With King Charles’s Coronation less than a week away, the final details of the event are now being established – including not just who is attending, but what the guests might wear. It’s been reported that peers have been given permission to don special Coronation dress historically worn by members of the House of Lords. The decision marks a U-turn after aristocrats were initially reportedly told to avoid the ceremonial garb, in keeping with the 21st-century tone of the service.
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According to the Daily Telegraph, hereditary peers and sitting members of the House of Lords with an invitation to the Coronation have been informed in the last 48 hours that, should they so wish, they are now able to sport special Coronation robes and coronet traditionally worn for the event. These denote their rank in the British peerage. A royal source confirmed that there had been a change of heart in the decision after some peers were ‘reasonably keen’ to wear the traditional dress. One source in the publication suggested that King Charles III himself had personally made the decision, perhaps following complaints from his acquaintances.
Ceremonial dress for members of the peerage dates back to the late 15th century, before coronation robes were standardised in the late 17th century, according to Debrett’s. The floor-length cloaks are made of sumptuous crimson velvet, trimmed and lined with white ermine. The coronets, meanwhile, are silver-gilt circlets, with an ermine band around the base, a crimson silk Genoa velvet lining and a gold tassel.
There are variations in the dress depending on the wearer’s rank in the British peerage (either duke, marquess, earl, viscount or baron), going from a duke’s circlet with eight strawberry leaves, through to a baron’s, the plainest design, with six silver balls. At Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953, however, peers were allowed to wear a ‘cap of maintenance’, a ceremonial cap of crimson velvet lined with ermine, instead of the traditional coronet. The fur collars also vary, with different black spot patterns on the ermine to signify rank.
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Worn for Coronations alone, the special garb is often passed down between hereditary peers. They can also be bought from specialists such as Ede & Ravenscroft (the oldest tailors in London, established in 1689), which has provided robes for 12 British Coronations to date.
Multiple peers had expressed their displeasure at the prospect of not being allowed to wear the traditional robes. Lord Carrington, the Lord Great Chamberlain who will present the ceremonial Spurs to the King, said in an interview with the Times last month, ‘I’m very sad it’s a dress-down occasion and my wife doesn’t get a seat’. Another hereditary peer told the Telegraph, ‘our robes go back to the 19th century and I would have been the fifth generation to wear them. It’s very sad’. The rationale for the initial decision is believed to be the fact that no one would be commissioning new robes, as well as the need to be in keeping with the look and feel of the Coronation. On the new decision, Viscount Torrington, who has not been invited to the Coronation but is a member of the Hereditary Peerage Association, told the Telegraph he was ‘glad to hear’ of the change.
In a 2018 documentary, the late Queen Elizabeth II revealed that some guests at her own Coronation in 1953 hid ‘strong drink’ and sandwiches in their coronets (a practice also reported to have taken place at King George V’s coronation in 1911), to fuel them through the three-hour ceremony.
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King Charles’s Coronation service, however, is expected to last just over an hour. The guest list has also been drastically cut back (from 8,251 to around 2,000, in keeping with modern health and safety regulations). Many attendees will be seated in side chapels rather than the main nave, with an unnamed source telling the Telegraph: ‘I suspect a lot of the MPs who go won’t be able to see a thing.’ A Government source reportedly confirmed that not all attendees will be able to see the actual ceremony, but added that this was also the case at coronations throughout history.
The Palace previously announced at the event ‘will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.’
