The United Kingdom's King Charles III will be crowned at London's Westminster Abbey next May in a ceremony set to follow the traditional pageantry used for anointing monarchs over the last 1,000 years, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday.
King Charles, 73, automatically became king on , but the grand coronation ceremony for him and his wife Camilla, who will be crowned queen, will now take place on Saturday, 6 May.
He is king and head of state not only of the United Kingdom but of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
What might the ceremony look like?
"The coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry," the palace said in a statement.
The ceremony, a solemn and religious event that will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, usually comes several months after the accession of the new monarch.
King Charles III and the Queen Consort in front of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during her State Funeral at the Abbey in London. Source: AAP / Dominic Lipinski/PA
His mother, , holds the record for the longest reign at 70 years.
UK media has reported that Charles wants to scale down some of the customary grandeur around the coronation, mindful that it would come as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis.
The palace said it would maintain the "core elements" of the traditional ceremony "while recognising the spirit of our times".
Elizabeth's coronation as queen on June 2, 1953, was the first to be televised and was regarded as a milestone in modernising the monarchy, a move that her husband Prince Philip was said to have pushed for strongly.
The Abbey, whose royal links are extensive, was the setting for Elizabeth's funeral service and it was also where King Charles's son and now heir, Prince William, married his wife Kate.
Will there be a public holiday in Australia?
In September, Australia was given a one-off public holiday — the National Memorial Service Day — so people could pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth.
But the federal government has not yet confirmed whether Australia will mark King Charles' coronation with a public holiday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there would not be a public holiday in her country.
According to , Ms Ardern said because the it fell on a weekend, "there would be opportunity for many people to watch the coronation and mark this special occasion in other ways too if they wish to."
