Yet unlike previous monarchs, for all his gold supertunica and dazzling accoutrements, this was still very much the same Charles Philip Arthur George that most of us have grown to know almost as well as a member of our own family. The Coronation we’ve just witnessed may have stirred controversy with its assorted nods to modern multicultural Britain, but most will agree the overall effect was still the temporal and spiritual shock and awe beloved of kings and subjects down the ages.
Still, my young friend’s eager veneration left me uneasy. Pealing bells and gun salutes, the cheers of the crowd and the clip-clopping hooves of the cavalry even Bastille Day in Paris might struggle to top the British state in full ceremonial mode. Sure enough, on Saturday, as they purred away from the Abbey in their eco-friendly electric limousines, you could easily imagine the world’s leaders reflecting enviously on the splendours they had just witnessed. It should worry palace strategists but it didn’t bother this friend: “We’ve had some really terrible kings in the past but we survived them all and now our constitutional monarchy is the envy of the world.” Depending which survey you pick, there’s a varying but consistent enthusiasm gap for our new king among young adults. I certainly didn’t want to rain on his parade (as it turned out, the weather gods had already made plans for that), but his attitude surprised me since polls suggest most of his generation hold the opposite view, if they hold one at all. You might almost call him starry-eyed in his admiration for all things Windsor. Younger and perhaps more idealistic than me, he talks at speed about his enthusiasm for our foremost institution. So spoke a friend when we met in the shadow of Westminster Abbey for a drink shortly before the Coronation.
I’d still rather have him as head of state than some dreary recycled politician.” “I don’t care if Charles is a good king or a bad king.
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