebrating Scottish culture.
Charles’s mother, Elizabeth, also had a coronation celebration in Scotland, a few weeks after her crowning ceremony in London, and it appears she restarted the custom because it was the first such full celebration in Scotland in more than a century.
Some Scots, however, were reportedly offended that she didn’t wear the same traditional garb she wore in the London event. The Glasgow Herald reported that she “offended Scottish sensibilities by not wearing formal robes and carrying an obtrusive handbag, presumably ill-advised by someone who had misread the mood of the people.”
That was not a mistake Charles made on Wednesday. He appeared in much the same medieval pomp as back in May in Westminster Abbey.
