The United Kingdom will on Saturday witness the coronation of King Charles, who is going to be the first crowned king since 1953.
The coronation is the first since 1953 and the first of a king since 1937. It is only the second to be televised and the first in colour and streamed online.
It will see the St Edward’s Crown — a solid gold, sacred symbol of the monarch’s authority used only once in the reign — placed on Charles’s head at 1100 GMT to cries of “God Save the King”.
Trumpet fanfares will sound through Westminster Abbey and ceremonial gun salutes will blast out across land and sea to mark the first coronation of a British monarch since 1953 — and only the fifth since 1838.
Bells will peal in celebration at churches across the land, before liveried soldiers on foot and horseback stage a 7,000-strong military parade stretching through the streets of the capital.
King Charles III entered London’s Westminster Abbey on Saturday for a solemn Christian coronation steeped in 1,000 years of history and tradition, but adapted to reflect 21st-century Britain.
But even before Charles, 74, and Queen Camilla, 75, left Buckingham Palace aboard the Diamond Jubilee State Coach for a rainy procession to the abbey, police arrested dozens of protesters using new powers rushed onto the statute book to crack down on direct action groups.
The anti-monarchy movement Republic — which wants an elected head of state — said six of its organisers were detained, while climate activists Just Stop Oil said 19 of its number were held.
Nevertheless, dozens of Republic activists held aloft banners on the route of the procession route, declaring: “Not My King.”
Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International voiced concern at the arrests.
“This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London,” HRW said.
London’s Metropolitan Police has some 11,500 officers on the streets in one of its biggest ever security operations. It has warned that it has an “extremely low threshold” for protests.
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