Coronation Day

Today is the anniversary of the Coronation of H M The Queen in 1953.

There will doubtless be specific commemorations next year on the sixtieth anniversary, but in so far as the Coronation and all that it conveys and symbolises lies, as it does, at the very heart of the Monarchy, then it is a very appropriate event to recall this Jubilee weekend. This, and not the lesser doings of day to day governance and the popular interest in the lives of the Royal Family, is what the Monarchy is about - providing a structure of Christian rulership that is mediated by ecclesiastical sanction, fundamental ties of loyalty, the maintenance of the rule of law and the sustaining of the national community in time and space.

The Queen on her Coronation Day.
The defining photograph by Cecil Beaton.

Image: vam.ac.uk



The Duke of Edinburgh pays homage

Image:sky.news.com