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For those of us who are history nerds, today was a banner day. We may be Republicans. We may not want a monarchy. We may even think it’s an anachronistic relic in the 21st century. We WILL get up at O Dark:Thirty on Derby Day and make cucumber sandwiches to watch the pageantry of the Coronation of the King of England. King Charles III may be a dull, climate nut, but ain’t nobody does ceremonies and parades like the British. Following his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years and oversaw incredible changes in the empire, is an impossible task for King Chuck. That doesn’t mean that we can’t find a few interesting tidbits in the shortened ceremony.
Who Is The Sword Lady?
It wasn’t the sword that first caught the eye. It was the Queen Anne Boleyn headdress that we first noticed. A woman in an Anne Boleyn headdress with a sword, seems ominous. Especially when my husband and I had been reading about the Stone of Scone or Stone of Destiny earlier this month. Blocks of stone, women, swords, not good. Or, could it be based on the Arthurian Legend concerning Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake. Nope, this was the Jeweled Sword of Offering:
Attached to the Girdle by a gold clip will be the Jeweled Sword of Offering. The sword has a long, needle-like blade and a handle covered in gems and precious metals. While it’s only one of the items that will be presented to the new king, it is the only one he will wear on his body.
The sword will be presented to Charles with a mandate saying that it should “be used for the protection of good and the punishment of evil,” according to Buckingham Palace.
The Jeweled Sword of Offering was carried by Penny Mordaunt, who once served in the Royal Navy and is in the House of Commons as the member from Portsmouth North. She IS a very interesting politician:
Mordaunt been at the forefront of the Leave campaign since day dot, positioning herself as a high-profile supporter of the group throughout the lead up and aftermath of the 2016 EU Referendum. “You’d be wrong to interpret Brexit as protectionist, nationalist or selfish,” she said in a speech in 2018. “Brexit was a noble and hopeful act. It was down to good British people, not bad boys.” Like Nigel Farage, presumably?
She got caught telling lies during the Leave campaign.
Mordaunt was infamously called out on the telly by David Cameron himself (back when he was still Prime Minister) when she claimed that the UK could not stop Turkey joining the EU. It was… absolutely wrong, and seen as a very underhand tactic to whip up fear among potential Leave voters. “Let me be clear,” Cameron clarified in a televised interview the following day. “Britain and every other country in the European Union has a veto on another country joining. That is a fact.
“The fact that the Leave campaign are getting things as straightforward as this wrong, I think should call into question their whole judgement in making the bigger argument about leaving the EU.”
The debacle led to a very funny few days of #MordauntFacts on Twitter.
A politician who lies. Who knew? Let’s take a look at her bespoke coronation dress:
Penny Mordaunt could be one to watch in Britain’s future.
Meghan and a Candle; Harry and a Feather
The British do insults subtly. At the Queen’s funeral, Meghan got hidden by a large pillar candle. Prince Harry cot his comeuppance from his Aunt Anne’s feather. In this case Aunt Anne is the Princess Royal who was also the Gold Stick in Waiting or personal protection for the King. A position of trust AND she got to ride a horse instead or riding in a bumpy carriage. She shared a laugh with nephew Harry before the ceremony, but her big red feather blocked his view. I Lol’d so hard.
“So Princess Anne, you have one mission. Just sit right in front of Harry with a massive red feather on top of your hat. Perfect. Nailed it. Mission accomplished.”#Coronation pic.twitter.com/HGRIqHXN9k
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) May 6, 2023
Never complain, never explain. Get revenge.
Prince Louis Is All Of Us
The youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales is only five and can still get away with public yawning. They did let a Nanny take him out for a half an hour. I am sure the adults were jelly:
Prince Louis, 5, can't stop yawning at King Charles III's coronation https://t.co/x6aRKSunfb
— Frackoff Felgercarb (@FrackoffF) May 6, 2023
And, we love his wave:
Waving by Charlotte and Louis on Buckingham Palace balcony ❤
Members of the royal family (Prince William and Catherine, The Prince and Princess of Wales with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis ) on the balcony of Buckingham Palace ahead the #coronation . pic.twitter.com/vqRyXEAdoj
— O kingdom (@omabelllll) May 6, 2023
The royals put on quite a show. Now, I have to go get ready for the Kentucky Derby. See you at the post parade.
Featured Image: Richard Morris UK/Twitter/cropped/Widely Distributed
Cameron says: Fun game: Look at silly hats and costumes; guess whether they’re from the Coronation or the Kentucky Derby.
Liz says: Ha ha! 😀
dohfugwimee says: Silly ass shit….
Robin H says: I did not get up at O dark forty o’clock. I watched it in the afternoon on Youtube. I may like the pageantry of a coronation, but I like my sleep more. I’m very glad we don’t have a monarchy (although there are a few in congress who think they are) but it is quite the historic event.
The sword lady’s dress was amazing. I wish I had somewhere I could wear that.
All three of the royal kids did an amazing job. Charlotte is going to look like her mother, lucky girl.
GWB says: The one tweet I saw showing all three dressed up (red, white, and blue) made me comment:
L-to-R: Future King, future Rebel Princess, future Evil Overlord.
Dressing him in that dark blue thing just made him look like he would some day be wearing a helmet and face mask which would amplify his breathing.
GWB says: We may even think it’s an anachronistic relic in the 21st century.
If you think this you are subject to one of the dumber progressive ideas. Monarchy (aside from anarchy) is the natural state of man. Being ruled by a strong person is how almost all of humanity has ever lived. To think that somehow being on a different date makes it passe is part of that idea that all of civilization is advancing from caves and rocks to some evolved future of no work and no scarcity, just because we invented some stuff. It’s a belief in true macro-evolution, the “arc of history” and all that malarkey.
Having said that, we don’t have to be ruled by a monarchy. With Christian morals and a proper understanding of how that informs freedom, we could have something like a Republic. But we would lose it if we ever decided that things like morals were “an anachronistic relic in the 21st century.”
And Europe? Pfft. It’s ruled by a form of monarchy, too – except this one is a bureaucratic aristocracy. They’re still autocrats, just like King Charles.
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