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image source, Average AP
The traditional Gold State Coach, used for every coronation since the 1830s, will this time share the stardom with the newest carriage for British royalty.
One of the stars of the coronation of Carlos III, on May 6, will be the impressive carriage that will transport him along with his wife, the queen consort Camila, through the center of London, between Buckingham Palace, the royal residence, and Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony will take place.
But this time there will be two stars because the kings will use one carriage for the outward journey and another for the return journey.
In a sign of modernity, Carlos III break with tradition almost 200 years and he will not use the historic Gold State Coach, dating from the 18th century, to get to the place where he will be crowned, as his mother did 70 years ago, and as all his royal predecessors have done since the 1830s.
He will only use that ancient golden carriage, which seems to come out of a fairy tale, to return to his London residence together with the queen consort once the ceremony in Westminster Abbey concludes.
To get there, the couple will use the newest of royal carriages: the Diamond Jubilee State Coachwhich -as its name reveals- commemorates the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II (when she turned 60 as monarch, in 2012).
Although the royal house did not comment on the reasons for this change, it is likely that they have something to do with something that the late queen confessed in 2018, during an interview with the BBC: that the trip she made in that carriage for her coronation, in 1953 , had been “horrible”.
“It is not intended for travel, it’s not comfortable“Revealed the monarch, explaining that the vehicle, which was manufactured in 1762, only has a leather bottom to cushion the blows of the street.
The Gold State Coach’s discomfort is legendary.
Even the first king to use it, William IV, crowned in 1831, compared the journey he made in that carriage to being on a ship “on a rough sea.”
Elizabeth II on her “horrible” trip in the Gold State Coach on the day of her coronation, in 1953.
By contrast, the Diamond Jubilee State Coach not only has a modern system of hydraulic suspension that will make the trip much more comfortable. Also has air-conditioning and power windows.
Both floats will make the same journey of 2.1 kilometers between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, passing through The Mall, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. The return trip will be the same, but in reverse.
Thus, the uncomfortable but spectacular Gold State Coach will make a much shorter journey than Elizabeth II, who, to return from the Abbey to the palace, in 1953, took an 8 km route through London that included Oxford Street and Regent Street.
The history of the floats
The Gold State Coach is the second oldest coach in the UK and is considered a rolling work of art.
It has elaborate gold-plated carvings and panels covered in paintings by Florentine artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani.
The enormous carriage, which measures 8.8 meters long and 3.7 meters high and weighs about four tons, was commissioned for King George III and cost what, for the time, was an astronomical figure: 7,562 pounds (today equivalent to more than US $4 million).
One of the men who will be in charge of the carriage on coronation day – it weighs so much that it must be moved by eight horses, which go at a man’s pace – will be the brakeman Martin Oates, who comes from a family with a long tradition in this type of ceremonies
His great-grandfather took part in the carriage procession for George VI’s coronation, his grandfather at Elizabeth II’s coronation and his father at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.
The youngest carriage, the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, was built in Australia (part of the Commonwealth of Nations or Commonwealth of Nations).
image source, Getty Images
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will travel comfortably to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, the most modern for British royalty.
It was actually commissioned to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday in 2006, but it took eight years to build, so it eventually ended up commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of her reign.
“It is made of aluminumwhich is quite unusual because most of the floats are made of wood,” Sally Goodsir, a curator at the Royal Collection Trust, told the BBC.
However, it is also full of tradition, since among the materials used to decorate it there are wooden parts of historic british ships and buildingsincluding HMS Victory (Lord Nelson’s flagship), Mary Rose (Caling VIII’s flagship), Balmoral Castle (Elizabeth II’s favorite residence), Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
The Diamond Jubilee State Coach was first used at the opening of Parliament in 2014 and has been used for state visits ever since.
It is considerably smaller than the Gold State Coach, measuring 5.5 meters long and 3.4 meters high, and being lighter (2.75 tons), it can be transported by six horses instead of eight.
image source, Getty Images
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