HOW CHARLES III’S CELEBRATION IN EDINBURGH REFLECTED HIS PASSION FOR SCOTLAND

And some perspective on similar appearances by his parents and his grandparents in 1953 and 1937

At St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh today with Queen Camilla and the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay (William and Catherine’s Scottish titles), King Charles III received the “Honours of Scotland,” which put a Gaelic stamp on his London coronation. The senior royals attended an evocative ceremony rooted in tradition but incorporating Charles’s own distinctive connections to the land beloved by Queen Elizabeth II as well as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the first Scottish queen since the 16^th century’s Mary Stuart.

The ceremony marked the apex of Charles and Camilla’s first Royal Week at the Palace of Holyroodhouse when the monarch celebrates Scottish culture. He received the full panoply of ritual, with massed bands of bagpipers, silver trumpets, the Company of Archers (the monarch’s bodyguard in Scotland), the mounted Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in their gleaming helmets, the Royal Regiment of Scotland with Corporal Cruachan IV, their Shetland pony mascot, a 21-gun salute, and a flypast by the famous Red Arrows.  Charles, Camilla, and William wore the dark green mantles of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s highest and most ancient order of chivalry. Charles appointed his wife to the order in June, and today was her first occasion wearing the mantle.

Thousands of spectators lined the streets of Edinburgh, and anti-monarchy protesters turned out as well, holding aloft yellow signs saying “Not My King.” If Charles and Camilla took note of the republican diehards, they didn’t show it.

As is Charles’s habit, he also introduced new elements in the proceedings. The “Honours”—also known as the Scottish Crown Jewels—were accompanied from Edinburgh Castle to the cathedral by a “People’s Procession” of 100 individuals representing a range of Scottish communities and charities supported by Charles. The service was more diverse and ecumenical than ever before, with contributions from other faiths including Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, and Judaism as well as the secular Humanist Society of Scotland. Women played prominent roles, including Olympic rower Dame Katherine Grainger, who carried the new 16-pound Elizabeth Sword created to honor the King’s late mother.  The Right Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, gave a sermon that chimed with Charles’s longtime environmental advocacy.

The centerpiece of the ceremony was the presentation of the three Crown Jewels representing the King’s authority in Scotland as part of the United Kingdom: a solid silver sceptre dating from 1494 and the Crown of Scotland dating from 1543, as well as the new Sword of State that replaced the original fifteenth century sword that had become too fragile to handle.  In each case, the King touched the object and promised “by God’s help” to defend the law, uphold justice and peace, and serve the Scottish people.

Charles commissioned a half dozen pieces of music for the occasion, much as he did for his coronation at Westminster Abbey in May. He is a musical aficionado, a patron of orchestras and other ensembles, performers, and conductors, and he is particularly fond of the classical canon. Under the influence of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, he started with Mozart, Bach, and Vivaldi, and as he grew older, he began to enjoy the music of Wagner: “quite extraordinary,” he said.